Birth is Powerful; Women are Strong
“One must have chaos within oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star...”
~ Neitzsche
"We learn to trust ourselves as parents when we trust ourselves during birth. We learn to mother through breastfeeding. And when we take responsibility for our everyday actions and their impact on others, we cultivate optimism."
~ Peggy O'Mara
“What is right for one soul may not be right for another. It may mean having to stand on your own and do something strange in the eyes of others.”
~ Eileen Caddy
“Peace... it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.”
~ Unknown
“Having faith is the first step towards eliminating the fear/tension/pain cycle that most women experience in labor, for faith leads to relaxation, and relaxation leads to pleasure.”
~ Laura Shanley
“Birth is not an emergency. It is simply an emergence.” ~ Jeannine Parvati Baker
“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
~ Anais Nin
“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experience.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."
~ Maya Angelou
"Birth is just the first of countless times we will confront the fear of the unknown for the love of our child." ~Peggy O'Mara
“Just as a woman's heart knows how and when to pump, her lungs to inhale, and her hand to pull back from fire, so she knows when and how to give birth.”
~ Virginia Di Orio
“Only with trust, faith, and support can the woman allow the birth experience to enlighten and empower her.”
~ Claudia Lowe
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
“We have a secret in our culture...and it's not that birth is painful. It's that women are strong.”
~ Laura Stavoe Harm
“When you have come to the edge of all the light you know and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things will happen: there will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught how to fly."
~ Patrick Overter
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world..."
~ Marianne Williamson
"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, Conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right."
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers - strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength."
~ Barbara Katz-Rothman
“The power and intensity of your contractions cannot be stronger than you, because it is you.”
~ Unknown
“Suffering is the truth of the mind...not the truth of the spirit.”
~ Suzi Scrimshaw
“When sleeping women wake, mountains move.”
~ Chinese Proverb
“She called upon the different parts of herself for help. If she was going to make it, she needed to accept them all, unite them all and believe in them all. It was time for a huddle of tremendous proportions. It was the making of her giant.”
~ Terri of Bone Sigh Arts
“You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
~ Christopher Robin in Pooh's Grand Adventure
“Through soul-searching and listening more deeply to the women I was working with, I finally understood that women have to prepare for birth in their heart and soul, not their head.”
~ Pam England
“The wisdom and compassion a woman can intuitively experience in childbirth can make her a source of healing and understanding for other women.”
~ Stephen Gaskin
"To reach a goal you have never before attained, you must do things you have never before done.”
~ Richard G. Scott
“Every midwife knows that not until a mother’s womb softens from the pain of labor, will a way unfold and the infant find that opening to be born. Oh Friend! There is a treasure in your heart, it is heavy with child. Listen. All the awakened ones, like trusted midwives, are saying, ‘welcome this pain’ it opens the dark passage of Grace.”
~ Rumi