The Yoga of Aware Pregnancy, Birth, & 40 Days Core Principles of Nature, Nurture, and a Quantum Leap by Mary Ceallaigh © 2005, revised 2007 Womb Yoga The periodicities of the human menstrual cycle are what provided the first concept of time in human culture.   We know from paleolinguistics that the word root “Metra” comes from the sanskrit “Matri” which is the word for mother-womb… and thus in English all our words related to “measuring” or “timing” are sourced in the human uterus… “diameter,” “thermometer”, “speedometer!”  Long before current 24 hour solar digital time was lunar time and the innate timing of the womb's creations  – it was the only measure.    The womb is our first home, and it is during gestation that we as human beings learn core energy imprints of what “Home” is, through the blood chemistry, breathing, thoughts, emotional states, movements, sounds, and, intentions of our mothers. Yogi Bhajan taught that pregnancy is the only time a woman REALLY teaches her child… because after birth there are always numerous and ever-changing environmental and social factors that influence our child. During our gestation, all humans are yogis:  every prenate is very flexible and has a tendency towards ecstatic states in sync with every rise in the maternal endorphin & oxytocin levels.   It could be said that all the yoga asanas are just about re-entering our original prenatal flexibility and wholeness!  And certainly, any observer of physically intact, birthed in awareness, and instinctively parented newborns can observe many hand mudras of yoga within hours and days after birth.  However, finding a wholly aware and connected newborn to observe and experience can be rare in our current society where stressed babies are considered the norm!  Our medical normal birth culture, which is the care of choice for most American women, routinely encourages mind-body dissociative practices and protocols that diminish the physiological wisdom potential inherent in instinctive birth and bonding. For healthy, well-nourished women, bringing a child into the world can be an experience of giving birth, or, quite differently, of being delivered - or some combination of the two, as Jeannine Parvati (the author of Prenatal Yoga & Natural Childbirth) has so eloquently written of.   Navigating labor and giving birth in a drug- free, naturally high, and fully embodied manner is the original 'Power Yoga' for healthy women - and the extent that this embodiment is experienced consequently sets the tone for women's maternal awareness, attunement, and sexual health on the personal level, as well as creates many broader repercussions for the well-being of society at large. “When does labor begin?” women want to know.    The yogini-midwiife would reply, “From the moment you realize you are pregnant!”   “When is this going to end, I don’t think I can do this anymore!?” says the instinctive woman moving with  the transitions of late labor. The yogini-midwife (or sometimes the husband/partner) would reply, “You’re doing it right now, and right now is all that matters.” And, though we may birthe our babies into the world, the labors of emotional sacrifice and selfless service continue our whole lives in conscious parenting, with part of our heart walking around outside of our body, in the form of the child we gave birth to. The Pregnant Woman as Yogini To be consciously pregnant is a continuous sadhana (daily practice for heightened consciousness), in fact, it is sadhana of the highest order and calling, as Jeannine Parvati points out, as it is the original educational environment of the developing human child for the world society.   In the yoga tradition it is said that through spiritual elevation in conscious pregnancy, women can produce children who are saints, peacemaker-heroes, and sages… and thereby the whole world is touched in ways it sorely needs. “Embodiment” in conscious pregnancy blatantly unites heart WITH womb, body WITH spirit, and in the process, has a way of diminishing fear and increasing intuitive attunement.  The yogic emphasis upon inner wisdom is refreshing to a woman in search of a sacred and secure way to navigate the labors of pregnancy, giving birth, and being a new mother.    In American society, a third of single Anglo women in our thirties are on anti- depressants,  90% of first-time healthy birthing women experience mind-body dissociations/psychoses of epidural anesthesia as well as genital cutting, and at least 40% of otherwise healthy, first-time Postpartum mothers are quite depressed or “shell- shocked”  due to the endocrine disruptions of typical medical interventions upon labor & birth physiology, and greatly reduced pleasure in breastfeeding and early parenting. Intending to fully embody these transformations is Yoga, and the healthy woman's birthright is an intuitive birth - a truly experienced exhaltation of unity consciousness  between mother and baby.  Upon immediately reuniting with her newborn babe at birth in the heart center asana of embrace, the new mother who has birthed in awareness knows, down to her marrow, that she is likewise embraced by something greater:  Mata Shakti, the Divine Mother of Mother Power. Just by fully “being present” to her pregnancy, a woman is “practicing yoga” -   being in sync with her changing self and bonded to growing baby is a profound act of yoga.  By bringing awareness to her pregnancy, any woman is a yoga teacher, teaching all the other women she encounters through her example.  The partnered woman also expands her husband/lover's awareness of her intuitive capacity & creativity,  and, when the time is right, gives back to him what their love looks like, through giving birth in awareness rather than being delivered from her own naivete (regardless of where she gives birth and any unexpected circumstances). Additional support for this kind of pregnancy is plentiful in formal yoga approaches such as specific feminine mantras, expansive meditations, breathwork, and self- healing movements in the community of women. A meditative mind naturally is more able to respond wisely to the many challenges, changes, and choices in pregnancy and giving birth.  Conscious pregnancy also means making informed choices in a culture where birthing is primarily a medical-technical event, and this may lead to exploring many alternatives and options to support a yogic birth experience and lotus birth practices. Mental, Physical, Spiritual, and Emotional Environments The birthing environment directly influences a laboring woman's relaxation energies and all their potential hormonal orchestrations as responsive movement, emotional coping, and dilation progress during physiological (spontaneous-natural) labor. The quality of mother-baby unity consciousness during labor & birth and during the primal period (the first six weeks postpartum - a 40 Day meditation of bonding) is likewise linked to the consciousness of the birthing environment's protocols, physical supports, and primal-instinctive birth facilitation skills of caregivers. Birthing environment options include a range of hospitals and birth centers, as well as a woman's own home.  It is a fact that large, documented studies have shown that, for healthy women, attended homebirths are as safe, if not safer, than the institutional environment.  One wonders what would happen if more young women and girls knew this fact, and embarked upon pregnancy with significantly less fear than the average American woman, feeling secure in their body’s ability to give birth, and selecting attendants who honor that! Transitions & Transformation Letting a baby come forth is a primal experience of vulnerability, intimacy, and tremendous neuroendocrine transformation.  It is also a psychological transition of enormous proportions, where part of a woman’s old ego dies and a new self  is born into a mother. Neurologically speaking, birth is a mechanism of the ancient "hind brain's" conductions rather than the rational neo-cortex. All the hormonal orchestrations of human labor and birth (and indeed, all mammals) are highly sensitized to environmental factors, many that we are not even aware of. For example, at any given moment in an environment that is not our usual habitat, there are about 2000 new scent signals registered by the brain, as well as many other microbial triggers. Simply entering an environment other than one's habitat in labor switches on the neo-cortex and triggers adrenaline, regardless of any interventions. Likewise, being unsupported, and stressing or obsessing in one's own home, can also create adrenaline! Adrenaline is the enemy of a laboring woman, unless she truly needs to sprint away from danger. Adrenaline is the hormonal message of the "fight-flight" reaction which causes the body to shut down circulation to the extremities in a glandular alarm. This creates catecholamines to boost muscle tension and thus reduce the labor pain threshold dramatically while increasing anxiety and fear. The art of consciously choosing and preparing one's labor support & birthing environment during pregnancy is an art of self-care incorporating  Ahimsa, Ananda, Moksha, and Rasayana (Non-violence, Joyfulness, Emotional liberation, and Juiciness). Instinctive, or "unhindered" birth is a sensory experience of embodiment, wherever  it occurs. It is often said among midwives and doulas, as well as mothers who have created natural births for themselves, that the best environment to labor in is one which would also be conducive to making love! Giving birth instinctively is as tender as it is passionate, as sensual as it is sacred. As the ancients say, it is giving of the Gift of Life - in Spanish it is referred to as “Giving Light.” Most women agree that the thought of making love under florescent lights where you are expected to stay in a metal railed twin sized bed in a chilly room where strangers observe you, intercoms talk, computer screens flicker, and sick & infectious people are above and/or below you, is unappealing at best, and definitely not relaxing! Dim the lights, and it's still not that pleasant. Most women agree that the elements that invite relaxation are not metallic, and not cold, and there are no bleeping noises. A woman who knows her worth, knows that self-nurturing and self-care are top priority for her well-being as a mother and a partner.  She may hold an intention to give natural birth at home, or to transfer late in labor for an institutional birth at some other locale.  The Yoga of late labor is an immersion experience of instinctual transformation that knows no bounds.   A journey that unites a woman with her own soul in order to give birth to an aware, pleasurable bond between mother and baby.  A bond that is supported by the energies of earth and heaven reuniting and moving through a woman's body, an all- encompassing feminine power. Mother and Baby are One: Yoga beyond Pregnancy From conception until the baby emerges into the world, the baby’s universe has been the drumbeat of the mother’s heart, the swishing of the mother’s aortal pulse, the 98.6 degrees silken cocoon of the womb, the internal vibrations of the mother’s voice, the external sounds of the father’s voice on the other side,  and the frequent swishing and swaying of the mother’s movements.  Birthing environments are also the welcoming world for the baby's first experience outside the womb, and healthy babies (even ones needing a bit of stimulation to rouse them as they transition into breathing) prefer immediate 'Skin-to-Skin' reunion at the maternal heart, regardless of locale of birth!  After all, the mother and the baby are one.    In the Yoga tradition, in most indigenous cultures and in modern yogic births, a woman would stay enclosed in her nurturing home for the first 40 days after birth.  In her private world, the new mother focuses on being in love with her baby, on eating delicious food and drinking postpartum herb teas prepared by her female relatives or her doula, and going through all the changes of being a nursing mother caring for an amazing newborn!  Nursing babies and mothers, when napping together, share the exact same REM pattern – there is much sacredness to be celebrated in the first 40 Days.   The first few postpartum weeks are precious and oh-so-fleeting, in-home yoga nidra (relaxation yoga) establishes a strong foundation of ultimate family bonding and recovery  before emerging into the dramas and stresses of the mundane world, a world that never stops.   Modern medicine readily agrees that it takes six weeks (around 40 Days) for a woman’s internal organs to return to their pre-pregnant positions in the body.   Ancient medicine traditions don’t think it’s a good idea for women to engage in the stresses and risks of the outside world before six weeks postpartum, and that makes sense to the Postpartum Yogini!  Of course, this requires a good support system, a well- stocked kitchen, and/or a doula!   Healthy birthmothers have the right to request home visits by their midwife or physician for an extra fee, or can consider the benefits of doing informed self-care postpartum monitoring documentation and telephone check ins when there is home support and things are obviously thriving and healthy, attending only the 6 week check-up.  In Britain and much of Europe, visiting nurses or midwives come to the home for the 3 Day and 2 week Postpartum check-ins – there is no thought of requesting a woman who just had a baby to navigate freeway traffic or to board a subway during this very tender time. New Beginnings Conscious pregnancy encompasses conception, gestation, labor & birth, the first 6 weeks postpartum (the primal adaptive period) and the first nine months of life.  Until the baby can crawl away fast (around 9 months old), it is essentially still completely dependent upon the mother’s nurturance.  (The term to describe this is “extra-uterine gestation).” Conscious pregnancy, birth, and postpartum are within reach of any woman who is dedicated to self-healing and optimal newborn beginnings.  Though the vast majority of modern women were ourselves born stressfully and separated from our mothers etc., in just one generation women can make a quantum leap back to our original birthright: aware birth and deep bonding with the amazing conscious newborn. Though many a woman has a sense of a “broken’ female lineage when it comes to spontaneous birth, and though, according to statistics,  many a woman has had additional trauma such as pregnancy loss, childhood sexual abuse, abortion, motherlessness, previous negative birth experiences, and rape to name a few, we have an amazing capacity to heal, in just one generation, through restoring yoga to pregnancy and birthgiving. I have personally known or been employed as a doula by many women who have done just that.  Intuitive, fearless, and fulfilled mothers are BORN, through aware pregnancy and birth, wherever it occurs.