Religion and Childbirth?
Your religion, regardless of what your religion may be, is central to who you are as a person. Whether your faith is in a higher power, or you believe there is no higher power, what you believe influences your outlook on the world around you, the events of your life and your initial responses to them. Your beliefs can be a source of strength and encouragement to help you labor effectively and normally, and disciplines from your faith can be used as comfort measures during labor.
Your faith is also important because of the spiritual nature of childbirth. Your faith affects the way you hear suggestions and advice from friends, web sites and books. Words that may be perfectly acceptable to a person with one faith may be unacceptable to a person of another faith. Because of this, your childbirth preparation should, at least in part, be presented from the point of view of your religion.
The Birthing Naturally web site offers information on childbirth from a Christian perspective because that is my faith and I understand its principles and core beliefs. It would not be fair to women of other religions for me to try to interpret for them how their faith interacts with childbirth because I do not have a working knowledge of other religions. If you are not a Christian, I urge you to find information about how your faith affects labor through other web sites (such as JewishPregnancy.org if you happen to be Jewish) or browse through some of the Christian information to get an idea of ways you can incorporate your own faith into your childbirth preparation.
Many blessings with your pregnancy, and thank you for inquiring.
Jennifer Vanderlaan
What would you like next?Learn comfort techniques for labor. Find out how what you eat can impact how you give birth. Learn ways to stay comfortable during pregnancy. Read sample birth plans. Get emotionally prepared to give birth. |
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