Spiritually Aware Pregnancy

This journey of mine, this trip of parenting from source, as a writer and as a coach, started with one book.

 One manuscript, written in the quiet of the night, which I wrote while exploring the spiritual rush I’d felt connecting to my son through pregnancy. While I’d been pregnant with my daughters, I’d scanned the bookshelves of every bookstore (funny to think how little I used the internet 14 years ago), I researched mystical pregnancies and spiritual connection, but it seemed like the more I looked, the more I couldn’t find what I was searching for. So, when I finally tapped in and found my connection again, I wrote the book I couldn’t find.

Pregnancy for me is a re-birth. It’s this magical time when we are two. When our body is the encasement of 2 spirits... 2 souls call our body home. We take for granted the magic that takes place in every moment, but it happens nonetheless. We even grow a new organ to support new life.

A spiritual being chose us to be their launching place, to be their foundation for how their life begins and then what they observe from us, even before birth, becomes the framework for their perspective, which they can later take on or cast away.

And then there’s us. We’re given 9 months to walk through a doorway, the doorway between the pre-parent, who’s focus is solely on our own space, reactions, feelings, and personal experience, and then into parenting, when suddenly, things simply look different.

It’s an expansive journey. Just like the contractions of labor you can almost feel your life stretching out, widening your perspective. Pregnancy is a time of inner and outer work and society has a tendency to limit it to a physical experience... but it’s so much more. It’s a time to dive deep. A time to learn about ourselves and who we want to be. It’s a time to learn how to hear our authentic voice, to tap into a deep spiritual connection, and to fill our spiritual tool box in preparation for every late night feeding and toddler tantrum.

Just as eating the right diet can prepare our body for birth and can set our child up with the best start to life, in my mind, taking the time in pregnancy to learn spiritual awareness, to develop new perspectives and to have insight on where you’ve been, how far you’ve come and where you are heading, taking that time, creates the most powerful platform for our children’s lives.

So, what does a spiritually aware pregnancy look like? Oh, far too magical and wide spread for one blogpost, but it creates a time for the following:

1)      Getting to know your authentic voice, finding your connection point so you’ll know your instincts when they kick in and trust them.

2)      Seeing the world through the eyes of your baby, even before she is earthside, getting to know her on that deeper spiritual level, so even when she’s 16 you can look at her and recognize the same essence.

3)      Having the time to build up a meditational inner room for yourself, a place where you can retreat and find your centre, in the craziest of chaos.

4)      A time to shift from a fear perspective to one of love and trust. A time to know that all things come when ready and to trust the processes of life.

5)      A time to co-create together, you and your baby, offering a foundational worldview of love and security... one of continual exploration and growth.

6)      A time to create a habit of positive and creative thought, facilitating the law of attraction to create a better pregnancy, birth and parenting experience.

A spiritually aware pregnancy creates a perspective where you and your child embark on a journey together. It’s no longer a question of you finding yourself suddenly with a baby in your arms after some strange physical and medical experience. Rather, you embrace your new, spiritual companion, even at the size of a grain of rice, as someone to open your eyes to new possibilities and perspectives, aware of life from a different vantage point.

So, why am I suddenly talking about pregnancy?

Well, mostly because I was invited to be part of this video series through the Baby Maven and it started this week. You have about 10 days left to sign up, and honestly it’s an incredible resource: 15 video interviews with various pregnancy and baby experts, offering fantastic advice.  It was a joy to start talking with Hannah Poles, who hosts the event, and I got to thinking...

Pregnancy is where this all started.

I love my work with every core of my being. I love chatting with everyone and finding inspiring solutions, better feeling spaces, and shifted perspectives over all things parenting. I love hearing about how people’s lives are better, families are happier and children and parents alike are feeling empowered. I approach my work in awe each day, seeing how it is unfolding.

 But I sure hope pregnant and new parents know that there’s a massive space for them over here too.

For no matter where we are on this journey, it’s all about remembering that we are positive, spiritual beings, having a physical experience. We are all growing, learning and reaching for better feeling spaces.

And sometimes, when life gets hairy, it’s easy to forget that we can log off and tune in to a spiritual frequency, where we have unlimited re-sources. But, that’s just the way it is.

To sign up for the Baby Maven’s video series please visit here

To check out more about Spiritually Aware Pregnancy coaching and programs visit here

Oh and if you want to check out that book I wrote... way back in the beginning... its called Who They Really Are and you can find it here (find a 25% discount over on the Facebook page) or on Amazon

What sign are you holding up? The Law of Attraction and how it works.

I keep talking about the law of attraction lately, which suggests it’s time to write about it.

After all, it’s something I work with continually and offer clarity on with all my clients and in my workshops and groups. It can spark a pretty positive shift when the power of the universe is suddenly working with you and how you feel.

Wayne Dyer said it so beautifully when he stated that “The Law of attraction isn’t about what you want, it’s about Who You Are!”

But what does that mean exactly and if “who we are” is a parent?

Who we are....

Remember, we are energy beings. We have a current of energy ever flowing, call it life, love, source, spirit or just... plain old energy... that’s what we are. But what we also know is that our focus, our feeling space radiates through that energy. The frequency of that energy shifts on how we feel, and what we put focus on.

So... imagine that with that focus, that energy emitting off of you, it’s like a blazing sign being held up to Source, like a bat signal of spirit, and it says “More of this please.”

That means, if you are frustrated for anything more than a few moments, then the frustration sign gets held up, asking for more frustration. The universe answers and gives you more to feel frustrated about.

But... the same goes with joy, appreciation, happiness. When we shift focus to things that FEEL better, than we hold up that sign and allow more of life to flow in that vibration.

So, consider, for a moment, life being really “hard”, everything is going wrong and falling apart. You are never on time, you are always out of money and the house is a mess. Everyone is sick and you just can’t get done what needs to be done. Life has snowballed out of control... and the more that’s the story, the more it really is the story.

It can be turned around in with gradual shifting to telling a different story.. simply by finding the things that feel better.

From stroking your beautiful pet, to admiring a sunrise, to enjoying a meal (or starbucks) or even just making lists of things you appreciate, slowly you turn the wheel of your focus to a place where you feel relief and in that... you find your essence of who you are. Literally, completely focusing on the good stuff and simply observing the negative stuff, turns to dial. That feeling gets held up on that sign to the universe and then, more life supports that feeling space.

So, what role does the law of attraction play into parenting? Oh boy, a really big one!

Each time we focus on our children’s negative behavior, the more it flows in.

Each time we focus on a dirty house, the more it keeps dirty.

Each time we focus on how there’s not enough time, that we have to do too much alone, that no one listens, that we don’t know what to do... Sign is up, sign is up, sign is up.

Each time we focus on our children’s playful laughter.

Each time we hold them that little longer, appreciating them with our whole hearts.

Each time we stop focusing on being late and enjoy the puttering meanderings... suddenly we get there on time, or everyone else was late too.

Each time we say it’s ok if bedtime goes a little later for that extra story, a child asks to go to bed earlier (it can happen.)

Each time we focus on enjoying our children, we see more opportunities to play, interact and laugh with them, we find new experiences, notice how they’ve grown, and truly connect with them as our authentic selves.

And then, as we shift, our children learn about this tangible focus machine that they are, and start to use it for good. Suddenly, whining seems futile as you just get more to whine about, and appreciating seems to be smart. Suddenly letting life flow in, rather than demanding it gets pushed through, seems more natural. Which of course it is.

Life’s never a complicated as we like to make out it is and you know what, even when we have bad times, when we snowball and spiral, is all good. Because when we snowball it’s just us feeling the way we DON’T want to feel in order to feel the bliss of when we shift it. We didn’t come to be perfectly aligned all the time, then we wouldn’t grow, we wouldn’t know difference,

we would be like a candle in the sun. Sometimes you can only shine bright, when you are in the muddle of darkness for a bit.

And then, you see a sunrise.

Life is good, we came to enjoy it and ride it and play. When we know that we can feel good to our core and then it all clicks into place it offers us a practical tool to make better days.. it snowballs.

So, the only question we ever need to ask when things go screwy is “what sign am I holding up?”

And then shift accordingly.
Click on this link to view a great mantra for a focus shift.
https://youtu.be/yNbSvHO6H3U

Natural parenting.

So there’s natural parenting and then there’s Natural Parenting.... as in how they parent in nature.

6 weeks ago we became the proud grandparents to four kittens. Their birth was momentous, with mom cat (Paws) having no clue what was happening and leaving her first born on the steps as she ran around the house in a panic. Luckily my husband, who has helped 2 of our children and a couple of goat kids arrive earthside, scooped up little FB (first born... but who now is known as Facebook oddly enough) cleared her face and woke her up and then called over mommy cat to show her what was happening. Once mom saw FB her face literally lit up and she excitedly ran to her “nest” in the kennel we’d set up for her and successfully, and happily, birthed the other three.

Mom Cat, or Paws, has been one of those focus-less cats. She was picked up with her two siblings for our farm 3 years ago and our eldest daughter took her under wing, but then an adopted stray caught our daughter’s attention and Paws became the family’s cat... or no one’s. She ate what we put down and wouldn’t have anything to do with anyone. And then, she fell in love. She snuck out one morning and her lover came... along with a rival. Poor Paws lost her innocence and came home which was suddenly her sense of security.

A few months later, FB was being left on the stairs in confusion... much like Paws’ life. But then... with one glance... clarity and focus.

For the first week and a half Paws was on duty. She never left her kittens, except for a moment to go to the litter or grab a quick bite. The minute she heard stirring she was back to her babies. As her kitties would fall asleep while feeding, I was struck with how many times my babies had fallen asleep at my breast in the same way, how they looked punch drunk from milk and how Paws was in that euphoric state of mommy bliss that comes for those first few days.

(I often talk about that post birth period, when the pregnancy is in the past and the future doesn’t seem important. I think the moments after birth and those first few days are some of the most present, magical and spiritual moments I’ve ever experienced. There seems to be a quiet, conscious contentment that settles in the air.)

After that first week and a half, Paws looked more to self care. It had turned extra hot, so she shifted to finding comfort sitting outside the kennel, where the babies were starting to pull themselves around, with their eyes shut and their curiosity peaking. Sometimes one of our children would be watching them from outside the kennel as well, and Paws would leave for a few minutes to stretch her legs, leaving my children in charge of hers.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched Paws in awe, as she weaves in and out of her children’s explorations. They now run and play all over the place, and Paws sits in the middle of the room, mindfully knowing her children’s whereabouts, but waiting until she’s needed to interfere. If she thinks one of them is in trouble, you can hear her meowing away, telling them to find her. If they need help, she’s by their side. She has truly become the epitome of a positive parent... who is encouraging her children to be independent, yet surrounding them with love and security as she offers them tools to excel.

Natural Parenting is being given too many rules, too many restrictions. It’s not about what carrier you use, or what words and phrases you say. It’s about keeping things simple.

We need to love our children and lovingly offer them tools to have a happy life and to be the best of themselves. We don’t need to punish them or control them into becoming the version WE want them to be and we don’t need to hover over them, making sure everything goes their way. We don’t need to leave them to their own devices, without any sense of security to build them up stronger. Rather, life is simple balance. Watching them and allowing them space to grow, learn and Be. Being there for help, security and play and Loving them, from afar or from up close, or with that blissful connection as they fall asleep in our paws... I mean arms.

I was so nervous about having these kittens. I raised my hands to the universal powers and exclaimed “WHY?!” But, I’m so thankful I didn’t follow the advice of others and found a way of stopping the experience. I have watched a spirit focus into her dream, I have watched maternal instincts and love blossom before my eyes. I have witnessed how parenting is defined in nature and how, in all simplicity, love and respect spreads across all species... yet as humans, we tend to make it all more complicated then it needs to be.

Finding my connection within pregnancy

It was our boy’s birthday yesterday. Six. Wow. Six years since the moon was my midwife and we welcomed him into the world.

I often like to write on the birthdays of our children. They are like my own personal days of celebration. Little white flags that cheer my personal journey of parenthood. I don’t make any outside show for myself, just little inner shouts of joy and a bit of reflection of the trip so far. It’s been good. It is good. So Good.

Our boy’s birth though. His is a personal triumph. His was when I finally shook my pre-determined concepts of how it was suppose to be, and went a more inward, contemplative, meditative, Spiritually Aware Route. From the moment he was conceived, our boy was my teacher.

Six years and nine months ago, I was stressed, distressed, and overwhelmed. Our girls were five and six, just starting homeschooling, my husband was renovating our home and we had a small homesteading farm, my family was having problems too so I was on the phone to my parents, siblings and friends all the time. I was excited to be pregnant, but scared too. I kept thinking that surely all this would result in a miscarriage or some emergency.

5 years before our daughter had been born quickly at home and then rushed to the hospital... for no apparent reason except for being a bit early. I guess homebirths just weren’t the thing eleven years ago in Canada. Upon arrival they prodded and injected against our will, she then ended up in the ICU for 2 weeks. It was the worst 14 days of my life. I felt voiceless, and guideless. I couldn’t find the space to tap into the Source of wellbeing I had always known. The dark pit had me scared and overwhelmed. It was isolating. Our older daughter was only ten months (Irish twins as they say) So I went through the motions... aware only of my unawareness.

When I found out I was pregnant again those five years later, I wanted it different... and then I found myself snowed under in circumstance. Within a few months of teeter tottering I decided to rise above it all and trust in my dearest Source.

 I found a sense of trinity with me, my son, and Source Energy/God. Suddenly I could know all was well. When I fell into worrying  about how things were, I received a kick from our boy. When I was stressed and unfocused I got two kicks. Little reminders that it was the moment that mattered. That my imagination could be used for positive outcomes and that appreciation and awareness created magic. Together we connected and pondered life mysteries. We played, we laughed and I started to see the world through his sense of reality. It was beautifully exhilarating.

When I greeted our son early in the morning on July 8^th, there were so many things which could have been focused on.  I could have been scared or panicky, I could have wrapped my mind around organizing or worrying about our daughters who were a little freaked, or I could have doubted the wellness of everything and questioned everything that had gone before. But instead I’ll never forget the moment I saw him.

It was like greeting a good friend. I recognized him and he did me as well.

I shouted out “my boy, there’s my boy.”

And from his essence he seemed to exude the statement. “I told you all would be well.”

With the birth of our son, the concepts of Spiritually Aware Parenting were born.

Find Connection within yourself first, and then you can find incredible, extraordinary connections with your children. It is a cycle of love.

So often we all go about it the opposite way; worrying about our children which knocks us off axis and disconnects us from our instincts... preventing ourselves from sensing what our children really need.

I’m in the midst of fine-tuning my coaching packages as well as sorting out my SAP Summer Challenge and in doing so I found myself asking what drove me to do my pregnancy package. Funny how I should ask myself this so near the anniversary of my boy’s birth... for there was the answer in front of me.

Often life is chaotic and speeding all around us. The difference finding that connection brings is magical. I experienced it firsthand. But often it felt delusional. Often it felt silly to not just give in to the fear and reality, the upsets and stresses and feel tossed about on the sea of unknowingness.. If I had had someone who would have told me- Go for it. Trust the Connection-meditate on your breath, focus your thoughts, Connect to all you are. talk to your baby, relate to him. I wouldn’t have had so many moments of feeling unprepared or isolated. Even during his birth I swayed from fear to love and back again. The moon was my midwife only as it was the focus I shifted to as I looked at her out the window and surrendered. It’s in the trust and faith of wellbeing and love that creates more of the same and when we are enthralled by that Power of Divinity and Love... oh each experience is amplified by millions.

That’s why I do what I do. I love seeing parents feel that connection with their unborn child, I love hearing them sigh in relief of feeling the fear lift, even for enough time to seek a new perspective. I love people seeing their pregnancy as a transformation, not just for their growing baby, but for them; a time to define and fine tune themselves and focus their intentions. Life is a magical winding path, with adventure everywhere. Pregnancy is always proof of that.

So, I guess on this sixth birthday of our boy I need to thank him. He taught me so much and still does and he will forever be that little baby, giving me a little nudge telling me to trust and all is well.

Christina Fletcher's pregnancy book is available on her website
www.spirituallyawareparenting.com or through Amazon and other
online bookstores

The Business of Baby; a review

We live in a time when we have come to question everything. We are careful with what goes into our food, what sort of food we eat and how it was grown. We look for alternative ways to drink water, provide electric, heat to our homes and fuel our cars. We distrust corporations and the spying big brother when it comes to internet security and banking and we rarely believe what we hear from the news, newspapers or websites. On one hand we have become a suspicious society, which isn’t a very nice space to live in, but on the other hand, what has been launched from that is a society of independence, one where we, individually, inspire to educate ourselves, find out what our options are, what feels right, and what, in the long run is best for us and our family.

However, in the actual process of giving birth to our families, we can often feel powerless and left in the hands of others, whom instinctively we want to question. We can independently scan the internet, trying to weigh up the options and tap into what truly feels best to us, yet it always feels slightly ungrounded, like there’s a story lying beneath, that no one ever talks about.
That is why I was anxious to review Jennifer Margulis’ new book, The Business of Baby. I knew that finally, some of the mystery surrounding medical pregnancy and birth practices would be unearthed and I would have facts at my fingertips... for anyone who asked.



I have to say, this is a bit of an unusual book review for me to give. The business of Baby focuses on the physical elements of having a baby and the often harmful malpractices that have become routine. Over the last few years I have tried to keep a distance from stating too much of my opinions regarding the likes of hospital practices or parental preferences as I firmly believe that as parents, as people, we try our best, we do what we feel is best, what fits in with our perspective of the world. We might learn differently and change those beliefs along the road of life, we might feel best doing what our families have done for generations. However, the problem with that is whether we are actually doing what we do because we simply don’t know any other option. We may feel our choices are so slim that we opt for the “lesser evil”, rather than having the encouragement to follow our instincts, get connected and live our dream experience.

My work is also firmly based in the philosophy that we all create our realities and outcomes from a deeper, spiritual level. Things happen, not because we are victims to systems, but because we either need the contrast to find better feeling options, or we create those situations on a deeper level with others involved with them, in the case of birth and pregnancy for instance, our babies. Our children often choose the situations around their pregnancies and births before they even come, to provide them with a launching place to start life with.

However, as you can read in my “pre-review” blog posts, I know I had some shadows of doubt, some lack of information that haunted me through all my pregnancies that having them lifted would have made finding a spiritual connection so much easier. Because Jennifer’s book removes those shadows, I find that it is an incredibly useful tool for a spiritually based pregnancy.
There is so much in this book, so many questions answered, that to list them all here would be impossible. It might also mean people don’t read it themselves, and therefore miss out on the personal, candid and confident voice Jennifer relates her information with. An award winning journalist, whose work I first found in the Mothering Magazine, but who has also written for the NY times, Washington Post and Parenting, Jennifer pacts the book full of antidotes, personal and interviewed stories, hard facts and statistics to drive home the fact that there is a grey area in obstetrics and pediatrics. That no matter what, the bottom line is that doctors have to earn a living and in an age of court cases and the constant threat of being sued as well as the overbearing power of the pharmaceutical companies and how they ply their wares, many doctors find it easier to sacrifice the healthiest solution for their patient and take the most profitable instead (or at least cover their own backs as best as they can).

As Jennifer writes in her introduction; “This book will show you, time and time again corporate profits and private interests trump what is best for moms and babies. The science is consistently ignored and practices proven to be harmful are continued. Doctors- even though most have the best possible intentions- often unwittingly go along with a broken and sometimes dangerous system.”
From the problems of over examinations, which the doctors do to please the insurance companies, but usually lead to interventions, to the lack of nutritional education, to the additives in prenatal vitamins and other pharmaceuticals, the unknown effects of ultrasounds, how they are being widely overused, and the question of their use being a cause of the rise in autism, to the risks of C-sections but the incentives for doctors to use them, Jennifer spends the first half of the book looking at prenatal and birth care in great detail. We live in a world of numbers, and as one nurse points out, that’s what we’re seen as. It seems to me that at a time of one of the greatest miracles of life, one of the most natural things a human can experience, when a body can grow another person, and do everything within itself to support that new life, it seems an insane perspective to boil the experience down to a medical procedure, let alone a human being to a number on a chart.

The second half of the book is dedicated to the first year after birth, right from the possibility of the Hep. Vaccine within the first day and the risks of circumcision soon after (Jennifer witnessed and reported a circumcision while interviewing the performing doctor. It was one of the times that I squirmed in my chair with her vivid and honest detailed description.) A deeper look at the pharmaceutical companies and diaper companies such as Pampers and Huggies follows, as she looks at the manipulative ways they discourage parents from breastfeeding or early toilet training. The physical damage that Jennifer discovered caused by formula or extended diaper wearing was appalling, and the fact that children are now often not toilet trained by the time they reach kindergarten shows that the advertising campaigns of these companies are still incredibly successful.

The book is a captivating read, especially considering that I read neither investigative reports nor medical nonfiction on a regular base. Jennifer had me at the introduction. The only downside, in my opinion, is that it is about the American system of pregnancy and baby care, and as a Canadian the book had me questioning how much applied to my country’s situation. Ironically, the audio versions of the book have been produced by a Canadian publishing company and read by the talented, Canadian, actress Rebecca Jenkins. Jennifer is also being interviewed soon on a CBC talk show, which may shed some light on Canadian practices. It would have been impossible to cover all of North America, and Canadians, as well as anyone, can still benefit from the book for simply the reason that the lid has been blown off and the shadows cast away forever. Now, thanks to Jennifer, we know the right questions to ask, we can see things a little clearer and the overwhelming sense of mystery regarding the care we receive when pregnant and the questions we face after is well on its way of being solved.

The Business of Baby is available through Amazon and other book retailers. Also, please visit Jennifer's Facebook page www.facebook.com/Business-Of-Baby for some great tidbits and articles.

A history of my pregnancies as a Pre-review for The Business of Baby

I’m getting ready to write a review of Jennifer Margulis’ new book The Business of Baby, to be part of her book tour on April 18th. I thrilled to be part of her book blog tour and quite honestly even more thrilled to be able to review her incredible book. However, as I’ve been mulling over the review in my head for the last couple of weeks, I’ve felt like it’s one of those books that pulls out personal experience stories. You know, like when you are in a group of parents and everyone starts talking about their birth experiences and you have to hold your tongue until you find a space in the conversation so you can talk about yours? Well, it would never be my intention to start talking about me and my experiences when I actually want to be talking about this incredible book. I know I’ll keep mentioning how I wish I had had it ten years ago, but it seems unfair to start talking about why and for what in an actual review.
Therefore, this is the pre-review. This is my background story. This is my background to explain how in my next post I’ll be saying how Business of Baby is written proof of what my instincts were telling me all that time ago.
The Business of Baby is about pregnancy, birth and the first year. So, as my precursor to the review I simply want to relay to you my birth stories, which I haven’t often relayed in my work. But, like I said, while reviewing Jennifer’s book I don’t want to keep going on a tangent with a “like when I gave birth and the....” It could turn out to be a very long winded review indeed.
I got pregnant for the first time when I was 24. We were over the moon and although we hadn’t been a couple for very long that’s not to say it was by accident either. We’d sent out the invite and left it up to whoever wanted to snatch up first place. But, for financial reasons, we decided it was best we spent some time in the UK where we could pick up some work as musical therapists as my husband use to do there and we could become a little more secure. So, I did what I thought I “should” do, checked in with my GP, did my blood work, my urine tests, I was the ideal patient for the first couple of months before we left for the UK. However, what my GP didn’t know was that my husband had been studying natural health for years. Also, although I didn’t know it at the time, I was beginning to get a sense of trusting my instincts over a doctor’s. I really had no framework of knowledge to fall back on, only instincts, but still deep down I knew I didn’t want to be tested for everything and I wanted to trust in the process my body was going through. So, off we went to the UK, much to my doctor’s displeasure. Two things happened within the first couple of weeks. First, I developed severe nausea and began throwing up ALL THE TIME! And second, my doctor contacted my mom and told her that I was Rh negative so I would need to get the SHOT! I was in a panic. My husband was under the impression that he was o positive, but still we thought he should be tested, just to be sure. So I visited a midwife over in the UK, then a doctor. I had an ultrasound and found myself again in the system, but still no one was testing my husband. Finally, we met with someone who jotted it down when we suggested that the whole issue might be null and void if my husband was Rh negative too. Although he gave a look of disbelief, implying we were in denial, he booked my husband in for a blood test.
It is one of our favorite memories as a couple, the moment we got a phone call saying that my husband was indeed rh negative. It was like all our instincts were justified and we as a couple made sense again.
A few weeks later I read in a pamphlet I had kept in my purse but never read before, that morning sickness was the sign of a healthy pregnancy. None of the doctors or midwives had told me this when I had asked them. Rather, it was one of those things that made me have a guard up against the system.
Our daughter was born healthy and happy in the hospital. I had had a birth plan and it was respected. There were only two points when I was distracted from anything to do with giving birth and was overcome with distrust with the medical group looking after me. First, when they shouted “time to break the bed” and my husband and I looked at each other in confusion, not knowing that the bed did indeed break in order for delivery. Second, when the doctor came in with some sharp looking tools and I stopped to ask what he thought he was doing. They calmed me, they cajoled me, and they pandered me. They also broke my waters and administered Picotin for the afterbirth, reassuring me that it was what made sense and made it easier for me. I was not in my most lucid state so I said alright.
We had objected the vit K and the antibiotics for our daughter’s eyes, which they rolled their own eyes at but agreed. They insisted on the heel prick, which they did to our daughter in her cot. She’d been happy to lie in there before the shot, but didn’t leave my arms after.
It was my plan to breastfeed our daughter. But without much support, a mother buying me formula and bottles, a nurse coming and saying it wasn’t working, and a baby who was awake all night and I had no knowledge of co-sleeping only stories of “walking the floor” and references to trying to get a baby to sleep in their bed from the get go. I gave in and started giving her formula at 3 months. I regret it still, as my eldest is the only one who has intense earaches and sinus issues.
All this being said, my first daughter, my darling girl, survived and she taught me so much. It was because of her that I started to listen a little bit more to my instincts and I gained confidence in my own inner knowledge. In spite of everything, we had a blast throughout her babydom and still do 10 years later. I know that everything is perfect. She chose to come at the time she did. She knew I wouldn’t have any knowledge about certain things. She knew we would learn together. We still are as we face teen years and so many changes.
My other daughter teaches me so much as well. My darling girl, who’s beginning was so rocky and emotional I still have problems reiterating it... Look for it in another post coming soon!

WTRA now on KINDLE

Great news!
My first book, Who They Really Are: a guide to being a spiritually aware parent is now available on kindle The book looks at conception through to age 2, the emotional and physical challenges that the parent and new child can experience and how to deal with them from a spiritually aware, feeling good perspective.
Described as the perfect baby shower present this book offers feel good solutions and practical tips to tap in to everything we really are. It was written when our son was small and marked the beginning of this wonderful writing journey I have been on the past two years.
Be well, happy and thrive. And happy reading!