I had no idea what was going to happen because ‘attunement’ is such strange thing really. Basically you are subject to a ritual and no one knows why it works, but its purpose is to allow you to channel universal energy without having the energy of the person you are working on come back into you. This is important because using healing energy on others can make you sick if you are not careful. Attunement will also help make the conduit of energy stronger. My instructor, Shari Krauser explained how attunement can also effect your life in other ways. People have been known to manifest long-desired dreams, and become more intuitive and almost psychic.

Being that I am a somewhat skeptical, but embracing student of all things metaphysical, I dismissed that information as a little to ‘woo-woo’ for me. However, I have been amazed by the last several weeks and the things that have been happening.

I have had crazy premonitions. In at least five cases, I have thought about something or someone and they have suddenly appeared, or called-and these are not people I normally talk to or see. I have also been practicing Reiki on myself, my dogs and my kids-all with amazing results. I truly do feel as if my ability to move energy has strengthened. It’s so strange but wonderful. I can’t wait to use it on my birthing mommies! Reiki is great for both pregnancy treatments, like sciatic pain and labor of course. It’s not difficult to learn. Unlike meditation, it doesn’t require immense concentration, just awareness.

This other part might not be such a coincidence, but I am a subscriber to “Midwifery Today” whose winter issue was incidentally about massage and touch. In it, there was a great article about Reiki and its use in midwifery. Although this article isn’t available online, I would encourage anyone who is interested in Reiki for midwives to order the issue.

However, one of things that keeps me up a night when I think about embarking on a career as a midwife (the person actually in charge of helping the baby come out-yikes) is what we called ‘asynclitic’ babies- those who’s heads are not in the preferred position to get born.  Their little heads are turned in such a way that it can make labor long, dilation difficult and can result in c-section if not resolved.  There are lots of ways to deal with minor malpresentations, and in this post, I am gathering up tips and tricks to educated myself, so every birth IN my dreams, comes out like the birth OF my dreams.

I found this one website which seems to have it all. I was very impressed. Although some of the discussion is quite technical at times, for those of you who are not into the lingo, know that a baby can be turned!! There are several important things I learned, but this one is the most interesting…

There have been (anecdotally) higher instances of OP babies in the last decade or so. OP babies are babies that are facing the wrong way and are responsible for back labor and a much higher chance of ‘obstetrical managed labor’. So….not a good thing.

One New Zealand midwife named Jean Sutton, who is somewhat legendary it seems in turning OP babies thinks that the higher instance is due to women sitting in chairs. Apparently when a woman’s hips are lower than her pelvis, and she is sitting leaning back, gravity carries the spine of the baby toward earth-making the baby posterior. She recommends that pregnant women who are 36+ weeks do a lot of sitting while leaning forward or upright to get their hips higher than their knees and their bellies lower than the spine for at least a short time every day. She has seen almost no OP babies since she began this practice. Apparently she has a really great book on the subject of OP babies that I am going to have to get.

The other important point I took away from this rather lengthy compilation was that women should talk to their babies and tell them what they need to do. Apparently many of them DO listen. : )

For those of you who don’t know this, it is pretty common practice for pregnant women to enter into the US to deliver their babies so they can gain US Citizenship. (I am looking for statistics on this and not having an easy time finding them.) It’s an issue of contention for people against illegal immigration.

The real issues began when back in 2007, the US started requiring a passport for travel into the US from Mexico. Because of the discovery of false birth certificates issued by midwives, the U.S. State Department started denying passport applications to all people that claimed to be born in South Texas by a midwife.  Every single person that was born with a midwife-assisted birth had their citizenship questioned and was expected to come up with further documentation to prove that they were indeed born on US soil.  The situation threatened to isolate thousands of people in the Rio Grande Valley who regularly traveled back and forth to Mexico for work or family reasons and people began to panic.

Parteras, Spanish for midwives, have been part of life in Hidalgo and Cameron counties along the border with Mexico from the time of the Texas Republic and before.  I assume that these midwives were sympathetic to pregnant moms from Mexico who hoped to give their children a better shot in life by ensuring them a US citizenship-and were probably being paid.  Authorities say that the practice of filing false birth certificates may go back as late as the 1960′s.  It is believed that there were as many as 15,000 false birth certificates issued.  The fact that many of these births occurred 30 or 40 years ago made it nearly impossible for some of the legal residents of Texas to dig up the necessary documentation to prove their birth was indeed in the US.

The American Civil Liberties Union and many attorneys hired by those denied passports got involved. As a result of a settlement, in two South Texas counties, persons that are members of the ‘class’ in the lawsuit are now eligible to re-apply for passports under the settlement on one day-December 1, 2009, calling it an ‘acceptance event’. Those who are not registered with the lawsuit are not eligible to apply for a passport, although the lawyers seem to think that eventually all true US citizens will eventually get their passports.

Whew!  What a can of worms!  There are so many issues there that I could write a book about this subject.

The main thing I would like to point out though is the lengths that women will go to ensure a better life for their children, and the fact that midwives were willing to risk their livelihoods and their freedom to give these women and their children a chance at what they perceived could be a better life.  These women did something very illegal-granted, and it’s illegality had many unintended consequences that really screwed things up for a lot of people.  For me though, the larger issue runs deep.  Why do we make it so difficult for people to come here and make a life?  Most of our ancestors did-without all these crazy barriers.  I know, there are so many arguments on either side, but an issue that forces 75 midwives to act illegally has to be looked at from a human rights angle.

Now, I don’t mean to judge…oh heck, yes I do.  I just feel that natural labor is the better life experience-(not to mention being better for the baby, and more fun for the nurse)  I realize that some women don’t get a choice, or perhaps they chose to go naturally, and something prevents that outcome from being the final one.  These things happen all the time.  It is not my intention to tout moral superiority or anything, but I do wish that each and every woman would consider labor without pain management.

The US culture rests on the sacred tenets of ease, convenience and taking the path of least resistance. For most women (and I know there are major exceptions) labor could be the hardest physical task they might undertake in their lives.  It can seem (and is) unbearable at times.  The horror stories abound. Women scare other women away from the thought of attempting it.

I invite you to look at it another way.

Natural birth is a sacred journey.  It requires faith in yourself, and the realization of and surrender to a higher power.  It forces you to relinquish control. It requires that you depend on others. It asks you to follow your instincts. As my friend Maya pointed out,  you have to push and relax at the same time. For those of you who have older children, you might recognize that these are some of the qualities of a good parent. So, in a way,  natural labor is a intense life lesson that can be tapped in to during the trials of parenting.

Natural birth connects you primally to all mothers-as women..  The stories and understanding of hardship during birth bridges generations, builds lasting bonds and  life enhancing relationships-just as all hardship does.  I equate it to the fraternity that war builds among men.

Natural birth is an accomplishment.  Once it is over, (and that is the beauty of it-it does end, definitively) most women feel a sense of pride, not only in their baby, but in the act of birthing that baby.

Consider birthing naturally.  It’s always better for the baby, and it comes with unexpected gifts.