Unveiling the Sacred Journey-Book Review & Feedback: Reclaiming Childbirth As a Rite of Passage by Rachel Reed
I will start by saying the world view that i carry is of Biblical perspective yet respectful of all walks of life. I believe we were divinely created by God and our bodies and the way that they operate were not created this way by accident. A woman’s body and the intricate flows of blood, hormones, and brain pathways of connection to the mechanics of our functionalities are not at all by happenstance, but for a purpose mean to bring gratitude and appreciation to its process. The book discusses blood sacrifices, spiritualism, shamanism, and other mystic properties that honor birth, and while that is something many people choose these modalities to practice and express their appreciation through, mine is through honoring the glory of God as the Creator of all things and humans on this planet. He loves us very deeply and created our bodies to function properly.
That being said, our bodies are meant to do and create life. We’ve got our own filtration system, detoxification systems, ability to procreate and deliver that procreation earth side. This world, however, is a very flawed and broken world where the things that were built to function efficiently sometimes do not and to this point, I am eternally grateful for modern medicine. When we hear, “our bodies were made for this”, this does not dismiss those who’s bodies did not follow the physiologic pathway and needed a certain level of medical intervention such as surgical deliver or even Pitocin to stop a hemorrhage. Those bodies were also made for this. What this statement aims to do, is empower the birth giver, the woman, as the end all be all in decision making no matter the decisions that need to be made. All decisions should lie with her and be centered in maintaining a deep level of respect and positive experience.
All of that said, I truly enjoyed the way she blended the emphasis on a woman’s body and its capabilities, and her perception of birth itself as the driving force behind how a woman feels about her on particular birth experiences. It’s a wonderful way the words state the benefits of physiological births without intervention. They are highlighted in the stories and facts throughout the book, she does a great job at making it quite clear that medical interventions absolutely have a time and place in childbirth.
I think my favorite component is the theme of the book, the fact that ancient wisdom and women should always be kept in the center of care no matter how medical a birth experience has to become. Now the over medicalization of birth has become an issue in today’s medical model almost to a counterintuitive point, where the mother is lost as the center and the provider, birth team, and technology rise to the center, taking priority over the mother and her experience. A mother centered approach where women and mothers are the center of care and kept there, despite what happens.
In short, women’s health remains under researched which means that childbirth in its normal state has been very rarely observed and even more rarely supported. The art of allowing a physiologic process to unfold without hands on deck has been ultimately lost in the name of prevention and liability. In order for us to truly remain centered in our reproductive health and birth experiences, we have to do our due diligence as individuals to learn about our own bodies on a granular level. We cannot keep existing in the current climate that dictates if and what we learn, and how we learn about our own bodies. We cannot keep relying on providers at busy clinics to provide complete education on our bodies, functionality, how to support those functions, and making individualized decisions, which is where we need to learn to use our community resources such as doulas, herbal support, childbirth educators, fertility awareness educators, nutritional therapists, etc.
Our voices, ALL of our voices, whether you’ve got letters behind your name or not, absolutely need to be included in whatever that research is going to look like.
Our experiences matter and this book is centered around just that as we reclaim our birth experiences as a rite of passage. I hope this was a helpful review and feedback on this life changing and perspective shifting book. To purchase your own copy, click here!
If you want to go on a journey about learning about your own body, and it’s individual signals that it sends you on a daily basis I’m happy to help you master bodywork. Click here to learn more about the BOM Girls Workshop where we go over body literacy in a very specific and evidence based method of fertility awareness and how to own your own experiences!
Xx,
Giana