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“P” is for Pleasure and Power and P**?

This guest blog post is by Jenny Braxton, Mama, birth visionary, educator & community leader and ECSTATIC BIRTH PRACTITIONER!

I entered my feminine form through the pelvic bowl of my mother, journeying from her womb out into the world on the day I was born. It was a long and arduous journey, devoid of pleasure.

{Until she held me in her arms, of course. Then let’s hope there was bliss.}

We all start life in a pelvic bowl, in the wombs of our mothers. From there, we are born into the world.

My entrance into the world was imprinted onto my being at a deep level, in what’s known as the limbic brain, that ancient, reptilian part of myself. My imprint was that becoming a mother is difficult and full of pain.

Jenny Braxton

Locating your Fierce Feminine Power

Have you ever struggled to bring your dreams into reality, wondering over and over again… “What is wrong with me?” or “Why can’t I just….?”

(Artwork by Katariina Agnes Fagering)

I know this feeling SO well. And I’ve also known the opposite.. the feeling that NOTHING can stop me, NOTHING can stand in my way of bringing my dream to reality.

Birth has been my biggest teacher, the gateway through which I have come to understand the source of my feminine power.

Announcing Ecstatic Birth Practitioners!

Oooooooo I can’t wait to share what I am about to share!!!
Four years ago I had a vision of lighting up the globe.
One light, passed to several others, passed to many others, passed to all…..

I woke up with a deep knowing in my body that while I can only support a handful of pregnant women at any given time, the key to transforming the landscape of birth lay with practitioners, fierce, visionary women who could hold the vision alongside me.

For any one of us working in this field and going counterculture, bringing pleasure into a realm known for pain, that can feel like lifting an elephant with your pinkie.

But together, side by side, leaning on each other, committed and holding the vision together… wow, we can begin to breathe again.

I am so proud of this moment in time,
the moment in which I get to share with you the fruits of my newest baby–

A simple strategy to elevate your birth experience

Childbirth can be deeply empowering, pleasurable, ecstatic and even orgasmic.

Yet most women experience the opposite.

There is a HUGE  gap between the possibility and the reality.

The gap is not whether or not Ecstatic Births actually exist.

The gap is in how we are raised, our relationships to our bodies, the structures of training and support that exist (or not) for women, the healthcare system, the legal system and so much more.

I see so so many women judging themselves harshly or feeling down in the dumps for not “achieving” this ideal.

That is the heart of the matter right there–

Ecstatic Birth is an IDEAL and ideals are not a measure by which to judge ourselves, but a source of inspiration, elevation.

While bringing the image of the picture perfect birth you have in your mind into reality is incredibly difficult,  (when does life ever conform perfectly to our ideals?) elevating your experience of birth is astoundingly simple.

Let me show you what I mean via this fool-proof 3 step strategy:

How do you prepare for an Ecstatic Birth?

The day your baby is born is one of the most momentous days of your life. Childbirth can be one of the most transformative ecstatic experiences in a woman’s life.

Unfortunately, that is not the typical experience our society is serving up in labor and delivery. Most women emerge from childbirth in a haze, many of them unconscious victims of trauma (as I was). We accept this because that is what we are taught childbirth is meant to be, culturally, religiously, and societally. If we make the same choices as everyone around us, this is what we will usually get.

To have a different experience, a woman must be willing to make different choices, to prepare with her mind, body and soul in a different direction. Ecstatic Births are not the norm (yet) and so it requires a certain ferocity to forge a different path.