Clearing Trauma for Birth

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Birth is a BODY trip

In a culture that teaches us to live primarily in the mind, coming back to the body and letting it lead can feel alien, like speaking a foreign language.

Ecstasy lives in the body, but so does trauma.

Unresolved trauma is a major obstacle to a smooth and easy labor and delivery because it is held in the body, in our tissues, in the memory of our cells.

If our coping mechanism (conscious or unconscious) has been to suppress and avoid those memories, the body will keep trying to do what it has always done in birth- intensifying its efforts to suppress and avoid.

This translates into a slow or stalled labor, often requiring a cascade of interventions to complete the birthing process.

Why? Because the body is fighting its own process.

Birth requires the body to allow flow, to open, to surrender to what is, but what if that flow and opening threatens the very survival mechanism that buried and suppressed the memory of that trauma deep in the body? The body will shut it down.

The bigger the trauma, the more it threatens the body’s sense of survival,
the harder the body will work to maintain the homeostasis it has known to date and the harder the body will fight the flow and opening that labor requires.

In this Conversation to Transform Birth, Juanita and I discuss the ways trauma derailed her birth experience, how she consciously healed and cleared it from her body, and the story of her recent Ecstatic Birth!

Juanita Chase de Lamont is an artist, activist, survivor & Mama of 3. Almost 3 years ago, Juanita was triggered as a sexual assault survivor during her son’s unmedicated home birth and ended up in the ER.

3 months ago, Juanita prepared for and gave birth to a big beautiful baby girl in an empowering & peaceful homebirth during this pandemic, using tools from various healing modalities!  

Nuggets:
*The body holds memory
*Clearing trauma before birth must include body work
*Trauma memories triggered in birth can bring on a FREEZE response, disrupting the flow of labor
*Juanita shares her birth stories, one in which her sexual trauma was triggered, the inner work she did to clear it from her body, and her subsequent Ecstatic Birth
*Commitment and ferocity is required in conscious birth preparation
*Trauma renders the victim out of control. Creating things that you CAN control in birth is extremely supportive
++Many many more tips to support and empower expectant moms and their practitioners

Juanita as been generous enough to share with us this list of grounding and anchoring tools she used in her journey.

You can connect with Juanita here or on instagram @thesnappiehippie.

The Expectant Mama’s Guide to Ecstatic Birth is the complimentary training Juanita references in the conversation. Click here to sign up!

This Conversation to Transform Birth has 2 birth stories, a tale of reclamation, and so many ahas, tips, and insights for preparing for birth.

Specifically this addresses the widespread issue of how a history of abuse or trauma can play out in birth but the wisdom gleaned here is for EVERY woman.

Want to know what level of ferocity is required in Ecstatic Birth prep?

Watch this inspiring Conversation to Transform Birth!