CBE Study: Acquiring knowledge in order to "Trust your body"

Assalamua'laikum,

The number one tip from "Ten tips for a safe and satisfying birth" (Sears, W. Sears, M. The Birth Book) is "Trust your body."

It says that you can achieve this by the knowledge of how your body works ("how it labors to give birth" and "how to work with it instead of against it")

By having this knowledge, you decrease the possibilities of being miserable during birth or the need for drugs during (labor and) birth. The first paragraph ends with the statement, "Trust that your body is built to give birth."

I love the fact that it addresses fear right in the first tip, that some amount of fear is normal (their exact words were, "somewhat apprehensive about labor") but "..,prolonged and unresolved fear" in itself is a complication for you to labor and birth!

And then, in what I find to be not a very subtle way, the Sears couple explains that medicalization of pregnancy and the birthing process adds oil to the (unfounded) fire (fear), to the extent of interfering with the biological system (designed by Allah).

What is the medicalization of birth mentioned in this tip? It is choosing a doctor (instead of a midwife), choosing a hospital, prenatal tests and focusing on all the things that could go wrong.

First of all, I would like to touch on the subject of knowledge. I wasn't very aware of how much knowledge I needed to acquire to keep myself fit during pregnancy and birth though I was doing the very act, but it became even more obvious to me once I had the baby with me several months down the road after the birth.

Motherhood has taught me that there is so much serious things to learn in order to be a good muslim. Trying to be a good muslim means I need to learn so much. About my health, my food, my medication (not necessarily allopathic, synthetic), my bodily functions, my child, my mind, my brain, my organs, my breast, my hormones. Lots of things!

There was a time, when I was having a conversation with an elderly woman of about 60 years of age and conveying to her about my involvement with birth activism and childbirth education. She remarked, "My goodness, has it become so complicated to give birth? It wasn't like this at my time."

Her remark left me thinking of an answer for weeks. What was birthing like for her, 40-odd years ago in Sudan, where she accompanied her husband to study? What was birthing like for women, 40, 50, 60, and a 100 years ago? Was it a physical, spiritual, emotional process as we try to make it one, today? Was it instinctual?

I always like to tie it in with the fact that lifestyle has changed so much for the whole world (according to which country you live in). For Malaysia, 40 years ago, women started to get formal education and were being sent abroad to study. Did they ever get to be around a laboring woman until she birthed? Did they ever get to hear the primal sounds of a woman in labor? How did formal education change their lifestyle altogether?

A good, good book about how it (formal education) might change a person's lifestyle (though not altogether related to birth) is the novel "The Pearl" by John Steinback.

However, back to the subject about knowledge, motherhood and the birthing process. I have been around about 3 laboring women, and I am still polishing my labor-companion skills. One of those laboring women was my own sister, and I wish I had given her more support and love at her vulnerable moment.

Some people are aware that in today's world, life has been so altered with that you practically need a class for every freaking thing. Heck, you probably need a class on drinking water. It's all about knowledge, and if you don't learn about it, you most probably will get your wallet drained or worse still, your health endangered. Really?

Why not? Our life has reached that extent. If you are totally oblivious about reading labels, and all this paranoia about getting informed about every tiny bit of today's modern wallet-draining product, then you are probably a filthy rich person who chooses to let people be responsible for your health, your body, your family and your children. And they probably may not choose to be responsible for your health, your body, your family and your children, how gullible can you get?

If you don't want to spend time on acquiring knowledge to be responsible for your own health and those under your care, then what do you want to spend your time on? And what are you responsible for, in this life?

As a conclusion, in order to trust your body, there is no escaping the quest for knowledge. Be it about pregnancy, birth, health and nutrition. Aisha Al Hajjar says that parenting starts at pregnancy, and her statement reminds me that either Abdullah Nasih Ulwan or Umar Al Khattab said that parenting ACTUALLY starts BEFORE you even GET MARRIED! (When you are choosing your partner). Subhanallah! Now THAT'S parenting 101 for ya!