Message from Cecily
I feel great compassion for our children, who are on their way to a simultaneously beautiful and painful world, and want for them a safe, secure, and nourishing start.
Similar to how we feel as adults when we land in a foreign country, our initial arrival experience and greeting influence whether or not we feel safe, welcomed, confident, and enthusiastic to reach out and continue forward.
Think about it, the first time you travel to a new country, perhaps, India, America, Africa, Russia, Vietnam, China, what do you hope for upon your arrival? In the reverse, consider how much more comforting you may find it to be taken to, and picked up from, the airport by a loved one. For a moment, fantasize about how you’d love for your partner, family, or housemate to show you respect and welcome when you return home from a long, and perhaps arduous trip? What would make it wonderful for you?
Curiously, what we want to convey to our unborn and newborns, generally speaking, and how we’d love for them to feel, is incongruous to many of the prenatal and birth practices that have become the norm. In various cultures and countries around the world we create much ado for the VIP’s in government and business, and for leaders and teachers of all sorts. In my view, it is natural, and to the benefit of all, to escort and greet babies with the respect we’re inclined to give an honored guest visiting our home and community.
All the talk about “children are our future” is great, but it’s time to recognize raising children begins with how we conceive, gestate, and birth them. Society, at large, has been blind to how we have been programming children for fight/flight reactions that cause defense and violence as compared to higher intelligence responses of empathy that cause compassionate, cooperative action. Cellular biologist, Dr. Bruce Lipton makes a strong case for how it’s not going to be “survival of the fittest,” but survival of the nurtured.
Here’s My Dream for Babies en Route; Womb to World:
To be conceived by conscious choice.
To feel loved, wanted, and welcomed throughout fetal development and birth.
To be recognized as a sentient being whose development is contingent on her/his experience in the womb and birth.
To receive healthy nourishment to their fetal minds and bodies.
To have mothers who eat, drink, nurture, and move their bodies and minds conscientiously.
To have mothers who are well supported by their partner and/or close circle of friends/family.
To feel, sense, and hear kind words spoken to them.
To feel, sense, and hear songs sung to them.
To feel, sense, and hear their mom and dad/partner play soothing or uplifting music, and dance and enjoy.
To hear their mother speak honestly about her inner and outer life experiences, and benefit from her efforts of equilibrium.
To have quiet, peaceful, restful moments in everyday.
To be listened to, checked-in with, and responded to in-kind.
To have given to them unconditional tenderness, warmth, gentleness, and acceptance.
To connect with their mom and dad/partner by physical, heart-to-heart, and mind-to-mind connections.