Sophia’s Birth Story
Posted on March 1st, 2016 by RWM AdminSophia, my dear firstborn. I did not know how integral she would become to my inner healing and salvation. Journeying through pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum with her transformed my life as she became a stream of Divine Light in my soul. But I get ahead of myself…. It was 11pm the day after my due date. After a nice late-spring evening walk, I had just laid down in bed when a gush of fluid let loose, followed quickly be a flood of emotions and anticipation. Natural Labor: that illusive experience in a woman’s life that is more unpredictable than a mockingbird’s song. I fought the excitement and tried to rest through the contractions which were coming every five minutes. That sleep was something short of restful, but I had my husband’s calm rhythmic snoring reassuring me that this baby-having was a normal part of life.
Moving into active labor by dawn, I was now surrounded by women whom I loved and trusted – women who had already walked this path before me and served as wise guides. My mother stroked my hair, Joyce and Robin supported me through transition and an anterior lip while my loving husband played guitar and sang me through the pangs of labor. My long-time friend caught the moments on film while her teenage daughters watched and read Psalm 91 aloud: “He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings shall you take refuge.” After 12 hours of releasing into the contractions, fighting the emotional, physical and mental battle of relaxing into the discomfort of the pain, shortly after noon I was ready to push – what a relief! I hadn’t anticipated the shift of mindset from transition to pushing, but it was a shift from surrender to vigorous participation. Twenty minutes later my husband delivered our child and with tears and shaking hands announced that we had a daughter.
In the days that followed, with their rivulets of joy and emotion, I would stare at this beautiful creature that had been entrusted to me. When I looked into her eyes, I saw a fresh being – a soul which had neither wounded nor been wounded. And from her emanated the Light Divine, a salve which saturated me and penetrated the darkness and doubts which had clouded my faith in God and humanity alike. The truth that God is good was undeniable with such proof as a newborn in my arms.
