Birth in the Eden Environment
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My initial quest to seek the Lord about what pregnancy and birth were like before sin, and how to have that kind of birth experience today, has continued throughout the years. Obviously, it didn’t happen by chance or just divinely fall on you by sole merit of being a believer, as I’d personally seen and heard of many scenarios, among believers and unbelievers, that were definitely not Eden-like.

The number one element that determines whether we experience pregnancy and birth according to original intent is not whether we birth at home or in the hospital, whether we give birth vaginally or by c-section, whether we birth with or without intervention or medication, whether or not we are highly educated about our bodies and birth, or any other given issue.

In speaking of fear as it relates to pregnancy and birth, for many women, fear of the physical pain of childbirth is likely to be high on their list. In the middle of this message to fear not, it’s like an unvoiced question that lingers in the air, “But, what about the pain?”

My first pregnancy found me highly uneducated and uninformed about birth, not only because it was a subject that wasn’t very openly discussed while growing up, but also because I didn’t do any personal research. Obviously having no experience, and never really having heard that there even was anything to research, I just blindly accepted hospital policies and whatever doctors said, assuming that since they were the professionals they knew better than I and surely would do what was best.

One of the most enlightening ways I have found to communicate the body’s physiological design and needs in labor and birth is to call attention to the parallels between birth and sex. A large reason why they have many physiological similarities is that birth and sex are both controlled by the same part of the brain.

Everything discussed in the previous chapter can be largely summed up as a need for intimacy. An environment of intimacy agrees and works in harmony with the physiological design of our body. Intimacy is also what takes you where you need to be mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for sex and birth to be enjoyable and safe.

If God has redeemed us from the curse of sorrowful childbirth, has delivered us from fear, wants us to have a satisfying birth experience, and has physiologically designed us to give birth peacefully and without complication, then why are so many births still the opposite of that?

I believe that one of the greatest decisions to impact your birth is your choice of care provider and birth team, including any family or friends you choose to have present at your birth. While the right and responsibility of choice as it pertains to your birth belongs to you, you must understand that when you hire a provider you are giving a degree of authority or jurisdiction over what happens at your birth to them as well.

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I Thessalonians 5:23 (NKJV)

It is essential that we understand we are triune beings. We are spirits, who have a soul, and live in a body. Your spirit is the inner, real you, while your soul is made up of your mind, will, and emotions.

Now that we’ve seen the importance of the natural alongside the spiritual, what are some natural things related to pregnancy, labor, and birth that would be truly useful and practical for us to learn? Are there key areas of education that would help us more than others, or do we have to know everything there is to know, including the ins and outs of every possible complication, available test, and potential medical intervention?

As I’m sure you’re beginning to see, education, planning, and preparation, both in spiritual and natural matters, is essential in preventing fear from having any place in your pregnancy and birth.

Solid plans and preparation for pregnancy, birth, and beyond will be founded on both information and revelation.

About a year before we met, a friend of mine had given birth to a stillborn son. One day I began to ask for her perspective on these types of situations that we know are not God’s perfect will and plan. She began to respond by saying that the loss of a baby is something you have to be healed from. Notice the key word “began”.