subject: In God's Hands [print this page] In God's Hands In God's Hands
Thank G-d, I'm pregnant. It's been quite a road of ups and down, worries, fears, overwhelm, excitement, joy, and now the rhythmic kicks and flutters of my baby in my stomach. It's my first child, but it won't be the first birth I attend. You see, I'm a birth coach. I've been a birth coach since before I was married and helping a baby come into the world and watching a husband and wife instantly become a mother and father brings with it incredible feelings of awe and inspiration and clarity. I've seen amazing births with women being calm and collected, I've seen women in hysterics. I've had great midwives and doctors in a hospital and then the next birth at the same hospital I would have midwives and doctors who I wouldn't want with in 50 feet of my own baby. I've seen women who thought they were prepared feel totally defeated and I've seen women who were afraid at first find themselves in the birth process and have an amazing experience. Each birth proves again and again that we are not in control. We are so far from having control, in fact, that there is only one way to explain the whole process and it comes from the word for 'birth' in Hebrew: Leyda (). When you separate the word into two, you find that it also spells
'
translating to: In G-d's hands.
Whether we realize it or not, whether we like it or not, we don't have control. To prepare for birth, we can exercise and eat right, we can take birth classes, we can read every book we find, but we can never be guaranteed the birth we want. We can never be guaranteed the life we want. But what can we do? We can pray. We can pray for health, we can pray for an easy birth, we can pray for whatever we want and whatever we need. But when we go into situations where we are clearly not in control, and even moreso in situations where it may seem like we have control, I have learned that the real key is prayer. It's as close to control as we can get. But what is it really? It's letting go. Allowing G-d to do His work while we do our best to bob and weave with the tide.
I don't know how my birth will be even though I've seen births dozens of times. I'm going to exercise, to eat right, to read books, and go to classes. But the most important thing I do every day is pray.
