Taking charge of your baby’s birth conditions

Learning to navigate your labor toward greater autonomy

I believe that all women are capable of imagining an “ideal birth” where everything goes smoothly, where the setting is pleasant and the people around are kind… But how can we make this beautiful dream truly become reality?

Becoming autonomous through learning

Personally, in my life, it’s through autonomy that I’ve felt truly free to steer my own ship. When you depend only on yourself, you no longer have the excuse of blaming anyone for anything. However, in any field, autonomy is the result of learning.

I’ll use the following analogy: when a woman is pregnant for the first time, it’s a bit like wanting to learn to drive. She generally turns to the hospital setting (= driving school) and seeks to meet a professional, a gynecologist or midwife (= instructor). She undergoes medical examinations (= written driving tests).

For her birth, she may choose to be surrounded by medical staff (= assisted driving) and may fear complications (= weather disturbances, road hazards and accidents).

Later, if she has other children, she may seek more autonomy: home birth, more natural birth.

Embarking on a path of mastery, each at her own pace

Personally, I feel I’ve gained enough experience (= many hours of driving) to confidently take on a child’s birth without any fear. Like an experienced driver, I’ve become capable of managing a birth with complete confidence with only my husband’s assistance.

I know that to minimize complications as much as possible, the first rule is to keep my body healthy (= having a vehicle in good working order) and to prepare well for childbirth (= planning your route before leaving).

For the birth to proceed safely, I know you must act cautiously, freely, spontaneously, intelligently and consciously, and adapt to circumstances (= turn on your windshield wipers when it rains, fog lights in fog, chains in snow, avoid slamming on the brakes on black ice).

A good driver is one who keeps a cool head in all circumstances. They act appropriately at the right moment and adapt to navigate well among all the road hazards.

Similarly, to manage a birth autonomously, we learned and understood certain laws of Life. This allowed us to avoid complications as much as possible and to welcome a child with complete confidence.

The path leading to Autonomous Natural Birth is a path of mastery like any other. If you decide to take it, you’ll need to move forward one step at a time, completing one by one all the necessary learning to fully take ownership of your own child’s birth process. You’ll be guided by life itself, which wants to see you grow and become the best version of yourself. Depending on where you are, there will be steps that are simple and easy for you, and others that will seem more complicated. There will be difficulties to overcome and challenges to meet. But, little by little, you’ll feel that you’ve progressed, that you’ve improved.

This will give you satisfaction comparable to the joy of a small child who finally manages to walk alone on their two legs after training every day for more than six months by crawling, walking on all fours, climbing stairs, then walking with support, in order to strengthen and build up their little legs more and more. In the end, you’ll be proud of yourself and happy to have surpassed yourself, in order to offer your body and your baby a birth like the one you dreamed of experiencing.

Good luck to you on this path of mastery. I hope that the works we created with patience, perseverance and love can be a help on your journey. We hope that by sharing our experience this way, it will give courage to other parents to dare in turn to embark on the wonderful path of Autonomous Natural Birth experienced as a couple.

This article was written by Claire Loiseleur who is mother of eleven children all born in conjugal intimacy by choosing to offer our babies a birth with all the respect and love they deserve and co-author of the book:

Tout en musique et en couleurs, avec beaucoup de légendes et d’explications en voix off, le DVD VIVRE NATURELLEMENT ET PAISIBLEMENT LA NAISSANCE complète merveilleusement bien les enseignements du livre L’ACCOUCHEMENT NATUREL AUTONOME VÉCU EN COUPLE. Il est offert sous forme d’un lien de téléchargement de la vidéo à toute personne ayant acheté le livre.

Read other articles on respected childbirth :

The book AUTONOMOUS NATURAL CHILDBIRTH AS A COUPLE is part of the Lights for a New World books presented on the Youtube channel and Facebook page entitled : Lights for a New World

The expression « Lights for a New World » is explained on the following page :