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Excerpts from “The Mindful Cesarean Birth Visualization”

“… Imagine now your Active labor.  You enter the space and the birth begins in earnest.  The team assembles, the local anesthesia is administered and the prep happens. You commit to be present to what is: a birth as sacred as any other, your baby coming into the world, crossing from one realm to the next, as humans have always done. You keep it simple and focus on your breath. You and your partner breathe in and out together, slow and steady.  You hold hands. Your partner gently strokes your face. You play your music.  You find your partners eyes and lock in. Your partner reminds you that you are birthing your baby now.  Strong and steady. Have compassion for yourself: stay soft, kind…”

  Excerpts from “The Mindful Cesarean Pregnancy Relaxation”

“… notice what you see with your eyes closed…observe the quality of light through your lids… the shades of darkness… notice the weight of your lids over your eyes… the place where your lids meet… your lashes…the letting go of the many muscles that surround your eyes… the muscles above your eyes, beside your eyes, below your eyes.

With your eyes still closed, shift the focus of what you see.  See how you hold your face, compose it. Observe the held areas. Like a detective, check your brow, the sides of your mouth, your jaw. No need to compose your face now. Let it go… every single muscle slack… soft…. at rest.

Shift your focus again and see your baby inside.  Moving in clear waters, eyes opening and closing, your baby studying shades of darkness and light, moving through watery translucence.  Your baby’s face resting, at ease, like yours…”

Comments

“Hi Mary Esther. This is incredible. What a beautiful and empowering method of preparation! I love the whole concept of treating each phase of pre and post-op with the same language associated with vaginal birth. That re-framing alone could really alter a woman’s whole experience of her cesarean birth. As I read through each phase, I was transported back through my own cesareans and was truly moved.” – Suzanne Chesney, Co-leader ICAN of Manhattan

“Wow… Amazing Mary Esther!  You are such a treasure and offer such a gift with your words and wisdom.” Debra Pascalli-Bonaro. Founder Pain to Power Childbirth Experience and Director of the award-winning documentary, Orgasmic Birth

“I am so grateful I did the fear exercise and listened to the birth visualization in the days before my daughter’s birth. I got to experience some of the difficult emotions beforehand and this meant I was in good shape on the day of her birth. I really appreciate it. I went through the experience of a cesarean mentally and emotionally so when the time came to birth my daughter everything had a familiar feeling. It helped so much.” – Natasha 

“When I found out Dean was breech and I’d likely need a c-section I was 32 weeks – plenty of time to have prepared for a cesarean birth. But my doctor only gave me a one page printout of way to try to get him to turn and an ominous c-section delivery appointment. Online all I could find was stories of cesarean births that were totally fine… or horror stories. But there wasn’t anything I found that would have helped me prepare psychologically for a cesarean birth. Your toolkit would have calmed me down and given me mental exercises that would have helped me feel in control of my own delivery.” Betsy Twitchell