Birth Meditations

“People never sing…except in the bathroom.  Birthing women also make their natural sounds next to running bath water.  There is something about the power of water.  People are drawn to water, spas, and sacred streams.  Women in labor are drawn to water, too.” – Michel Odent, MD

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein

“Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile…initially scared me to death.” – Betty Bender

“Courage allows the successful woman to fail and to learn powerful lessons from the failure so that in the end, she didn’t fail at all.” – Maya Angelou

“The best way to avoid a cesarean is to stay out of the hospital.” – Brooke Sanders Purves

“There is no scientific evidence that doing over 10 percent of births with a cesarean improves the outcome for the woman or improves the outcome for the baby.” – Dr. Marsden Wagner

“We have a secret in our culture, and it’s not that birth is painful. It’s that women are strong.” – Laura Stavoe Harm

“Life only demands from you the strength you possess.” – David Hammarskjold

“Fear and faith cannot coexist and they both demand different conclusions and actions.” – Christy Faber

“Epidurals rip women off of an opportunity to experience themselves as competent adults.” – Margaret Egeland, CNM

“Just as a woman’s heart knows how and when to pump, her lungs to inhale, and her hand to pull back from fire, so she knows when and how to give birth.” – Virginia Di Orio

“Freedom to Choose where, when, and with whom to give birth. True freedom for adult women – an idea whose time has come.” – Gloria Lemay

“You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.” – Christopher Robin to Pooh

“Birth is as safe as life gets.” – Harriet Hartigan

“Father asked us what was God’s noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad; babies never are.” – Louisa May Alcott

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” – Frederick Douglas

“A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.” – Carl Sandburg

“A baby is an angel whose wings decrease as his legs increase.” – Author Unknown

“Babies are such a nice way to start people.” –  Don Herrold

“There are three reasons for breast-feeding: the milk is always at the right temperature; it comes in attractive containers; and the cat can’t get it. ” – Irena Chalmers

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. 
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous Actually, who are you not to be You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people don’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. 
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” – Marianne Williamson (
1992)