Tell Your Birth Story

I was in a session with an acupuncture client the other day who I worked with throughout her pregnancy and into postpartum, now healing from an unplanned cesarean birth. She’s been amazing at processing her experience in therapy as well as our sessions, taking time out from mothering to nourish and restore herself.

In this last session we revisited her womb space and the scar tissue which has mostly been feeling pain-free, but had recently been “speaking” to her. 

As we felt into this part of her body, something prompted a new sharing about some unprocessed parts of her birth experience. The details of what she shared are less important than the realizations that emerged on the other side of retelling her story. In particular retelling a part of the experience that was still haunting her. 

The magic though in the telling was an opportunity to reinterpret and discover a new way of understanding the experience in a way that shifted her from one in which something was happening TO her, into one in which she and her body were an integral and integrated part.

I imagined in that moment it was as though she had gone back into that birthing room where she had left part of herself behind, scooped her back up, and returned to this moment months later, where she was whole again. 

Time and again I am amazed by the powers of our minds and bodies to heal. But my biggest takeaway from this exchange was the reminder of how important it is to tell your birth story. And to choose the listeners wisely. Turn toward your midwives and doulas, therapists, bodyworkers, any of the compassionate listeners in your life, to be held and invite the possibility of transformation, as well as celebration.

Every part of you deserves it.