This article was originally published in 1987 in Childbirth Graphics.
The wonder of Mona Lisa’s expression, the mystery of her private smile is older by far than Leonardo da Vinci’s well known sixteenth century painting. Her face reflects that ancient knowledge of woman pregnant with child, intimately in touch with the nature of her own body and spirit giving birth to life.
The beautiful wisdom of pregnancy and birth is woman’s heritage, passed from generation to generation of women throughout history. We are born knowing how to create the intricate matrix necessary for conception, gestation and birth. Our bodies, transformed by sacred alchemy of egg and sperm uniting, become vessels of profound form and energy. Tissues multiply, change and grow. Chemistry alters, joints soften. Within us pulses the heartbeat of another life.
Thought and feelings give fertile texture to the nine months of enormous physical and emotional sensations. In our consciousness, we integrate the presence of a new being within our own.
The instinctive insights of a baby’s readiness to be born and a woman to give birth initiate the beginning of labor. Still unknown is how this mysterious harmony starts the dynamic biological, emotional and spiritual process. Yet without own knowledge, birth begins. And the ancient wisdom of women birthing and babies being born continues as it has through the ages.
We have a tremendous amount of medical technology and intellectual information available for use in pregnancy and birth. These are supplemental resources, valuable for the low percentage of difficulties that are normal to birthing. Giving birth and being born is the healthy work of woman and baby. Complications increase as we fail to respect the inherent wisdom and nature of what we are born knowing.
Most essential to wholesome birthing is woman who knows she is entrusted with the power of the universe to bring forth life….who believes intuitively that she has the wisdom and strength within her…who trusts both her instincts and her baby’s will to be born.
Mona Lisa smiles.