Making Headway?

My sister game me the OK to share our conversation we had over lunch today. To understand the context you should know that my sister and I have been nearly polar opposites in regards to pregnancy, childbirth and beastfeeding.

I had uncomplicated, straight forward pregnancies and I LOVED being pregnant. Her pregnancies brought on medical problems to overcome and the pregnancies became largely a chore to get through. My goal with my births was to have an unmedicated, empowering experience. She wanted a painless removal of the baby from her uterus. I breastfed well over a year. She chooses bottle-feeding.

We've come to peace with our differences and are able to respect each others view point and maintain a healthy relationship. I respect her as a mother and am constantly learning new things from her about my children and myself. And, she is able to understand how passionate I am about my feelings around birth and she respects that.

This is why today's conversation caught me off-guard and left me .....um...speechless....not for long, obviously, though. She told me today that after her last birth (2months ago) she felt like something was missing... Yes, a baby came out of her body (this cutie pie shown here, to be exact)....but wasn't there something more that was supposed to happen? She went on to say that if she ever had another baby she would actually consider an unmedicated childbirth experience in an attempt to experience that "something more" with her birth.

All I can say is WOW. It is awesome to see the first seeds of birth change and the possibility of a realization that birth is a sacred experience to be embraced rather than a physical/medical procedure to be endured...

She's still not budging on the breastfeeding issue, though. :)

Peace on earth begins at birth....One birth at a time...one woman at a time.

My sister has also agreed to provide a guest post on this subject which I will post here soon.