How Will Birth Transform You?

What if instead of asking “what happened” during a birth, we instead asked the birthing person: “what happened TO YOU?” What if we stopped defining birth as vaginal, or medicated, induced, or Cesarean, and looked at it as a meaning-making event? Is there even a way to prepare for this type of transformation? Britta Bushnell tells more. Check it out.

What we talked about:

• Benefits of looking at birth as a process of transformation, not achieved results
• Identifying the cultural beliefs that are working against you
• Expanding your expectations of birth
• The magic question: what happened to YOU? (not ‘what happened?’)
• Determining the meaning that you give to your experience
• Considering the meaning that others give your experience
• Become the goo! (Like the caterpillar into butterfly)
• Why we are uncomfortable with “Rites of Passage”
• Excitement and anxiety as normal parts of the process
• Birth as a meaning-making event
• Can you prepare for that?
• What to do with your desire for control
• Questioning the idea that technology will save us
• What to do with our cultural attachment to innocence
• Dealing with the denial of death

Mentioned resources and additional articles*:

• Birthing from Within: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation 1st Edition, by Pamela England
• Mythological and Archetypal Perspectives on Childbirth in Contemporary Culture, an Interview with Britta Bushnell, Ph.D.
• Theologian William F. May, who coined the concept of “”openness to the unbidden.”
• A Bug’s Life – the Disney movie 🙂

The meme that started it all:

Related Birthful episodes:

• • • Healing Your Birth Story, with Pam England
    • Birth Models and How They Affect Your Birth, with Robbie Davis-Floyd
    • Birth Principles: Better than a Birth Plan, with Jessie Harrold
    • Showing up at Your Birth, with Shalome Stone

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. – Maya Angelou.

Courtesy of Britta Bushnell

About Dr. Britta Bushnell

Dr. Britta Bushnell is an award-winning childbirth educator, celebrated speaker, and specialist in guiding audiences to revolutionary new approaches to childbirth, relationship, and parenting. Having worked with new families for almost two decades, Britta blends her experience in the childbearing year with her doctoral study in mythology and psychology, bringing a fresh approach to an age-old human experience. Britta is currently working on her first book, Transformed by Birth: Illuminating Cultural Ideals to Enhance the Experience of Childbirth.

Learn more at: brittabushnell.com or follow the conversation on Facebook or instagram (@brittabushnellphd)

Title music: “Vibe Ace” by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive / CC BY (edited for length).

Sponsorship music: “Air Hockey Saloon” by Chris Zabriskie, from the Free Music Archive / CC BY (edited for length).