Bended Knee

I walk across the threshold into your room and see that you are swaying in the arms of your lover. Candlelight provides the backdrop for this sacred moment, and the scent of sandalwood and lavender waft from the warm water basin at the foot of your birthing alter.

As I step into your birthing space, I slip out of my shoes and quietly and humbly approach you. Your midwife sits on the couch to the left, her feet folded beneath her. Your photographer kneels on the floor at the foot of the couch, and your sister is cross legged on the hearth. Every knee is bowed and bent in reverence to the sacred work before us.

At first you dance to the rhythms of of your body - swaying and undulating your hips - while we silently hold

vigil. Soon, though, you move to all fours upon the ground as even you, the conduit of this powerful work, are brought to your knees in awe and deference of your bodies power and work. 

This is what we do. Every birth worker, whether she be hand maid, photographer, doula, midwife, or mother herself, should approach the sanctity of the power of birth on your knees; in humble reverence of the miracle of birth.

http://usthreebirds.blogspot.com/2011/08/elliottes-vbac-birth-story.html

Go to her blog to read a beautiful recounting of her VBAC birth story

Not placing ourselves above the birthing woman's powers - placing ourselves above her diminishes her power and resolve. This is the manner of obstetrics (from the root obstare - to stand in the way of). Adopting the attitude of bent knee is a mere reflection of the inner heart and mind. A servant to the ancient rhythms provide us the proper perspective to watch a miracle unfold. Following the conduits lead in a dance of ebb and flow, the perspective of 'with woman' is always on bended knee.