The Authority, the Bridge.

When a woman is pregnant, she, her partner, chosen provider, and the common (or more popular) maternal care in her community are agents in shaping her and the childbirth experience. Every agent offers a different view or belief system and contribute in shaping the birth giver’s perception and hence will shape her decisions. It is crucial to build bridges between these different agents and their perspectives of pregnancy and birth for a successful and satisfying birth experience for those involved. This is done by viewing the expectant woman as THE bridge; she (and the forthcoming child) is the center of this experience. Not only this view empowers the woman, but it is the anchor that will steady the ship during the winds of natural unpredictability of birth. The healthy woman is viewed as the captain of this ship, knowing and respecting her ability to know her body, a body that is endowed with the natural power to birth successfully. Supporting this notion, everything else and everyone else’s self-proclaimed respectable intentions may be on stand-by when needed; emphasis on WHEN needed. Because in all actuality, the undisturbed process of birth is not a problem to reckon with. The woman is not sick, ill, or weak. Undisturbed, she will birth the child with little to no complications. She is the one with the true authority.