A Couple Lines from History

In looking through some old journals, I came across this letter to the editor in the American Journal of Nursing, published October 1, 1912 by G.L. who was apparently an obstetrical nurse in Kansas:

"Dear Editor: Obstetrics in private nursing differs from obstetrics in hospital nursing only as the surroundings differ. The actual care of the mother and child are identical."

Times haven't really changed so much...

Beliefs vs Principles in Birth, Life and Medicine

There was recently a discussion among Chinese medicine practitioners about whether there is a purpose to gestation beyond the physical development of the fetus, in other words, is there a connection between a mother and her fetus beyond the placenta and umbilical cord? Instead of thought provoking answers to the question at hand, the discussion was continually pulled toward religious and superstitious beliefs, such as Buddhism and karma, conditioned souls and the mythical ghost fetus of Chinese lore, who waits under the bed for the moment of birth to unite with his physical body.   

If instead we can first look for the principle underlying life, then when we discuss life, health and the application of medicine, we can easily differentiate truth from superstition and religion. Further, starting from the principle of life, it naturally follows that we can see a greater purpose for gestation and birth that is both strikingly simple and deeply profound. With these principles at hand, gestation and birth are no longer mystical processes that require religious or superstitious beliefs to explain a natural process, which allows expectant mothers to connect to the real process occurring within.

Contemplating the complexities of life is not simple work, but it is a greatly satisfying and rewarding pursuit of Chinese medicine and Hunyuan medicine!

Sun Simiao on Childbirth

 "Always, the priority is that the woman in labor must not be rushed or frightened."

Sun Simiao, Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang, Volumes on Gynecology. Translated by Sabine Wilms, Chinese Medicine Database, Portland, OR.

Sorting the Heart, Liu Baigu, and Inducing Labor

...Without sorting our Heart, it is more difficult to know the correct actions to take, easy to fall into a position of trying to control labor and birth increasing the potential for unnecessary interventions. Liu Baigu of the Huai Xuan[1] school presents us with the steps to cultivate the Heart, the first being to remove selfishness by observing inner phenomena, desire and emotions. This means replacing wants and desires from the exterior with gratitude and contentment on the interior. For birth this includes eliminating the desires and wants to induce labor for exterior purposes, including the desires of the provider, discomfort, schedules or fear, and replace it with gratitude and contentedness in knowing that nature takes care of things in the appropriate manner and knows the proper time for gestation to end and labor to begin.

When making decisions in pregnancy, there are several influencing factors: what we ourselves want to do, what we think our healthcare provider wants us to do, what we think our friends, family and society want us to do. This struggle in making decisions can feel like a game of tug of war with the mind, weighing the pros and cons, trying to justify our choices to ourselves and everyone else around. If instead, the decisions are approached with a clear Heart, the correct path arises naturally with less anxiety and fear about the judgments from others. There are no universally right answers when it comes to health, pregnancy or childbirth, thus it falls upon each of our own Hearts to make decisions that induce Courage within.

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[1] See Seidman & Jaensch, 2013. Hunyuan Xinfa: The Lost Heart of Medicine. p 74, for more information about Liu Baigu and the Huai Xuan school.