The Power of Words: Why We Need Xinfa Cultivation in Medicine and Life

I came across a really lovely TED talk this week presented by a mother recounting two scenarios that reveal the power of words to help or harm the center of patients, and parents, in healthcare settings. Cultivating the heart, or xinfa, is removed from much of the practice of medicine, but with practice, words naturally arise from the heart of practitioners, not from the head:

“What you cannot obtain from a person’s words, there is no point looking for it in their Heart. What you cannot obtain from a person’s Heart, there is no point in looking for it in their Qi.”*

Two Conversations that Changed My Life, Tamara Taggert, TEDxSFU

Enjoy!

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*Quote from the philosopher Gaozi. Translated by Seidman and Janesch. Hunyuan Xinfa: The Lost Heart of Medicine. p 156.

Ye Feng on Childbirth

"The great energy of nature is called life. This life or life-giving
principle is every where apparent, and is most strikingly
displayed in giving life to man. Now pregnancy is the commencement
of human existence, hence it is called life; further,
the passing into life is a spontaneous operation of nature, as the
eye sees and the ear hears, as the hand grasps and foot walks,
all is perfectly plain and easy, there is nothing that calls for
violent exertion and no difficulties present themselves."

~A Treatise on Midwifery. A new Edition published
in the fifth Year of TAOU KWONG, (1825). Translated
from the Chinese by W. LOCKHART, Esq., M.D.~

Chinese medicine and maternity care

Chinese medicine, having its roots in life principles, holds great potential for helping to improve maternity care by bridging the application of medicine and the principles of preserving life. Preserving life means living in a manner that promotes health and longevity, that recognizes the natural rhythms in nature that assist the rhythms within us, and places importance upon the balance of emotions and the physical body. In the end, medicine of any kind is of no value if it does not consider life first. The true cost of medicine is measured not in dollars, but in how much life is lost. There is no time in which preserving life has more importance than during pregnancy and birth.

We have two choices in how we help expectant mothers during pregnancy and birth, we can fill their heads with technical terms, statistics and data, or we can speak to their hearts, empowering them to be confident in their pregnancy and birth and allowing them to see that what they need to know in order to grow, birth, and raise their children already exists in the heart of every mother. In this way, the technical terms, statastics and data can stay in the heads of birth providers where it belongs, and the experience of birth can stay in the heart of the mother. By reconnecting to the innate wisdom that exists within each of us, expectant mothers can build their inner courage, follow their natural instincts, and identify support people who will help positively support their birth experience and preserve the life of mother and child for the future.

The wisdom of Hunyuan medicine has been instrumental in the development of how I now help mothers find the knowledge of pregnancy and childbirth within themselves and I am pleased to be introducing this information through the Hunyuan Academy, alongside a team of knowledgeable, insightful and compassionate colleagues. My hope is that access to this information will help families build confidence in their own inner knowledge and ability to maintain health and preserve life from the beginning. In addition to the blogs, we are pleased to offer free lectures, talks, and discussions on various topics of health, wellness, life and humanity. To register for any of the free courses offered, please visit the Hunyuan Academy website.

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.