Being pregnant has so many ups and downs.
There are lots of emotions – happiness, excitement and anticipation.
And nothing brings on the anticipation so intensely as the final weeks of pregnancy.
That’s when the time begins to slow and drag. And you feel like this pregnancy will go on forever.
You wake each morning, feeling disappointed you’re still pregnant.
Every day you wait for something – a sign, a niggle, or anything to reassure you your baby will soon be here.
You’ve read everything you can about birth.
You’ve done everything you have to do.
Your bag is packed and the baby seat is already in the car.
You’ve booked the doula and prepared the nursery.
The baby carrier has arrived and you’re itching to put your tiny newborn in it, so you can carry your baby close to your heart.
You’ve cooked enough food to last months, but you’re so tired of waiting for birth to begin you’re already starting to raid the freezer.
The Final Weeks Of Pregnancy
It’s hard when you’re waiting for something to hurry up and happen, when you’re so belly-full and filled with restless excitement.
Everyone else waits too – although not quite as impatiently as you – for your baby to be born. And they remind you daily of their expectations and hopes.
As though it’s not the first thing you think about when your eyes open after finally getting some sleep, and the one thing on your mind as you move slowly through your day.
The last weeks of pregnancy are emotionally some of the hardest moments of your life.
You might get relief from your physical discomfort but nothing eases the itching sense of waiting. You seem to be half in and half out of this reality, and not really focused on the day to day.
You feel as though you’re in a dream, but with an ear cocked, waiting for the first awareness your baby is about to arrive.
A pregnant woman is already preparing to give birth long before her first contraction. Your baby continues to dream of his mother’s voice and prepare for life outside of his nest. But you are already preparing for your birth – as a mother.
This nagging aching feeling is your emotional preparation for birth. It’s an opening up of your spirit, necessary as you take the journey to the edge of your self.
During labour, we see the physical work a woman’s body does to bring her baby into the world. It is measured in centimetres, in shift changes, and by the clock.
What can’t be measured is the distance a woman goes within herself. Those around her might recognise she’s ‘in her own world’ but in fact, she’s travelled elsewhere.
She goes to the place where she gathers together her strength and her resources, to help her bring her baby into the world.
Birth is a powerful primal journey. We can’t expect to undergo such a massive transformation without preparation, without taking down our walls, and allowing the mystery of birth to work its magic on us.
Today’s birth culture ignores this deep primal call from within, as a woman enters her final weeks of pregnancy. Instead it makes promises of control and immediacy, through induction and interventions.
Waiting for labour tests all your abilities and patience; it takes you to the very edge of reason.
When you embrace it – this stretched out moment of time between pregnancy and birth – you’re beginning your journey to birth already prepared to trust your intuition and inner wisdom.
Go into the ache, and the never ending feeling of ‘When is it time?’ Make it your own, and don’t try to run away from it. There is no escape and there is nothing else to do except wait for your baby to be ready.
Cry if you need to, or create if that’s what soothes you. Be alone if it appeases the feeling, or gather people around you if it helps.
Give yourself permission to feel all your feelings, knowing you are following the innate path that takes you instinctively to the place of transition from your present life to the new one ahead.
