Sound as the Only Midwife

Pi Villaraza´s wife, Daniw, performed two unassisted water births in their own home, in the midst of community, without the need of a midwife, a doctor, hospitals and medical apparatus. In their stress-free environment, her only real expenditure for both births was a plastic kiddie pool from Toy Kingdom. In the last four years, Pi and Daniw have also guided extended members of their community to follow a similar process in their own spaces. Pi from the Maia Earth ecovillage in the Philippines reports.

It is helpful when an entire community understands the wisdom in giving birth in ways that honor nature, and what is natural. There is a joyful ease in performing a natural home birth in an environment devoid of the unnecessary projections of judgment and fear that affect a mother’s ability to take the lead in her own birthing procedure.
The most essential aspect of an unassisted home birth is primarily to believe in the mother’s wisdom, courage and strength. From experience, the mother who gives birth to her child, is also giving birth to herself. And everyone who sees this most sacred moment, also gives birth to themselves. A community that understands the sacredness of such a symbolic event simultaneously supports, and is supported by, the magic that climaxes around the water birth pool.

The inner Dance
In our ecovillage in Palawan in the Philippines, the most significant midwife is sound. In our understanding of the human body as an expression of our minds and hearts, an experiential understanding of vibratory awareness plays a key role in upholding the mother’s role in ensuring the success of her baby’s delivery. At the onset of labor, we use carefully chosen music as our primary tool that assists the mother.
Here in Maia Earth Village community, we practice a trance-like vibratory awareness called the Inner Dance. In the context of birthing, this intuitive process enables pregnant women to sense their bodies in heightened maternal awareness, weeks or months’ preparation for that actual moment of giving birth.

We posted Daniw’s water birth process last November 2013, to help people understand what the process holds for like-minded communities likewise journeying into conscious birthing practices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3RcMbNcPpE

In the proper conditions, sound can help us heal fears that might create any mental and emotional blocks that bring about the probabilities of complications. Sound can facilitate the profound vibratory shift in the mother’s brain waves, states of perception, bring about the optimal heart rate, breathing, hormonal and endocrine activity. Bringing the mother-in-labor into delta states through sound at the sign of the first contractions, a trance-like expanded awareness of the body takes over before contractions bring about worry and fear. In this serene environment, the mother closes her eyes to step into her inward journey of birthing. Slowly, she feels emotions being released as the body comes to a state of flow. There is a growing sense that the mother and the child are inter-connected.

Free Movement and Expanding Body
In cycles of delta to theta music, coming back from alpha back to delta, the body contracts as it expands. Vibration rises as physical tensions are released. The body expands even as it tenses up. Fears and emotions begin to pass through channels, and instead of locking up, the body expands more and more as the mother allows her heart to facilitate her own body.
We complement this kind of training with detox regimens and raw food lifestyles that support both the mother and the baby’s health as soon as the mother finds out she is pregnant.
The most recent water birth we facilitated was last November 2013, for my daughter Issa. The moment my wife Daniw entered the pool, she knew what position was necessary. She quietly settled into the exact motions that would just slide Issa out, without having to push. Similar to my son’s water birth, the process took mere minutes. We have read before that the most unnatural position to give birth is to lay on the back and that it is more natural to give the body the freedom to move according to the baby’s readiness. The mother should be given the capacity to listen both herself and the baby in a quiet environment free of distraction.
Our children are not vaccinated and yet rarely get ill. My son who is four year’s old is still breastfed and his first years were entirely on a diet of raw vegan nutrition and superfoods. It is our dream that our work in healing and transformation is able to help communities work hand-in-hand in bringing conscious birthing and parenting about.

For more information about Maia Earth Village and Inner Dance process, visit the following links:
www.maiaearthvillage.com
www.innerdanceprocess.com