“I have a baby in my tummy mommy.”
Do you remember those days? The days when you played house in the attic or the garage with your baby dolls.
If you think back to those warm spring days when you were 6-8 years old, what did you think of pregnancy?
Do you remember?
Did you dream of the day when you too would be a mommy and care for a baby of your own? Did you practice?
“A child’s play is their practice.”
As Christian mothers, we need to be aware that we are leaving a legacy of how our children view pregnancy and childbirth. How we react to pain, how we exercise self-control, if we are living in the power of God or in our own strength, if we verbalize that we are burdened, or that it is an ailment, all leave negative impressions on our children.
Have you ever thought, I wonder if my children are going to want to have babies?
Sometimes we just have those days, don’t we?
I remember those days of bed-rest all too well, where I wondered if my children would be “scared” out of wanting their own. I think that it is healthy for us to reflect on what attitude we have in our home about pregnancy when we are pregnant and about motherhood.
Someone once said to me, “Why Redeeming Childbirth… it doesn’t matter how they are born.”
It’s true, isn’t it? The how doesn’t matter in the long run… not really. Or does it? Don’t our births impact us as women? Don’t they become something that is so personal and intimate to us, that for many, we cannot speak of them, for others we want to shout from the rooftops how good God was, and for other’s there is deep pain that still needs healing?
Our experiences impact the legacies we leave.
They are the stories told… or not told.
Yes, it doesn’t matter how a baby is born if you are comparing, but we are NOT.
Here is a truth.
Just as your wedding day is NOT your marriage, neither is your childbirth experience reflective of your role as mother. However, it can impact your view of pregnancy, childbirth, and even impact whether you have more children or not.
All couples spend their engagement preparing for their wedding day, but if they are wise, they will prepare their hearts, souls, and relationships for the marriage… not just the wedding day. Likewise is the couple that prepares for the birth, but wise are the parents-t0-be who prepare their hearts, souls and relationships for parenthood.
What better time to be preparing your hearts, souls and relationships than pregnancy? This is the time the Lord has gifted a couple, a woman to grow in Him and prepare for motherhood. Motherhood doesn’t get easier as they get older. Just as a woman giving birth experiences moments of joy and moments of pain, so does a mother who raises a child. In my mind, childbirth is very prophetic in only one way…teaching a woman about the labor of love motherhood is. It may not all go the way you hoped or planned, and it may have moments of being better than you thought, you are sure to have moments of fear, doubt, anxiety, but are also promised moments of quiet peace, overwhelming love, and the realizations of God’s grace and sovereignty in all things.
Pregnancy is the time when we can spend ourselves growing in the Lord, preparing our hearts for all those realities of both childbirth and motherhood. That is why Redeeming Childbirth. It’s about the heart attitudes and intentions. That is the legacy we should strive to leave. The one that is seeking to grow in the Lord and trust His ways are perfect. The legacy that is in awe of how amazing God’s design is, to give us the gift of partnering with Him to bring forth life! We need to leave a legacy of viewing pregnancy, labor, birth and motherhood as God does, not as the world does. God designed it and He saw that it was good. We need to see it as good. And teach it to our children as good. We need to look for the good. And in the midst of the morning sickness, the aching backs and the sleepless nights in can be hard to see the good… but God is good. And He wants to build you up in Him, for this race. Welcome to God’s Motherhood Bootcamp.
So, yes it doesn’t matter how you have your baby. It doesn’t make you a better mom if you have a waterbirth or whatever. We need to quit comparing and recognize that the comparing, the need to blow off examining our views of birth is part of what needs to be redeemed. This is an opportunity, and there are many of them in life, to grow and learn, surrender and trust. And at the end you can have a testimony to share, one that empowers the next generation to be in awe of God’s design. And If you choose to invite Jesus to be a part of your birth, and you experience His Presence, your story will be added to your legacy of faith.
This season is not the only time to grow in the Lord as a mother, there will be many more over the years, but it is the first opportunity. As you are experiencing the fears a mother faces for a first time… study and pray. This is Motherhood Bootcamp. Are you ready?
