Guest Post: Silent Birth – A Pleasant Alternative
The following is a guest post submitted by Amanda Kidd, who writes for Parenting Clan as well as other parenting-related websites.
Giving birth to a baby is considered as one of the most precious gifts by nature a human or more specifically a woman possesses. This is a very unique experience for every woman. And, a woman should be given a choice about how she wants to bring her child to this world. Silent birth revolves around giving birth to a baby in a very pleasant environment. It’s all about providing the best possible atmosphere for a birthing mother and the baby.
The concept of “silent birth” is very interesting and was first introduced in L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics – The Modern Science of Mental Health. It is not a scientific model but a technique based on religious and philosophical beliefs. It is believed that no one should speak to a mother giving birth to a baby. No words should be spoken by those attending the birth, unless it’s absolutely necessary.
The mother, however, can make noises or sounds or whatever she needs to do to make herself feel comfortable. A quiet environment is provided to the mother so that she can easily concentrate and gets a peaceful surrounding for delivering a child.
The room in which birth takes place is kept completely quiet and peaceful. This helps the mother relax, and retain strength through the whole birth process. Silent birth is advantageous for not only the mother, but also for the baby as the child comes into a peaceful and quiet world rather than a noisy one. It’s our duty to give pleasant and peaceful environment to the new born.
Silent birth concept becomes more meaningful as it can help in avoiding birth trauma and its long term effects. The pain an infant goes through during birth is a very important factor. The sounds a child hears while under pain can have critical, negative impacts on his or her future life. Birth trauma can also lead to infant crying and unpleasant effects.
A calm, peaceful and pleasant environment can make all the difference while birthing. Silence birth is not a set of procedures, which is absolutely necessary to follow. It’s more about understanding the purpose behind having a silent birth. When a mother gives birth to a child, they should be treated with utmost care and this is something a silent birth can provide with.
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About the author: Amanda Kidd is a blogger by profession and she enjoys writing for parenting sites the most. She keeps on coming with unique ideas on parenting and the latest articles she is working on focuses on parenting tips for prevention from child obesity and asthma.
After reading this I now understand what Tom Cruise meant by the term ‘Silent Birthing’. It was taken out of context. It is THOSE who are AROUND the MOTHER who ARE SILENT, NOT the mother.
The reason why silence is important is to keep the labouring hormones secreted.
I like to give the ananology of a car whose engine needs to be lubricated. A pregnant mother is like the car that has been sitting out side for a while. The engine needs to be lubricated before is can be running. The key is put in the ignition and the engine does not start. It is constantly whirring.
This is when mother is pregnant and is doing everything (yoga, swimming, reflexology, massage) to be calm and peaceful. By doing this she is producing the hormones (lubrication of engine) needed for labour.
When her body starts preparing for labour, the body says, “I remember!”. It starts to secrete the hormones needed for labour to start (engine now running, as it is well lubricated in pregnancy).
When a mother does this sort of preparation, labour can be short. This is because the hormones will aim for the cervix and do its work in much shorter time. I can bear witness to mothers contracting and delivering within hours. Even mothers who have had to be induced delivering in such a short time that midwives are surprised.
There is so much to this Art of Birth. We need to define it much more than what is taught in antenatal classes.
You’ve definitely got the right idea here, and I can attest that everything does seem to go a LOT smoother when others around just quiet down and let the mommy focus on what needs to be done.
Having given birth twice, I disagree. It is nice to know what is going on, when to push, words of encouragement, etc. As far as the baby needing peace, I also disagree, as my youngest came out screaming.
Obviously, it’s up to the parents to decide exactly what sort of a birth they would like to have, and what’s going to make them most comfortable as they go through the ordeal. For us, yes, both of our kids came out yelling (i.e. healthy) but we wanted to have a nice, quiet environment rather than a boisterous one. For our first, we got it – for the second, we really didn’t. See: http://www.scientologyparent.com/an-unfortunately-un-silent-birth-but-happy-ending/