Joy in Birthing

- Excerpt from Painless Childbirth

In my years of practicing yoga, I have learned about the chakras and their influence on our physical and spiritual well-being. A chakra is a center of activity that receives, assimilates, and expresses life-force energy. The word chakra literally translates as wheel or disk and refers to a spinning sphere of bioenergetics activity emanating from various centers in the human body. These bioenergetics centers are aligned with the spinal column, from the base of the spine to the top of the head. Most Easter and now quite a few Western healers, propose that there is a correlation between the seven chakras of the human body and the spiritual and physical well-being of a person. It is said that when we become conscious of the blockages within each center, and we are willing to do the emotional and spiritual work to clear those blockages, we can obtain deep and incredible healing of body and mind.

When I looked at the phases of the growing fetus in the womb I noticed that there was a miraculous parallel between the baby’s development and the lessons encased in each chakra. If we are all made up of energy and if we can manipulate our energy through emotional and spiritual states, then by learning the lessons in our seven energy centers (the chakras), we can contribute to imbuing the baby’s every fiber with a specific healing energy.

The nine chakras and the nine months of pregnancy

Quantum physics suggest that energetic fields are the very basic substance of the universe. The concept of an “energetic field” arose in Western science when electrons were observed to repel other electrons, but attract protons according to their needs. These needs spring forth from the information stored in the protons.

Knowing that our body is an electromagnetic field that responds to stimuli, we can deduce that on a larger scale, we also attract or repel that which we need based on the information that is stored within us. Let’s look at how we gather, categorize, store, and distribute information. First, information is processed with our five senses. The data is then received by our mind, which categorizes and labels it using acquired knowledge and our deductive abilities. Then, it is passed through our emotions, which are tied to our memories. The emotions create a biochemistry which runs through our bloodstream and informs our entire body. For example: when we look at a computer we first see its physical aspects and we take in information about its colors, shapes, width, height, depth, luminosity, and other physical characteristics. Passing this visual information through our mind, knowledge, and experience, we further know that this object can be used to communicate, write, research information, and watch images. The next filter is an emotional one. If we are familiar with the object, we feel good about it and we sense it as a simple tool that makes our modern living easer. If we feel intimidated by this object, we project a negative feeling toward it because it creates frustration, and we categorize it as bad or a calamity of progress. If we were to constantly receive bad news from this object, we’d fear it as something that only brings doom and bad tidings. Our emotions create a relationship with the object tied to our memory. The same goes with everything we observe. At times this process is fast and unconscious and our reactions come from a memory that is deeply imbedded in our unconscious. Thus, our relationship with all that crosses our path is filtered through our acquired knowledge stored in our memory, and our relationship toward it depends on experience.

Through the study of perinatal and prenatal psychology we know that the embryo begins learning and accumulating memory from the very beginning of its life in-utero. Therefore, our personal choices and actions, when pregnant, have significant impact upon the forming of the baby, his future, his coping mechanisms, his ability to grow and learn, and his relationship with all that surrounds him. We can conclude then that some of our reactions are tied to a memory that might not even be ours, but one that belonged to our mothers.

When we consider our body as an electromagnetic field that contains seven energy centers, or chakras, we can see how during pregnancy all chakras are activated in the creation of another human being. Furthermore, the addition of our baby’s chakras not only changes our biochemistry, but the process of creation becomes a dance of information given and received from one body, mind, and soul to the other.

As I carefully watched hundreds of mommies-to-be, I saw that their chakras were emanating incredible energy, amplified by the baby’s own chakras inside the belly. As I focused further, I saw that there were not just seven chakras, but nine: two chakras hovered over the woman’s shoulders, like guardian angels accompanying her on her journey from pregnancy to birth. When I meditated on the nature of these other two chakras, I recognized that the additional two above the seventh chakra have a Divine quality. In essence, God provides celestial assistants to each woman when she embodies the Divine quality of being a creator. I began envisioning these two chakras as a funnel, an inverted triangle, which is also the most ancient symbol of the feminine, through which the Divine would enter directly and become incarnate.

Research has show that the emotional stability in each of the parents at the time of conception and pregnancy is most important for healthiest development of the embryo and placenta. As the baby grows in the womb, it is the parent’s responsibility and the one chance in a lifetime to grow learn and change as the baby does.

Let’s look at the correlation between the chakras and the baby’s growth. Each month, the baby’s phases of development in-utero recall specific characteristics of each chakra. As the nine chakras are associated with a set of desires and lessons that go from primordial to Divine, the baby’s growth goes from basic survival to oneness with the Divine. When you look at Table 1 and follow it horizontally, you can see this correlation:

Chakras	Placement	Quality/Lesson	Basic Human Right	Gestational Month	Baby growth in-utero
First	Base of the spine	Survival	To have and to be here	0 to 4 weeks	Beating heart and yolk sac – life and sustenance
Second	Above the belly button	Emotions toward the “other”	To feel and want	4 to 8 weeks	Baby’s arms and fingers are formed to touch the “other”
Third	Solar plexus	Personal Power	To act	8 to 12 weeks	Baby is displaying actions of interest and of protest as a result of experiences
Fourth	Heart	Love	To love and be loved	12 to 16 weeks	Baby’s sexuality is defined as boy or girl
Fifth	Throat	Sound	To speak and hear the truth	16 to 20 weeks	Baby kicks mom’s belly and begins tangible communication
Sixth	Third eye	Sight and insight	To see and know the truth	20 to 24 weeks	Baby can see and reacts to light
Seventh	Crown of the head	Consciousness	To live consciously	24 to 28 weeks	Baby’s brain is fully functioning
Eighth	Two feet above left shoulder	Divine	To Divine Powers	28 to 32 weeks	Baby dreams as metaphysical visions
Ninth	Two feet above right shoulder	Incarnation	To be one with the Divine	32 to 36 weeks	Baby is ready to be the creator of her own reality

Using the chakras as the starting point, we can heal ourselves and teach our children the tools for self-confidence, serenity, and self-healing. The nine-step guide is the road map I have used to have a painless, conscious and sacred birth. Each month relates to one of the Nine Basic Human Rights, bringing together several modalities, exercises, inspirational stories and personal experiences to advance the quest for conscious creation.