What Child is This

What Child is This?

One of the downsides to being a midwife is that my role requires me to let my clinical side take over at births; monitoring, documenting, maintaining awareness of all the safety oriented issues.  Because I’m handling those concerns, my client and their family are free to just “be” in those holy first moments, experiencing their birth story intimately, without concern for the passing of time.    

I know midwives who cry at every birth, but I confess I’m not one of them.  My personality needs me to stay focused on that clinical side to avoid dropping any balls.  Nevertheless, I am operating in that holy space of birth, and after I tuck mom and baby into bed and drive away, the awareness of all that is sacred pours over me and I feel like I have the best job in the whole universe!

Each time I hold a new baby and look into their eyes (or their peaceful sleeping face), I consider how it is like the Christ child has been born all over again.  I feel so privileged to be allowed to serve as midwife upon their arrival.  

Little baby

Fresh from heaven

Sacred life

Reminds me of Christ

Born Anew

God’s promise that

Hope Remains

I believe every baby is precious in the eyes of God, as well as their parents. Each child has a unique potential to create a beautiful life and parenting children is the most profound of privileges.  

I watched a movie today that shared a story from over 100 years ago.  A little boy named Thomas comes home from school with a note from the teacher.  When his mother reads the note, she tells little Thomas that he is a genius and the school is unable to teach such a child, so he will have to be taught by his mother at home. She holds him on her lap and teaches him to read, challenging him to new horizons and more and more challenging books. Later on, after Thomas Edison is a wealthy businessman and inventor, he finds that note from the teacher and reads it himself, for the first time.  It says:  

“Your son’s brains are addled and he will amount to nothing.  We cannot teach him at this school.”  

He looks at the picture of his now deceased mother on the wall, and cries tears of gratitude.  And so did I. How differently his life might have gone if his mother had not believed in him! What if she had actually listened to the schools's opinion?

A mother who believes in her child makes all the difference in the world.  We can choose to see our children for who they really are and teach them to believe in themselves.  Mindset is everything, because before we take action we have to first think of doing so.  A baby whose mother raises them to be strong in a powerful identity has such an advantage in the world.  Truly, every baby is precious, like the Christ child born anew.  I'll never tire of holding fresh life and pondering on all the hope inherent in their existence!

“When God wants to change the world, he sends a baby” F.W. Boreham