Chiropractic Connections: Dando a Luz

Article Summary (Pathways 57) Dando a Luz:

Are we remembering to honor birth as a process of bringing the light? This question may feel redundant to those who understand the beauty, magnificence, and power of birth. But we live in political times, where much of modern maternity care has replaced the sacred with fear, traded technology for the natural beauty of human reproduction and has carelessly trampled over the rights of women along the way. The effort of maternity activists to reverse this trend in our generation should not be diminished, but political fighting has its price to pay; are we remembering to honor birth as a process of bringing the light?

There’s a saying, indigenous to Mexico that reflects beautifully the reality of birth. It’s Dando a Luz, literally, to bring the light. Contrast this with the hallmark words surrounding maternity care: dolar (pain), colicos (cramps) or parto (labor, work). These are only a few of the words used to describe birth which can, and do, betray our understanding of the real nature of birth; the nature of the power to bring the light.

To reclaim the sanctity of birth, we have to remove fear from the setting. This offers us a way to combat the error in modern maternity care on a level that transcends the battle, so to speak. We have to learn to bring light to ourselves, as birth providers, to situate every new mother in a physical environment of love, and to ourselves bring that love through us. “It is well-documented, that the time of pregnancy and birth is when lifestyle changes, adherence to therapeutic recommendations, and development of healthier dietary practices are most successful.”

In order to return birth to its central place, we have to bring out the recognition of the potential birth has to effect the lives of all who are involved. We have to allow these precious moments to be surrounded by beauty and family which will permit an entire community to be healed.

 

Chiropractic Connections

In issue 57 of Pathways, the article titled “Dando a Luz” gives us a vision of birth for the future. It encourages us remember to “bring the light” to every birth, and to recognize, as a mother, a father, or as a practitioner, that the circle of life is present during this powerful movement called birth.

With every chiropractic adjustment there’s the potential to realign a person’s nervous system with a greater connection to wholeness. Chiropractic, practiced with the philosophy that’s true to its origins, is fundamentally holistic. Any time we break something down conceptually into its constituent parts, whether it be the body or the process underlying birth, we risk losing touch with the holistic understanding that there’s a greater rhythm uniting and animating the apparent “parts.” The nervous system interlinks us to the underlying rhythms of life within and outside the body. With subluxation, our connection is inhibited and this reduces our willingness to trust the processes underlying birth and body’s ability to be well.

When we remember to bring the light, we achieve the mental equivalent of the physical adjustment which gives the body a somatic remembrance of this light.