Birthing Again

I'm looking forward to birthing this baby. Owen's birth was an intense and wonderful experience, and I am wondering what this coming birth will be like - what it will teach me. Abram and I recently took a (Birthing From Within) Birthing Again class with a local doula and CBE, Kerry Clements. She prepared a wonderful day of birth preparation activities for us, and I am really glad that we had the time to spend together psychologically preparing for this new baby's entrance into the world.
Pamela England's Birthing From Within book and childbirth preparation classes focus on the psychological aspects of birth and help parents prepare mentally for the challenges, joys, disappointments, and fears of birth. We did a lot of birth art activities, and we were both pleased with the experience of focusing on our expectations, feelings, and concerns through drawing.
England uses the labyrinth as a birth metaphor, and after learning how to draw a labyrinth, we taught Owen to make one big enough for us all to walk through - what a great use of the local ball field

and the sand pit at Gifford Pinchot Stake Park.

The recent belly painting was inspired during that class, and I have been trying to really savor these last few weeks of pregnancy -
hiking with Abram and Owen,

sitting on my bum watching

them fish,

doing yoga, and enjoying the sometimes cooler weather while looking forward to birthing again.