What's self-love got to do with birth preparation

Self-Love essential as you prepare for birth Photo: Giulia Bertelli

Is radical self-love the missing key in birth preparation? Our guest Virginia Bobro, has been working with pregnant families and new parents for over 22 years and is a mother of three university aged children. This episode we dig deeper into wholehearted birth preparation. While being informed and knowledgeable on what to expect during labour and birth is important, it isn't all there is when it comes to preparing for your birthing time. Self-love is a path of self inquiry, one that takes the seeker to a whole new level of understanding and personal growth, no matter how a birth unfolds.

“When I loved myself enough, I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits – anything that kept me small.  My judgement called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving.”
–Kim McMillen

Virginia describes how much of what has shaped her work has grown out of working with people who have been shaken by their experiences during pregnancy, birth or the months following birth. She says when people encounter something unexpected, chaotic, a disruption in their lives, accompanied with a psychological or spiritual disruption of their sense of self, forces come together to present an opportunity to reevaluate and reconstruct meaning in their lives, about who they are and what is important to them. She goes on to say, It is a fine line between positive growth or falling the other way into trauma, suffering, isolation and mood disorders. When expectant parents are prepared, not for specific events, but to be in ways prepared for the unknown, to think about and work through fears, encouraged to be mindful and self-aware, the greater the resilience, or grounding they have for themselves and other people in their life, they also experience more cohesion, more interconnection and less fractioning of their mental and psychical health.

Virginia suggests instead of thinking about birth preparation as a bunch of things to learn, accumulate or do, there is an opportunity to develop sense of self, relationships, flexibility and most importantly self-love.

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Virginia Bobro will be visiting Australia for the Childbirth and Parenting Educators of Australia (capea) conference held in Melbourne end of May. Further retreats adn workshops to be held along the east coast of Australia during June, 2018.  

Virginia Bobro resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, US. Virginia has been working with families during the childbearing year or over 22 years as a doula, lactation consultant, childbirth educator and for 10 years as a Birthing From Within teacher trainer. 2018, Virginia is expanding her horizons offering personal growth retreats for mothers, birth workers and others in transitory phases of their life. You can connect more with Virginia at vbobro@gmail.com

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This episode of Pregnancy Birth & Beyond is produced and hosted by: Lara Martin.

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