I hold hands with my trust.

I trust my body. I trust it more than my thoughts, as it has always done for me what I required it to do. It has amazed me with it's strength and endurance - captivated me with it's ability to reproduce human life, nourish that life and make it grow. It then goes on to produce food for said life, and sustain it's production so that the life can flourish. It goes through hell and back every changing season - it guide's me through every menstrual cycle, every cold, every infection. I trust my body to do what it needs to do - I trust it to function the way it was intended to function, and help me to work through anything I might experience. With that trust, I believe in it's ability to give birth without intervention or trauma. I trust it to tell me when something is wrong, and help me through that scenario in a way that will see me and my child through. I understand not every circumstance can be predicted, and sometimes intervention is a necessity. I also understand that my body was built to birth, it was built to nurse - and it was built for motherhood. Call it destiny, or fate - I call it my way. This is also why I birth at home - where I am comfortable, where I feel safe - where my body can function without anxiety and fear. I was told I was brave today (for the hundredth time) to birth at home, to trust my body that way. "Anything could go wrong" they said - and they are right, anything could. Whether I am in a hospital or I am in my home, that something is going to go wrong either way. I trust my body to tell me if and when I need to change what I am doing. I also trust the people around me to be alert to these changes, because after all this is what they are trained to do. I am so tired of it being looked at as some kind of nobility, as some kind of heroism on my part. I am also tired of it being viewed as dangerous or risky - it is no more dangerous and no more noble than any other women doing exactly what her body was designed to do ... I am giving birth, bringing life into the world - whether I choose to do that in the comfort of my own bedroom (or bathroom, or kitchen, or back yard har har) it doesn't change the process or the outcome. Birthing is birthing, it's that simple.