Namaste

Yesterday I went along to my first Home Midwifery Association (HMA) meeting. There were, I'd guess around 40 women sitting in a large circle facing one another. Some were in full bloom with pregnant bellies, some were midwives, some were yet to be mothers, some were mothers nursing new babies and others were keeping an eye on their older children who were playing and wandering around the hall.

HMA meets fortnightly, and after yesterday's experience, I intend to make it a regular thing.

Since leaving the gathering, I've been thinking a lot about my experience there and about how i felt a profound connectedness with all the women present.

Several faces were familiar to me because of past experiences with Friends of the Birth Centre and Maternity Coalition... and other friends from on line forums were there for me to meet in real life for the first time, so i was amongst friends... but apart from the people I knew before walking in the door, there was a strange sense of recognition that i felt for people that I felt i knew and recognised but didn't actually know. The feeling made me think of the word Namaste -

The Spirit in me meets the same Spirit in you

Perhaps this is the best way to describe how i felt after leaving the gathering. That i was amongst people of the same spirit and our lives had led us all to this point... to meet, to gather, commune and share and hold space for one another.

I shared my birth story with the women, and in hindsight my only disappointment of the day is that I left out describing how spiritual M's birth had been for me, and for some unknown reason I focussed on a clinical type explanation! Unusual for me, particularly amongst this circle of women, as I could have completely let go and noone would have raised an eyebrow I don't think... but I skimmed over it.

It made me think about my shield and how i hide my spiritual side to a lot of people unless I know them well enough to know they're a receptive audience.

Overall, the gathering left me feeling very blessed, which is always a nice feeling, and one I like to reflect on. Times like today leave me feeling refreshed, joyous and excited for the future births I will someday have.