Having just returned from Harry Potter World (with 8 KIDS!!) in Hollywood, I’m thinking about so much. What is it that brings people from all over the world together, to a theme park? Specifically; why do so many millions of people identify with the world of magic, of wizardry and the mystic? And, what can we learn from the “why” as it applies to birth work and our own experience as birthing women?

I think the answer is a lot like why and how women find their way to their truth about birth. There is something deeper that connects us, there is wisdom we don’t always have access to on the average day. It takes community and the example of this truth to bring it out in ourselves. “Magic” is our inherent ability to connect to something bigger than us. Somehow, through the wizarding world and the spells and the magic wands, we remember what we already know. Our power.

Silly, maybe, but as I watched the hoards of people around me smile and engage in this magical world, I was thinking about how to replicate this model in my own work! What else can we do to connect women with their inner wisdom? We may not have a theme park, but we have started to build this incredible organization here at Indie Birth, and I learned a lot from watching the smooth business model of Universal Studios. First, an organization must have a point. Ours is to provide the space for women to connect and feel that they have support in making autonomous birth choices. Second, a great organization provides community. Our Facebook page, for one, is over 100,000 people; and almost 1 MILLION people have viewed our Deva’s birth movie. But still, how can we do more? How can we make it so clear, so obvious? The answer is in the magic that resides in each of us, and that is what I came away with. Also, most people want access to the magic, whether they realize it or not!

There is MAGIC in birth.

(Magic;”the power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious forces”)

There is magic in pregnancy, and mostly there is magic in the way a woman has the power to orchestrate her experience. There are also a lot of obstacles (our society, lack of support, lack of trust, fear, rules and regulations around birth, to name a few) but how else can we show and access the MAGIC? The magic is what gets us from point A to point B; women that have only have had medicalized births discover Indie Birth and soon they are the world’s best poster children for the magic of physiological birth. There is MAGIC in the growing of a human; no one thinks about that for it to happen. How can we keep that magic close to us as we plan for birth and mothering? The MAGIC is what connects us to our inner knowing, and always provides a brilliant path, no matter what. There is absolutely no way to be “wrong” when we follow our own magic.

Sometimes the magic is in the NOT doing, much like it is during the birth process. How can you access your magic in pregnancy? Take a step back from the doing, and from the thinking. Breathe. Connect. Is everything external that we are told is “necessary” part of your magic, or not? Magic is the unseen, the ability to trust and believe and effect inner change without a whole lot happening on the outside. Just like a child who wields a magic wand, there is trust that our inner connection will work out. It has to, because the magic we wield is US!

Why is this even a thing? Why can this be difficult for so many women? The short answer; there are so many factors that can take us away from our magic. The journeys of pregnancy, birth and motherhood can be intense, they can be big and soul-cracking. It’s remembering that there’s magic underneath all that, silently at work. It’s remembering that no one knows better than you; not your doctor, not your midwife, not me, not a test, nothing. Your magic is yours and yours alone.

Humans are mystical beings. As much as thinking, a focus on numbers and research continue to play a part in our lives, our TRUE evolution must come back to acknowledgment of the magic. It is no accident that people FLOCK to a made-up theme park that represents this very truth. Coming back to the magic of ourselves, our biology, and to the spirit babies universe that we communicate with is necessary to go on from here; our hearts and spirits are led by this magic that ultimately is our connection to everything.

And one more thing; there are always those who don’t believe; whether it’s in wizards or witches or magic in general. Pay no heed, and understand that no one needs to see or believe in your magic other than you. The effort to breed magic out of humans, as evident by the Harry Potter phenomenon, obviously has not worked. It is there, and connecting to it will bring you joy, wonder and true sense of self.