Does using technology render our intuition useless?
This is a thought that flashes through my mind quite regularly. I only work with women choosing homebirth, and for what it’s worth, most of them are choosing ultrasound.
I find it to be a hard situation; for me, that is.
I support the use of ultrasound when it is for a real reason… and wanting to find out the sex of the baby is not a “real” reason to me, although I understand the rationale.
But, I want the women I work with to be educated and make their own choices, whatever the choices may be. Even if they go against what I would personally do.
That said, most women I work with do choose to get an ultrasound. But it has yet to be chosen for a diagnostic reason (i.e. something seems not quite right with baby, pregnancy, etc.).
How does this change or affect the course of empowerment that comes with pregnancy and birth?
Maternal Intuition – the sense that starts to develop as soon as we become mothers, which is as soon as we become pregnant.
It’s my goal to draw this sense out of some women, encourage it in others.
But often times, I am faced with the fact that in some instances, the mother does not want to fully take advantage of this skill that we all have, hiding somewhere.
Or she doesn’t realize that in choosing ultrasound, she could wind up shortchanging herself. Our pre-ultrasound meetings are exciting and somewhat mysterious as we wonder about this little being together.
For the few that do not choose ultrasound, we continue in this way for months, with the excitement really building up to the birth. Truthfully, it has it’s share of ups and downs–this “not knowing.”
For some women it is really simple, and the trust they have in their bodies and their babies is overwhelming. Other women worry from time to time, is the baby “normal” or is the baby developing OK?
Ultrasound puts an end to these normal fears that all women have, by offering the (sometimes false) reassurance that pregnancy and birth are predictable and what you see is what you get. Ultrasound not only tells us who this baby is way too soon but disengages the mama in a certain way.
Technology offers the reassurance but takes away the journey that maybe the mama needs to go on to continue her transformation. It deprives her, in most cases, of having to truly connect with herself and her baby to reassure herself, or to be truly worried.
I wholeheartedly believe that a woman who uses her intuitive sense WILL KNOW that either everything is fine, or that something is not fine.
I experienced this phenomenon personally in the last few months during my fourth pregnancy. This baby was “different,” that I knew, but exactly how was a mystery.
There were several times during the pregnancy that I was tempted to sneak a peek, and make sure that the baby was “OK”. Each and every time I struggled with this decision, I learned a valuable lesson and strengthened my inner sense.
I faced all kinds of issues within myself–my feelings and thoughts about something being wrong with the baby, if the baby were to be really sick or not make it through labor.
Each and every thought I had was real to me, and I had to process all the scenarios I could be faced with. And each and every time I had to get calm, get centered and talk with my baby. To talk with myself about my fears and how in birth, life and death, there are no guarantees.
Sometimes it took longer than others, but each time I used my intuitive sense as a mother I was reassured. For me, more reassured than I could ever be by a machine.
I wasn’t looking for everything to be perfect, just for the ability to make peace with what IS, not with what I thought it should be.
So, although we are all different and all make different choices as we come from different places, I still believe in the power of our intuitive sense. Using our intuition doesn’t mean that everything always turns out the way we want it to. It means using our power to grow and change and accept things the way they are.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful post. I find it very difficult to explain to people why I choose to not get an ultrasound, or have medical intervention during pregnancy period. Not to mention ultrasound & doppler technology has questionable safety risks for baby. At the very least those high frequency waves disturb the natural quiet & calm environment of the womb. We need not traumatize our babies unnecessarily. The growing fad of 3-D ultrasounds coined as “bonding” ultrasounds are highly disturbing – as if we cannot bond with our babies before we see them!
To each their own – but I really wish women were empowered with all the facts so that a well informed decision for what is best for their situation is made.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful post. I find it very difficult to explain to people why I choose to not get an ultrasound, or have medical intervention during pregnancy period. Not to mention ultrasound & doppler technology has questionable safety risks for baby. At the very least those high frequency waves disturb the natural quiet & calm environment of the womb. We need not traumatize our babies unnecessarily. The growing fad of 3-D ultrasounds coined as “bonding” ultrasounds are highly disturbing – as if we cannot bond with our babies before we see them!
To each their own – but I really wish women were empowered with all the facts so that a well informed decision for what is best for their situation is made.
You put that beautifully. I’m always encouraging women to embrace the challenges of pregnancy, the sleep patterns, the nausea, the changes in balance, and so forth, as part of the process that attunes us to really listening to another person, (which skill most of us have not developed). When they chose the illusory path of control, I know they’ve rejected the divine madness of mothering, and set themselves up for a lot of excess struggle.
You put that beautifully. I’m always encouraging women to embrace the challenges of pregnancy, the sleep patterns, the nausea, the changes in balance, and so forth, as part of the process that attunes us to really listening to another person, (which skill most of us have not developed). When they chose the illusory path of control, I know they’ve rejected the divine madness of mothering, and set themselves up for a lot of excess struggle.
I agree you with you on many points, especially where a mother’s intuition is concerned. However, I did choose to have an ultrasound, and I think there can be a happy medium. I have friends who seemed to have an ultrasound every other week just to keep peeking in on their babies, and it also seemed to me that, in a way, they were always “trying to find something wrong.”
My journey into motherhood began way before I was pregnant- almost a year before, and I had the acute sense that a little girl-being was waiting for us, as well as the sense that she and I were going to do great together- that all would be well in pregnancy and in our home birth! Sure enough, at my 22-week ultrasound, there was my healthy, perfect little girl, and it was really a divine way for my intuition to be reassured. It has been her all along, and we’re all going to do great!
BTW, I agree with Brooke’s point (previous poster above me) about attuning to the challenges of pregnancy as a way to prepare for motherhood. I have a weird sleep cycle lately where I always wake up at 3 am and stay awake ’til about 6 or so. My daughter is always up, too, squirming away inside of me. When I get frustrated, I just tune in to her and feel her little body. She’s already training me to listen to her and getting me ready to stay up with her at all sorts of crazy hours of the day!
I agree you with you on many points, especially where a mother’s intuition is concerned. However, I did choose to have an ultrasound, and I think there can be a happy medium. I have friends who seemed to have an ultrasound every other week just to keep peeking in on their babies, and it also seemed to me that, in a way, they were always “trying to find something wrong.”
My journey into motherhood began way before I was pregnant- almost a year before, and I had the acute sense that a little girl-being was waiting for us, as well as the sense that she and I were going to do great together- that all would be well in pregnancy and in our home birth! Sure enough, at my 22-week ultrasound, there was my healthy, perfect little girl, and it was really a divine way for my intuition to be reassured. It has been her all along, and we’re all going to do great!
BTW, I agree with Brooke’s point (previous poster above me) about attuning to the challenges of pregnancy as a way to prepare for motherhood. I have a weird sleep cycle lately where I always wake up at 3 am and stay awake ’til about 6 or so. My daughter is always up, too, squirming away inside of me. When I get frustrated, I just tune in to her and feel her little body. She’s already training me to listen to her and getting me ready to stay up with her at all sorts of crazy hours of the day!
And sure enough, all was well. And our homebirth was amazing!! Well, I can say that now 🙂
And sure enough, all was well. And our homebirth was amazing!! Well, I can say that now 🙂
my first-so-far pregnancy was completely doctor-free and anytime we felt annoyed at people's comments about 'what if', my partner and i would both have dreams (while sleeping at night) where we'd see right into the womb in 3D and the baby basically waves hello and it's all good… that was enough for us. our son was absolutely perfect at birth, just like we knew he would be! cosmic ultrasound rules!
Maryn, thank you so much for writing this. It really encapsulated many of my feelings- which I not read or heard articulated before. I hadn’t thought much about whether or not I would have an ultrasound before I became pregnant– it was one of the few things I didn’t already feel passionately about. I never felt great about the lack of long term research about them, but was really surprised how much it became an emotional decision for my partner and I not to have a scan. The idea of it started feeling terribly invasive to me– especially the cultural prominence of validating our experience by seeing a black and white image on a screen, and the pictures that come with it– rather than tuning into and connecting to the actual spirit and energy of the child. Both my partner and I both felt that something special would be lost by having a scan.
When people do ask why we aren’t doing this commonplace procedure, my long answer comes from your wonderful “letter to new mamas” about making decision out of love, not fear– and my short answer is a nice quip from Ina May Gaskin that “an ultrasound never cured anything.”
It does make it simpler in a way to have an ultrasound to convince the mother the strange little thing is growing inside, that’s the reason why I think people get the screen touch. For myself, I chose definitely not having an ultrasound and being doctor-free during my first pregnancy, which is going on right now. I have to say that Inay MAy Gaskin really thought me things Ive never knew about the inner power of the women . While I was quite ignorant about all the procedures and the actual inner passing gate of a woman during pregnancy, I feel powerfull being free of medical domination. And something goes into my mind saying that when the doctors find the baby supoposely dead in the placenta, or that there is none, I find it quite annoying and Im feeling that either the ultrasound didnt detect the heart beat which is too little to hear, either the ultrasound killed the baby or made it like quite the body like a ghost. tHIS IS PRETTY FREAKING, and Im not giving my ife to doctors during pregancy, thanks for the sharing and the article.