My Womb Experience

​We often know more than we think we do about our womb, birth and very early childhood experiences.

Sometimes just asking questions like: how old were my parents; what were their lives like; how much support did they get; what was going on in the world at the time of my conception and birth? What do I know or have heard about my own birth?

My father was overseas when I was born, serving in the Navy. My mother was living in housing in Bremerton, Washington at the time. When my mother was about 4 to 5 months pregnant with me she went to the Naval Hospital in Bremerton for pre-natal care. A week or so later when she returned she was told that there was 'another' woman claiming to be married to my father, a woman living in and receiving services in New York State. This proved to be true. Married to my father in approximately 1943, she was raising my father's two sons, 2 and 4 years of age.

I believe that my mother, always emotionally a bit unstable, went into a horrific depression filled with rage, betrayal, anger, grief, shame. It must have been absolutely almost unbearable for her. Added to the shock of this betrayal was her addiction to cigarettes and alcohol. And more rage. I certainly have compassion for my mother: I have never been hurt like that.

And while my mother was going through her grief and rage and was trying to cope with this betrayal, the experience for me was also rife with shock and uncertainty. In this state I learned, as a pre-nate, to 'turn' away from whatever was going out outside the womb. Even today when I am confronted with unpleasantness, anger, rage, even confusion, my very first body instinct is to turn away. And as an adult, whether I was literally 'turning away' or not, energetically I was withdrawing myself from whatever triggered, in my body, a sense of fear and danger.

Luckily I now have a 'felt', somatic sense in my body of this womb experience. When I feel triggered my body lets me know and I can assure myself that I now have a choice: I can react the way my body was imprinted to react, or I can call in my resources, breathe, ground myself and know that I am safe and secure. I am an adult. All of this happens in a nano-second. Such is the power of hypnotherapy and healing.

This is Birth Psychology Month. Explore some of these resources for yourself. And if you have questions or concerns about your own womb or birth experience, give me a call. I would love to talk, and maybe, work with you to uncover and heal your  experience! To give you a choice in how you respond and react.

Resources: 

This is the link to APPAH, the international Birth Psychology organization. They have a number of free resources, or you can join them in their mission to educate the world about birth psychology!
birthpsychology.com

Or type in Birth Psychology on YouTube and find numerous videos: What is Birth Psychology? Pre and Peri-Natal Psychology. Discovering the Mind of the Prenate.
Child Development: Pre-Natal and Newborn. Check them out!

And Annie Murphy Paul wrote a very interesting book "Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives". She has a TED talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgvfvdFFrb4
​