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Why Is Gentle Birth Essential?

When gentle birth is experienced as a shared miracle, it enhances the bond of love in a family. The powerful memory of it may serve to sustain the couple through difficult times. Yet, too often parents allow the miraculous quality of their birth experiences to be taken away from them, as they give up all control and place themselves in the hands of doctors and hospitals concerned solely with the physical aspects of birth.

When that occurs, birth can become something that happens to the parents, rather than a miracle in which they fully participate and from which they derive an overwhelming sense of joy and personal empowerment.