A few nights ago, it was story time with my daughters. I brought out the library bag to search for a new book and came across a lovely compilation I'd grabbed earlier in the week titled, The Barefoot Book of Dance Stories. I pulled it out and immediately both my daughters started saying, "Oh, Mama, do the one with the baby! Do the one with the baby!" (Now this may not seem strange to anyone with daughters since most are interested in babies, but my daughters, blessed with a doula for a mother, take their interest in babies to a whole new level. They've heard me talk about birth often, and watched The Business of Being Born with me and the documentary, Birth Story with Ina May Gaskin, and they will often ask me to show them the births. Like I said...a whole other level.) I began reading the story. It was called, The Goddess Danced.
What a beautiful story! I loved reading it to my daughters. I make sure when I'm talking about birth with them that I keep my tone positive and affirming. I don't allow too much to be shown or heard that I feel is beyond their age-appropriate level. What I am doing, is generating a history of birth stories that will allow my daughters to look forward to birth and to expect it to be hard work. By using story, I am giving them an image of birth that will excite them not scare them. The Goddess Danced, is a perfect example of this. I've included a brief synopsis below:
Ra, the god of the sun, being a god, could do things that mortals could not. He frequently fell in love with women on earth. One time, he spied Ruditdidit, the wife of one of his priests. She was very beautiful. He visited her and wooed her. Soon she became pregnant with triplets. In order to help her have an easy pregnancy he made sure she had plenty of figs, grapes and pomegranates and he sent her earthenware jars of goat milk. For nine months she was happy and well rested but when labor began her pains were great. She wept and wailed and called out to Ra for help. He heard her and sent four of his goddesses and one of his gods to help her. They disguised themselves as street musicians (in that time street musicians were considered to be excellent midwives) and entered the house to help Ruditdidit. The one god, Khnum, stayed outside with Ruditdidit's husband and drank barley beer. The goddesses found Ruditdidit lying on her side in great pain. One of the goddesses, Isis, started to dance while the others made music with their instruments. Isis reached down and pulled Ruditdidit to her feet. Together they swayed and danced, swinging their hips and twirling. "Isis made Ruditdidit's stomach ripple like waves, her hips like mountains shuddering in a quake. Ruditdidit did as Isis commanded, her belly moving back and forth, up and down until she was quite dizzy but the pain had receded. Then, when Ruditdidit was ready for the birth, Isis stopped dancing. She led Ruditdidit back to her bed where the woman squatted by the bedside and began to push. Isis put her hands out, and the triplets fell into them--one, two, three." Ruditdidit's husband, the priest Rausir, left a basket of corn as payment and went in to see his wife. Isis flipped the basket and transformed the corn into gold coins, "but the priest, Rausir did not find that out until much, much later, for three new babies and a tired wife turned out to be a lot of work."
Is that not the most beautiful birth story?! I absolutely love it. Not only does it mention diet and rest as being important during pregnancy but it also mentions music and dancing as key elements in helping ease labor pain and help labor progress. So cool!!! Who wouldn't love to be pregnant if they were fed figs, grapes, pomegranates and goat milk all the while resting from their work and being pampered? Who wouldn't love to labor with their own troupe of musicians making music and dancing with you all the while encouraging your efforts? I know I would. Maybe they need to encourage more musicians to become doulas... But, I'm getting sidetracked. Back to Ruditdidit.
I didn't mention it in the story, but by the time the goddesses arrived to help Ruditdidit, she had already been laboring for more than 24 hours. She was tired and in a lot of pain. Now most labors will be completed within 24 hours, but every so often there are those labors that will go on for much longer or will get stuck. (Of course, in Ruditdidit's case, she was carrying triplets and they were half-immortal, which is not a complication any of us have to worry about!) Still, labors do get stuck sometimes and sometimes we do need to think outside the box in order to help get unstuck and move labor along.
Labors get stuck for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the mother becomes worried or anxious. Sometimes something happens to throw the mother out of her concentration, an interruption or some minor annoyance. Even if it seems minor, anything that throws a mother out of concentration can really impede labor's flow. (Why do you think wild animals birth at night where they feel completely private and safe?!) Sometimes the mother's uterus is just plain tired and needs rest and nutrients in order for it to continue making progress. When any of these happen, a mother may feel at a loss as to what to do next. This is where stories can step in and help. What did your grandmother do in her labor? If not her, what did your friend's grandmother do? You get the point. We can learn from others' experiences. We can learn from the birth stories we've heard. In this case, we can learn from Ruditdidit's prolonged labor. We just need to start dancing!
I'm not joking. Each and every traditional culture has its own version of a birth story and I guarantee that not one of them tells of the woman lying down passively enduring labor. Quite the contrary. Most traditional cultures tell stories of women working until labor was imminent and only then dropping what they were doing to squat and push the baby out. Sounds primitive, but hey, it has worked for thousands of years...
This story was probably written to serve exactly the purpose I mentioned above, to help women with prolonged and difficult labor. This story although meant for children, most likely taught an entire culture: this is how you give birth. Unfortunately, today we have lost most of the stories and what we've kept is a more medicalized version of what to expect. I think we're actually doing more harm by this. The stories are inspiring and instructional without being too scary or over-informative. I think it is high time we revived the birth story as a means for helping prepare women to give birth.
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