One reason you may not have thought of that makes your daughter's First Moon Initiation so important...

First Moon: Energetic Field separation from Mother & introduction to her HERstory

Women are designed to go through several transformations in their lifetimes that radically change their experience of life and how others experience them. 

The first major transformation is when the Maiden enters the realm of the Mother and begins her first blood and her courtship with the moon. 

A very integral component to this transition is the energetic separation between mother and daughter at this time. The daughter will, from this point forward, be responsible for creating HERstory as a fertile woman in the world - a path that only she may walk, and her mother may not join. 

So when coordinating the rite-of-passage / moon ritual for your daughter you may want to include some time devoted to making the distinction between the mother/daughter energy field and what that change means for your daughter and for yourself. 

Creative ways to include this concept into the First Moon initiation might be:

• Have the supporting sisters of your circle symbolically tie one of your and your daughter's hands together (where both wrists are tied off making complete string bracelets for each that are also attached) and as part of your ceremony have a sister cut the string between both bracelets while saying "As love binds you, so love frees you."
• In ceremony bind the mother's eyes with a blindfold and have the daughter do a dance the mother can not see.
• Have the daughter plant a tree alone that is hers to nourish and cultivate. Perhaps she can pour her monthly blood on it as it grows.
• Give the daughter a sacred ring that all the sisters pick out that symbolizes her relationship with herself and the beginning of her path.

This distinction can be helpful for both mother and daughter as the two have been entangled from birth at such a deep level. Bringing awareness to the new paradigm that the First Moon brings may ease some of the pain of the change on both sides.

Why Empowered Birth?

It's no accident that in the U.S. many women don't even know that they can birth without drugs or medical intervention and that the experience can be empowering, a bonding experience with their baby and a spiritual awakening or shaman-like initiation.  Once certain opportunistic men in power caught wind of the potential money to be made off of womens' bodies - birth and breastfeeding were gobbled up by the patriarchal and "professional" organizations of medicine and capitalism.

Due to this history now many women in the U.S. aren't even asking themselves why they might want to consider having an empowered birth. But for those of us who asking here are three reasons I've put together that answer why have an empowered birth:

1. Have an empowered birth because birth is YOURS and if you own the experience you can tap into your innate wisdom:

• Educate yourself about what is going on in your body during birth and you will be in a position of power during the stages of labor or if confronted with an issue. Your body and your baby are rich with deep DNA wisdom that is triggered and will unfold throughout the pregnancy and birth journey. Our brains are the largest obstacles to this natural unfolding. The more you understand and are comfortable with the physical process of birth, the less you will be intimidated by professionals or get caught up in your head. Not knowing what is happening leaves room for fear and a loss of power.  

2. Have an empowered birth to experience the innate intelligence of creation:

• Regardless your faith the birth journey can elevate your connection to Source. Tuning into your own higher power often during pregnancy, connecting spiritually with your baby (while it's in your womb) and meditating (with and without your partner) about your birth will all aid in a calm, connected birth experience. You'll find yourself going to this safe meditative place often in labor so being comfortable with it and knowing how to draw guidance from it will give you a power that no one can take away.

3. Have an empowered birth to enjoy your immense strength:  

• The high that a mountain climber gets at the top of an impressive peak pales in comparison to the joy and elation of birthing a baby. Your strength will astound you and you'll never underestimate yourself again. 

HOME™

At birth:
There is an intense body-to- body connection between mother and baby, and when left undisturbed, skin-to-skin, mother and baby respond to each other, soul to soul, as their instinct unfolds: the transfer of information from nerve endings in skin traveling deep into the central nervous system. Raw, naked, wet sensuality, communication between bodies, pulsing vehicles of exchange. Like foreplay, when a gentle lover coaxes sensual responses through touch, flesh on flesh, until commingled bodies become one, a baby on its mother’s belly is primed to search, find and attach to the source - the nipple. The baby, seeing its mother for the first time, but knowing her and familiar with her through smell, touch, and taste. Mother’s nipple smells and tastes like amniotic fluid, and the baby has touched the innermost parts of its mother’s body from the time of conception. The sound of mother’s voice previously muffled through flesh, is now at once familiar and clearly new. Baby is HOME.

There is no need to teach the mother how to nurse her baby. There is no need for the baby to learn to breastfeed. This is HOME. Bringing baby HOME ignites the spontaneous action rooted in the depths of the physiology of our bodies. It is at once physical and energetic. An exchange of love, energy, and sensation so intense it is difficult to truly understand unless you have experienced it. It is the wonder of energy-exchange via flesh. Nursing is part of the inborn mechanism known as a primitive neonatal reflex and is dependent on baby being prone (tummy to tummy) on its mother in order for the reflex to be expressed. Without this time, the instinct is lost, and then, feeding behaviors must be approached cognitively - feeding must now be learned.

Contrast the raw physicality of HOME - the uninterrupted commingling and instinctual bonding - with the routine hospital delivery. Harsh, cold, steel, and lights, gloved hands hand-off to the nurse who puts this new being in a flat, non-conforming warmer, electronic heat replacing the soft warmth of a mother's body heat. Latex clad hands harshly rub the newly born baby with a rough blanket to stimulate and dry off the birth fluids so necessary in body-based communication. Then swaddled tightly, arms bound, impeding baby’s essential freedom of movement – these navigational skills needed to establish the life-giving relationship between mother and baby thwarted.

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In the days and months after birth:
When the MotherBaby is unhindered and unseparated during sleep, the baby navigates to the source, often without help. Mom may even be asleep, but baby knows from whence its food comes and can find its way there. Through smell, touch, feeling, sound, warmth, and taste, baby moves purposefully, toward the nipple, and latches without assistance. This inborn ability is essential to survival. This ability is part of a protective mechanism against SIDS. The closeness also ensures entrainment. Entrainment is the crystallizing of autonomic pathways that control breathing and heart rate. Not only does baby’s breathing and heart rate synchronize with its mother’s, but also the neuropathways become hardwired, lessening the chance of apneic episodes. This is HOME– the unseen expression of the connection between mother and baby.

By Chantal Molnar
of The Milky Way