We’ve come a long way, baby?

After seeing many recent ultrasound images of babies in utero, I dug up this one, of my mother’s uterus, and me inside it, in March of 1979. With this image, my parents were able to “see” their baby - but hardly, by today’s standards!

Feeling connected to her baby can happen the moment a woman finds out she is pregnant . . . or it can take up until the birth of the little one, and beyond. Many fathers and partners tell me that the concept of the baby actually being there (i.e. here! in the belly!) is too abstract, and it is the first moment outside the womb that it becomes real.

Often we turn to incredible images, even in 3D, of our baby to be sure that he or she really exists, and to be able to visualize what life may be like for our offspring during this time of gestation.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada and Health Canada have produced guidelines on diagnostic ultrasound. They state that ultrasound should not be used for any of these reasons:

• to have a picture of the baby, solely for non-medical reasons

• to learn the sex of the baby, solely for non-medical reasons

• for commercial use, such as trade shows or making videos of a baby

So how did people make sense of this in 1979? a hundred years before that?

I want to suggest that we move back to the breath, to meditation, to yoga, and to our intuitive sense to connect with our babies. Can we trust our bodies? Allow ourselves frequent long-enough moments of stillness and quiet to just feel the sureness of the little being inside? Knowing that it was all we had until very recently (just over 30 years ago), I urge you to try it.