To Bring Life, You Must Face Death

Earth Talk: To Bring Life, You Must Face Death

The steps a spirit must go through to come to life are no small feat according to the knowledge of the Kemetic healing archives. The final step in that process of coming through the mother’s birth canal is one of those steps that bears great benefits to the life coming. With the influences of industrialisation and modernisation, this significant step can be eliminated by using cesarean sections, in many cases for what are deemed medical emergencies but in many cases for comfort and business reasons. With the preserved knowledge of our Ancestors, we in modern societies can come to learn that no part of the process of pregnancy and birth were/are taken for granted. 

WHAT IS A CESAREAN SECTION 

A cesarean section (C-section) is a surgical procedure used to extract a baby through incisions made in the abdomen and uterus rather than the baby exiting through the vagina. C-sections can be categorised into two categories, medical need and elected. There are a variety of circumstances under which the health of the mother or baby/babies may be compromised and put at great risk in the process of a vaginal delivery. In such circumstances, medical providers will recommend a C-section as the safer method. In the case of elected C-sections, a medical need or any other need has not been identified, but the mother decides to undergo a C-section for reasons constituting personal preference or desire. 

IDENTIFIED CONDITIONS OF MEDICAL NEED 

• Baby/babies position in the womb is either breech (feet or butt enter birth canal first) or transverse (side or shoulder first) 

• Carrying multiple babies 

• Issues with the placenta (e.g. placenta previa where the placenta is covering the opening of the cervix) 

• Prolapsed umbilical cord (cord goes through the cervix preceding the baby) 

• Variety of health issues of the mother (e.g. heart issues, brain issues, active genital herpes, HIV, diabetes) 

• Mother having had a prior C-section 

• Foetal heart rate is compromised 

• Baby is too large for vaginal delivery 

• Labour fails to progress at normal or reasonable rate 

WHAT STATISTICS SHOW 

Statistics are clear that the rate of C-sections around the world is rapidly on the rise. Since 2000, the rates have doubled worldwide. According to the CDC, in 2018, 32% of births were C-sections in the United States. In other parts of the world, the rates are much higher. In Egypt, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Venezuela and Turkey the rate is over 50%. In China, Southeast Europe, and Latin America, C-sections outnumber vaginal births. This means around the world, more than 1 out of 5 babies are born by C-section. 

According to medical science, roughly 10-15% of births require C-sections due to complications including those listed above. This suggests that the percentages should not exceed these numbers when considering the risks of mother and/or child. 

RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH C-SECTIONS 

Medically unnecessary C-sections or elected C-sections, as noted in various studies and statistics, increase life-threatening complications fivefold for the mother during the birth of the baby. Such complications include but are not limited to bleeding, uterine rupture, hysterectomy, major infections, and cardiac arrest. Such risks increase in subsequent deliveries. In addition, the risk of spontaneous miscarriages in future pregnancies is increased. 

According to medical sciences, the chances of obesity and autoimmune disease later in life increase for those babies born under C-sections. If the procedure occurs before 39 weeks, the infant’s chance of respiratory issues increases as well. 

MODERN TRENDS 

With the increase in C-sections, younger doctors are losing their confidence in their ability to conduct vaginal deliveries, while becoming experts in C-sections. This speaks to another reason why the rate of C-sections is on the rise. Doctors see that they get paid more for a C-section, they can be done with the procedure in an hour and the risk of legal issues is diminished. For these technical, financial and legal reasons, rates are likely to continue increasing from the doctor’s perspective perhaps unless they are paid equally for vaginal deliveries. 

Mothers who elect to have C-sections generally do so for reasons of convenience and comfort since they can choose the day, the surgeon and they know exactly how the process will take place. As more and more women fear the pain of giving birth either based on past vaginal birth experience(s) or hearsay as well as the increased fear of postpartum natural challenges including, pelvic floor damage, urinary incontinence and reduced quality of sexual functioning, electing for C-sections is becoming an increasingly attractive option for the modern mother. 

KEMETIC PERSPECTIVE 

In a conversation with Voodoo Queen-Mother, Kpessi Kondodo Acakpo, she shared profound insights on birth and C-sections from a spiritual perspective. Our Ancestors understood that the progress of pregnancy marks a time of disharmony in a woman’s life. The energies that a woman has and the love within her, she will be struggling to give to the new life that is growing within her. It is a time when she will have to focus on the essentials of survival so that she and the new life can stay alive. This points to the importance of stability in a woman’s life during the time of pregnancy in order to ensure the success of the pregnancy. The ability to manage all of this is what will define the human being that is developing within her. 

The sacred ritual and rite of passage of giving birth is a time when the mother forgets about herself and puts all of her energies and focus on the one that is coming to life. After all that she went through for nine months, she will give all that she has to ensure the survival of the human being she is bringing. 

So according to our Ancestors, humanity had to agree and respect the reality that our mothers had to accept death before giving life to each one of us. This is why in the traditions of Africa, our mothers are our first goddesses on earth. 

Therefore, according to Ancestral traditions, electing for a C-section is a situation of a woman who has not accepted death. If the mother has too much fear of how the vaginal birth will go and is afraid of death, she will then find another way to bring life. 

The result then is, as it pertains to methods of birth, the child born from a C-section is distinct from that of a child born vaginally. A child born of a C-section has challenges giving themselves or committing themselves to things, or giving the essence within them to nature or anything. This is because they themselves did not receive that when coming to life. That essence was not given to them. The additional result is a human being born of a C-section will have difficulty finishing that which they start and even what they came to life to accomplish, they will not be able to complete before they leave. 

In giving birth, it’s a situation of life and death. So if the mother and the baby survive the process, the success comes with energies, and the baby now coming to life with those energies, gives him/her what is needed to accomplish goals and succeed in life. Again, for a woman to give birth, it’s really synonymous with acknowledging death. Once you decide to give life, know that you accept death at the same time. 

With modern trends of C-sections on the rise, change will come not just from the medical industry recognising the unnecessary risks of elected C-sections. It will also take the unified efforts of midwives, birth workers, women/ mothers supporting each other, and the increased education of birth as a natural phenomenon that every woman absent of health complications or anomalies at play, is fit to take on. Our Ancestral ways and customs may not be easily accepted or digested. Yet it gives us a glimpse into the depths and profundity of the traditions we are born from and the wisdom that preceded us. As infants in the journey of life, it is incumbent on us to consider and work to apply this wisdom no matter how challenging it may be. And that challenge will vary depending on how far we have moved away from nature as the gauge and definer of reality.