Jenny Swiecicki writes about “Worlds Within Worlds – Birthing through Jin Shin Jyutsu” in The Main Central Jin Shin Jyutsu Newsletter, issue Number 72, Spring 2011:

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I gave birth to my son Malcolm on Wednesday, September 24, 2008. After a long walk and a Jin Shin Jyutsu treatment the previous evening, I lay down to get some rest. I’m not sure if I slept at all before a mild but regular cramping in my abdomen began just past midnight. I stayed present with these sensations and my beloved cat Riley kept vigil right next to me through the night. In the early morning our midwife arrived since my labor seemed to be off to a steady start.

As my labor became more active and the sensations more intense, I moved  into a dreamlike state, which included some extremely vivid moments. Riley followed me from our bedroom to the living room couch that became my laboring nest. From a certain point onward, my contractions were accompanied by an excruciating, bearing down pain in my sacrum. I knew intuitively this pain was connected to my maternal grandmother, who had birthed nine children herself and had suffered severe depression in her life. She left this world when my  mother was seven months pregnant with me.

(Interesting that 3rd Depth, the bridge into the manifest body, lives in the sacrum/coccyx. My grandmother’s depression may have been due to a blockage of that bridge, not being able to receive and accept this life. It’s also fascinating that babies travel through the pelvis during labor, cradled between the 6th Depth Source of Life and 3rd Depth source to come into this world.)

Hours passed in a blur of contractions with short rests in between. The pain in my lower back was soothed only temporarily by a hot shower or by hands pressing against my sacrum. It was difficult to eat and I began to feel more and more exhausted.

Once fully dilated, I’d been pushing for what seemed like an eternity with apparently little progress. I was feeling discouraged, under pressure, and did not believe that I was actually going to be able to push my baby out into the world. Mentally I was swimming in FEAR. At some point in the midst of all the pushing, I became aware of tremendous tension in my shoulders. It was as if I were “trying to” push from my shoulders. I remembered Mary’s wisdom about effortless reality and knew I needed to shift my focus. My midwife sensed this, too, and just then sent me on a “walk” into the other room, to move the energy. After a hard conversation during which I said a lot of “I can’t, I don’t care” and that ultimately ended in tears, I was ready to face my fear.

I was ready to Exhale, and with my birthing team’s support and my awareness of Mary’s teachings, I came back to myself, to my Breath, to my center. In this place, I was able to push from deep within my belly, allowing my shoulders to let go. Malcolm made his way closer and closer to this world, and then he literally came flying out to greet us with my one final push. He was born at 7:16 p.m. = 7+7 = victory, perfect life power = 14 heaven and earth coming together to nourish and sustain = 5 spirit into matter, erasing fears. How powerful that his initial gift to me was to give me this opportunity to face my self-doubt and fears, and to move into a place of TRUST and allowing. His birth was truly an initiation on many levels, leaving me with a deepened sense of awe and reverence for the power within women and for the profound magnitude, beauty, and miraculous nature of this journey of LIVING.

To be continued…