Birth as initiation: “The female way” does not understand childbirth as a painful effort, but as an active creation of a new beginning

In her book "The Feminine Way" , Martine Texier explains how mothers can prepare themselves during pregnancy through powerful rituals and exercises to merge their own, limitless self with the soul of the child.

Experiencing and shaping birth

One consequence of the modern pursuit of security seems to be that society is losing its initiation rites. Although birth and death are still considered crucial life events, medical developments ensure that the actual experience of transition is trivialized by minimizing risks and pain.

In her second book, which is now being translated into German, the French author and yoga teacher Martine Texier reminds us that childbirth is also a "test" and should be seen as something "sacred": "If we leave responsibility for childbirth to the medical profession, we rob women of their own strength and the event of its special meaning," writes Richard Moss in his foreword. Martine Texier has more than thirty years of experience in preparing for childbirth through yoga and in training midwives in France and Switzerland. She has dedicated her entire life to raising the general public's awareness of the importance of pregnancy and childbirth.

The experience of transition

Life is marked by stages - by 'transitions', in which birth is the first and death the last. For some time now, people have been increasingly concerned with the subject of end-of-life care in order to make the great departure that death represents more humane. But just as medicine is treating people doggedly until their last breath, births are also taking place under ever greater medical supervision.

In spiritual terms, for Martine Texier, birth is the transition from a cosmic dimension of light into the form of a body, on which all subsequent stages of our lives depend. This experience must be accompanied by powerful rituals and exercises in order to actively shape the inner change for the mother or parents and the child as a "call to life". Over 100 powerful yoga and pelvic floor exercises help to perceive the physical processes during pregnancy and birth from within and to understand them on an energetic level: "The experience of birth is a real enrichment if the woman can remove these barriers and open her body and if she pays attention to her child and respects its very own way of coming into the world."

The energy of the wave

As in her previous book, "L'attente sacrée, 9 mois pour donner la vie" (2009), 'wave breathing' is used to make the pain of contractions bearable during childbirth. "The Feminine Way" takes up this central concept to highlight its energetic significance. Numerous exercises are presented to sense the energy circulating within the expectant mother. This enables her to better use the energy of the wave to experience less or no pain at all.

On the day of birth, the energy of the wave allows access to the energetic dimension of childbirth. The initiation takes place in the rhythm of the contractions, with the vibration level of the energy gradually increasing: "On the threshold of total transformation, you can then prepare to receive the initiation thanks to the definitive letting go and the 'connection with infinity' in a meditative state of connection." The pain, which for centuries was claimed to be the meaning of childbirth, does not have to be simply endured. The aim of Martine Texier's book is to understand the mechanisms and provide the means to overcome the pain and finally use the energy for an inner transformation.

Book tip:
Martine Texier: The feminine path. Powerful rituals and exercises for pregnancy and birth. German first edition. Mankau Verlag 2018, paperback, 13.5 x 21.5 cm, 302 pages, 15.95 euros (D) / 16.40 euros (A), ISBN 978-3-86374-481-6.

Link recommendations:
More information about the book "The Female Way"
To the reading sample in PDF format
More about the author Martine Texier