You have arrived fully into yourself. You are at the final step in your journey to become yourself in an enriched form. As a skilled birth-coach you took the journey equally with your birthing partner and your baby.
Every man who is present throughout the birth of his baby knows that his partner has taken a Heroine’s Journey. But most men don’t feel that for themselves. This is why we have taken you on your own Hero’s Journey through the 12 Steps as well as given you the 10 skills to grow during the 5 phases of pregnancy.
What’s curious is that men who have grown these 10 pregnancy skills often feel more comfortable within themselves than their partner who might have gotten swept along by pregnancy without these skills as an anchor. Hopefully, you’ve both grown them.
Characteristics Step #12 … mastery
- You’ve achieved ‘success’
- You’ve achieved ‘mastery of your skills’.
- You’re definitely in the ‘ordinary world’
Birth is over. You feel totally empowered because you took time during pregnancy to grow your skills, prepare your partner’s body to birth then worked with her every moment of the time-based journey through the activity of giving birth. Your baby is in your arms or being cuddled by your partner.
You can now look back and see how your birth would have been had you chosen the other path … not becoming skilled. You can see how pregnancy, birth and now the newborn period would have been so very different. You’re delighted you chose to become skilled because you are not afraid of your newborn. You look into your newborn eyes and see such depth and beauty.
As a skilled human being, man, partner, father you deeply understand that you cannot become a hero by waiting for something to happen. A Hero’s Journey required steps and stages … two steps forward, one step backward. You fought your own resistance. You overcame your reluctance. You became friends with skills and you learned them well enough so you could modify, adjust, adapt and integrate your skills into your life through pregnancy and birth and now with your newborn.
Of course, you touch your newborn differently as a skilled man than one who lacked skills. Being a hero doesn’t require you to boast or brag, it’s a feeling inside you and it’s a feeling inside your partner because she knows. Together you have deepened and enriched your family. You have walked a strong road.
Birthing Better families recognize you as one of them.
Birthing Better online birthing classes are housed in Common Knowledge Trust