Happy Mother’s Day to all moms everywhere! Whether you have physically birthed children or birthed them from your heart, Happy Mother’s Day! Your labor is not in vain, and you are so very special! Where would we be without the love and commitment of our mothers, aunts, teachers, grandmothers, and so many other wonderful, dedicated, and strong women—women who have poured into our lives, sacrificed, nurtured, and cared for us—even when we did not deserve it. God bless you for all that you do! Celebrating you!!!
“This blog article is dedicated to you (and the Dads that have stepped up to the plate to raise their children alone)!
“Sitting on the Stool”
Greetings, Dear Friends ~
I pray you know the love of God, which exceeds our capacity to understand! It is my privilege to offer today’s Selah blog article, “Sitting on the Stool.”
This might sound like an odd title for blog post, but I was recently thinking about the concept and purpose of the birthing stool. It has been around for millennia and has been used in African-Egyptian (1450 BCE), Pacific Islander, Native American, Asian, Celtic (100 BCE), and Grecian (200 BC) civilizations. Biblically, it is referenced in Exodus 1:16a: “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool….”
Here is interesting information I found when researching this topic:
“A birthing chair, also known as a birth chair, is a device that is shaped to assist a woman in the physiological upright posture during childbirth. It is intended to provide balance and support. If backless, it is known as a birth stool.”
“The early birthing chairs varied between having three or four legs, though three-legged birthing chairs are most commonly seen. Both styles support the bottom of the women in labor and often have a slender, sloped back for comfort to allow birthing assistants, who are positioned behind the mother in labor, to massage or support her. Often the arms of the chair have hand holds or arm rests for the mother to grip, providing extra leverage. Birthing chairs are usually 8 to 10 inches… [and are] off the ground specifically to allow laboring.”
In thinking about Sitting on the Stool, and in consideration of Mother’s Day, I am remembering women who, throughout the history of the world, labored to deliver their children. But the labor did not stop at birth. Women labored to nurture their children and help shape their lives. Women have cared for their children when they were sick and have supported their adult children no matter their age. Once a mother, always a mother!
Countless women raise their child or children without the support of a husband—tackling obstacles, often daily, while pursuing God, careers, educational goals and their dreams. They have been on the stool, and throughout life, can spend a great deal of their time going back to the stool, as labor does not stop when once the child is born!
What I think is unique and special about sitting on the birthing stool is this:
- The birthing stool was designed without back support. Initially, women sat on the laps of other women to give birth.
- These backless chairs allowed women to gather around the woman in labor—supporting her throughout the entire painful and laborious process. Holding onto other woman provided leverage needed in the birthing process.
- Wailing to bring forth a child into the world, women (without epidurals or spinals!) would have needed all the support they could get to endure the process and the pain!
How often have we been through painful life experiences—some so gut-wrenching that we are left in agony trying to make it through the process?! While we might want to appear that we always have (had) it together, the truth of the matter is that we all go through gut-wrenching experiences! To be able to wail, to me, is to be able to release the experience and the pain to the only One that can help us—El Shaddai, Almighty God!
It helps when we have a group of people surround us as we labor to bring forth life (to birth a dream or vision). It adds to our “push,” the ability and fortitude to bear down and endure what is before and within us! To have another human being engaged in what we are going through—although they cannot take the pain away—comforts us in our trials because we remember we are not alone! Praise Almighty God!!!
Though the birthing stool is made for each woman to sit on (individually) at a time, history shows that we should never go through this process alone. The entire concept of the birthing stool centers on support, strength, endurance, leverage, and commitment.
It is not enough for people to watch from the sidelines and do nothing. God issues a call to join in the process! Hold a hand; encourage the woman on the stool in her process; be there and be present. Your time will come again, and you will find yourself sitting on the stool. So get on the stool, and PUSH!!! The person, idea, dream, or vision you deliver can help change the world!!!
Thank you, once again, for allowing me to share with you! May our God fill your life to the brim and allow you to see the overflow! This is my prayer for you as you remember my mantra . . . This world is definitely a much better place because you are in it!
God’s peace and blessings!
Until Next Time, My Dear Friends,
Selah
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthing_chair