What we challenged the families is to think of Areas of Intimacy, as gradients, or degrees, instead of an all or nothing. As a couple we can look into these areas of intimacy and think about how we are doing within them. Perhaps we will find that one area is really strong and another is really weak. Then what we can do is put more effort into re-inforceing certain areas.

Consider these areas of intimacy:

As Parents: How we make decisions as parents (not the time we spend with our kids, but as a couple talking about how we parent)

Spiritual: We may share a religion, or a sacred process or thought or ritualize certain events or moments

Recreational: How we share having fun, what we like to do together

Asthetic: Our appreciation of what is beautiful to us

Crisis: Walking together through crisis, either an external crisis where we lean on the other or an internal relationship crisis where we are pulled together by our effort to reconcile and heal

Emotional: How we share, live and communicate our emotions

Sexual: How our sex life is lived, discussed and felt

When we consider intimacy by areas we can assess our balance or imbalance on a qualitative scale. We can work on enforcing certain areas and we will find that the better our intimacy gets in one area, the better it gets in another area. For example, if we agree that on saturday mornings we will bike ride together because we enjoy doing that, we will probably find that on saturday nights our sex gets better!

What we discussed in Family Circle (the first tuesday of every month at Luna Maya) was that during pregnancy couples can work on improving specific areas of intimacy so that when baby comes we can communicate our needs for intimacy as a couple, separate from the all consuming parenting.

If a couple has already had a baby and the couple feels astranged, perhaps they can check out these areas and see where there is possibility for improvement. Sometimes, its ok to pump milk, leave baby with grandma for a saturday morning so that mom and dad can have a bike ride and share some intimate time together.

It is important to remember that the new baby lives with two (sometimes) adults, and these two have a relationship that will immediately affect the baby. Lets give ourselves time as a couple to work on our areas of intimacy. We will teach our kids the importance of this and foster intimacy and communication among our newborns.

Read the original blog post here.

When you choose to have a natural pregnancy and childbirth you are choosing to play an important role in your own care, along side your chosen caregiver(s). With a midwife, you will have a wealth of resources to call upon to support each step of your pregnancy and birth, rather than being limited to medical intervention alone. The resources section of this Web site can help, too.

With the best options, knowledge, holistic care, and positive support you will be better suited to enable your body to do its work, and avoid unnecessary medical intervention. What more could you want for what you care about most?

It is meant to establish a range of time that your baby is mature and safe to be born. Because modern obstetrics narrows this to a specific day, unnecessary interventions, like inducing labor, come into practice.

In a well-nourished, low risk pregnancy it is normal for your baby to be born between 37 and 42 weeks gestation. Many natural events take place within your body during the last weeks of pregnancy to prepare you for labor. Allow time for the natural process to occur.

Click here for a due date calculator!

Being pregnant and giving birth are natural life experiences for which a woman’s body is well designed. In most of the world, women labor and give birth with midwives, as they have throughout history. Midwife care has been proven to be a safe, nurturing alternative to physician-attended hospital birth.

A woman’s body is innately prepared with the strength, stamina, and ability to nourish a safe and natural pregnancy and childbirth. By supporting the body’s own instinctive knowledge, unnecessary medical intervention can often be avoided.

Natural pregnancy includes creating an internal and external environment of healthy, positive elements: healthy eating, appropriate exercise, listening to positive birth stories, gathering knowledge, planning the ideal care, and partnering with a caregiver who can lead you through each step safely and confidently. This caregiver can be a midwife.

Mothers Naturally is your best source for information about natural pregnancy and natural childbirth. We provide many answers to common pregnancy questions as well as the latest natural pregnancy research.

Learn more about home births, pregnancy nutrition, the benefits of having a midwife and much more. You have more options than you might realize for how and where you would like to give birth.