A speaker (Ben Greenfield) discusses childbirth as a transformative, ceremonial transition for women and their partners, arguing that the pre-birth identity dies and must be honored and integrated; without ceremonial closure the experience can be experienced as trauma. The piece emphasizes psychological/emotional changes and the need for intentional integration after birth.
When a woman gives birth and actually her partner. When you guys are going through this process, you are transforming. There's an old you that is dying. There's a new version of you that's being born. Just like with this baby that's coming Earthside. When women come to me and say, I felt like I was going to die, you did die. There was this old identity that is gone. There is a transformation that's going to happen here. If we don't honor that as a true ceremony and we don't have a closing piece to that where we integrate the stress of this incredibly challenging experience, a lot of women are left with what they actually report as trauma.
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