Every parent and child’s birth experience is truly unique. For some, their births are peaceful and empowering, for others birth can be full of trauma and hard to sit and reflect on. All of your births and all of your stories are so important.
Storytelling is a beautiful educational and healing tool that dates back as far as time itself. Over the course of their lives, we tell our children so many different stories about the world through books and play. Just like we teach them about every other aspect of life, we can, and we should tell our children about their birthing day.
Talking to children about their birth allows them to understand more deeply where they came from and how they got here. It can foster a beautiful deep sense of belonging and connection between children and their parents. Some aspects of our birth might feel too heavy to tell young children. You can choose age-appropriate language and simple, easy-to-understand concepts, to start to explain any difficult parts of your children’s birth to them. It might feel quite hard to be able to communicate the details of a particularly traumatic birth to your child. Please seek all the support you need as you do this.
Conversations within our families about birth stories can help normalise birth in the eyes of our children. It creates a safe space for children to ask questions about the natural process that is birth and life. Emphasising the parts of their story that make their birth so unique can help your children form and shape their individual sense of identity and self-love from a young age.
Sharing your birth story with your child can also be a transformational and healing experience for you as a mother. If your birth was traumatic or difficult, telling your story can help. Storytelling can allow you to reclaim the parts of your story that may feel lost or less than ideal. Telling your children their birth story in your own words can give you a sense of empowerment and ownership of your birth. You can explain to your children the difficult parts and what you used to get through them, or you can focus on your favourite bits, and how those parts made you feel.
If you had a positive birth experience, re-telling your story will keep the beautiful energy surrounding your birth alive and present in your children’s lives as they grow up. Continuing to share your stories with your children can help you protect your sacred birthing memories.
There is no right or wrong way to share your birth story with your child. Birth storytelling is an important way that you can honour your children, and the rite of passage you journeyed with them on the day they were born.
