Letting Your Birth Story Minister to You – The Mom Quilt
As moms who have given birth, we all have a birth story, maybe even multiple birth stories. Each of them is different. Maybe we’re proud of them, maybe we’re ashamed of them. Either way, each birth story w have can minister to us as women. It can bring restorative healing to your soul. Your birth story can minister to you and help you grow as a person and as a mother, but how?
This post seeks to bring awareness to the beauty that motherhood brings even through tougher times, especially the heartache that birth story you’re not proud of. As a contributor to the book, The Mom Quilt, it is also an effort to promote the book as a way to raise funds to build a water well in Kenya in association with Mercy House. I hope you will not only learn to let your birth story minister to you and others, but that you will help minister to those in need by purchasing The Mom Quilt to help raise needed to have immediate access to water.
How motherhood & your birth story are a part of your own mom quilt
Motherhood is a beautiful part of this life. It, of course, is filled with ebbs and flows. But in every story that we have as a mother, we are knitting together the fabric of our own lives and the lives of our children. So with the bad also comes good, with the difficult also comes easy, with the shame also comes pride, and with the disappointment also comes hope and joy! As we let each story be told, we can learn from them. We can grow. And we can become better women for ourselves and our children.
So when I sit and reminisce on each birth story I have, I see moments of triumph and of failure. I see a birth plan gone wrong and so much planning for a natural birth, that it wound up as a cesarean. I also see a home birth story that ended in triumph, but is marked with struggles, difficulty, pain, and frustration.
When I allow myself to view both the beautiful and the ugly, I am able to see a bigger picture of motherhood. Looking at both birth stories, I find that they minister to my soul. They help me see who I am as a person and the strengths that I have, even through perceived failures. They also help me understand who I am and teach me the lessons that I need to learn. It feel like God is sending a message loud and clear to me of his love, his sacrifice, and his grace.
My birth stories teach me lessons that I am sure would not impact me the way they do if told in any other way. As someone who prepares researches and knows “the right way” to do things, to have a frank breech baby threw a wrench in my plans. It made me rely more and trust in God more, because I couldn’t do it alone. It taught me that my plans aren’t always the perfect plans and that the ideal scenario is not always perfect, but it made perfect through healing. Likewise, in my second birth I learned that perfect is made through lots of bits and pieces of imperfection.
It reminds me of a quote and illustration by Corrie Ten Boom that seeks to explain some of the reasons why we suffer, why we don’t always get exactly what we want when we want it, and how to see a bigger picture
Does God always grant us what we ask for in prayer? Not always. Sometimes He says, ‘No.’ That is because God knows what we do not know. God knows all. Look at this piece of embroidery. The wrong side is chaos. But look at the beautiful picture on the other side – the right side.”
It reminds me that in my life of chaos, there is something more beautiful at work being stitched into The Mom Quilt and the quilt of humanity. Each string in itself is colorful, beautiful, and has its place. It’s messy underneath, but all together, it makes a beautiful creation.
Ultimately the message of hope, joy, and grace are the ones that resonate in me.
Because I am flawed and need fixing.
Because I plan, but need to know plans can change.
Because I suffered, but I also tasted much sweeter victory.
Because I am broken and need healing.
Because motherhood is imperfect, yet beautiful and an important story to be told.
I hope that you take the time to walk through your birth story and each difficult and compelling story you have in your life as a mother and let them minister to you. It’s amazing the abundant joy that comes from knowing you have overcomed, that you have succeeded, and that you have loved so fully and richly.
How my Birth Story is a part of The Mom Quilt
In my chapter of The Mom Quilt, I share the healing nature of motherhood through my birth story. It is all about my own experiences learning to overcome a birth that in my opinion had gone wrong and how I have come to embrace it fully. I hope that you will read it in its entirety while also enjoying more stories from motherhood at all stages and seasons and how each of them point to a greater joy.
I am proud to be a part of The Mom Quilt and would love to share it with you because I think it will not only be a great ministry to those in need of direct access to water, but also to you and other women you know.
Click to Read more about how The Mom Quilt is Supporting Mercy house in Kenya.
Click Buy the Mom Quilt Now!
Kara is an author and advocate for positive, grace-filled parenting. She is homeschooler to her 6 children living on a farm in New England. She believes in creative educational approaches to help kids dive deeper into a rich learning experience and has her degree in Secondary Education & Adolescent Childhood Development. She is passionate about connecting with and helping other parents on their journey to raise awesome kids!
