Nativity Revisited

This is my Christmas story offering from a midwifery/birth point of view. I have been reading The Scientification of Love by Michel Odent (and, in fact, am actually only four pages from the end). It is a very good book with a lot of interesting ideas in it. Tuesday I was sitting at the chiropractor's office waiting for my turn and I read Interlude 3: Nativity Revisited. Wow. Really, very cool. I would like to share it with you.

Until now the image of the Nativity that has come down to us has usually been restricted to a birth in a stable, in the presence of an ox and a donkey. My version of the Nativity is inspired by what I have learned from women who have given birth in privacy. It has also been inspired by 'Evangelium Jacobi Minori', the protogospel of James, the brother of Jesus. This gospel was saved from oblivion in the middle of the nineteenth century by the Austriean mystic Jacob Lorber, who wrote Die Jugend Jesu (The childhood of Jesus).

            According to these texts Mary had complete privacy when giving birth because Joseph had left her to find a midwife. When he returned with a midwife, Jesus had already been born. It was only when dazzling light had faded that the midwife realised that she was facing an incredible scene: Jesus had already found his mother’s breast! Then the midwife said: ‘Who has ever seen a hardly born baby taking his mother’s breast? This is an obvious sign that when he becomes a man, this child will judge the world according to Love and not according to the Law!’

On the day when Jesus was ready to enter the world, Mary was sent a message—a non-verbal message of humility. She found herself in a stable, among other mammals. Without words, her companions helped her to understand that on that day, she had to accept her mammalian condition. She had to cope with her human handicap and disregard the effervescence of her intellect. She had to realise the same hormones as other parturient mammals, through the same gland, i.e. the primitive part of the brain that we all have in common.

            The environment was ideally adapted to the circumstances. Mary felt secure and, because of this, her level of adrenaline was as low as possible. Labour could establish itself in the best possible conditions. Having perceived the message of humility and accepted her mammalian conditions, May found herself on all fours. In a posture like this, and in the darkness of the night, she could easily cut herself off from the everyday world.

            Soon after his birth, the newborn Jesus was in the warms of an ecstatic mother, as instinctive as a non-human mammal can be. He was welcomed in an unviolated sacred atmosphere and was able, easily and gradually, to eliminate the high level of stress hormones he had produced while being born. Mary’s body was warm. The stable, too, was warm, thanks to the presence of the other mammals. Instinctively Mary covered her baby with a piece of cloth she had on hand. She was fascinated by the baby’s eyes and nothing could distract her from prolonged eye-to-eye contact with Jesus. Gazing at each other like this would have been instrumental in inducing another rush of oxytocin, so that her uterus contracted again and returned a small amount of enriched blood from the placenta along the umbilical cord to the baby; and soon after, the placenta was delivered.

            Mother and baby could feel quite secure. Mary, guided by her mammalian brain, stayed on her knees for a short while after the birth. After the placenta was delivered she lay down on her side with the baby close to her heart. Suddenly Jesus began to turn his head from one side to the other, opening his mouth into a round O. Guided by his sense of smell, he came closer and closer to the nipple while Mary, who was still in a very special hormonal balance and still behaving very instinctively, knew how to hold the baby and made the right sort of movements to help her baby find the breast.

            This is how Mary and Jesus transgressed the rules that had been established by the human community. Jesus, as a peaceful rebel who defied convention, was initiated by his mother. Jesus spent a long time sucking vigorously. With the support of Mary he was able to emerge victorious from one of the most critical episodes of his life. In the space of a few minutes he entered the world of microbes, adapted to the atmosphere, separated from the placenta, started to use his lungs and breathe independently, and adapted to the force of gravity and differences in temperature. Jesus is a hero!

            There was no clock in the stable. Mary did not try to time how long Jesus was at the breast before he fell asleep. During the first night after the birth Mary had only a few bouts of light sleep; she was vigilant and protective, and anxious to meet the needs of the most precious little creature on earth.

            In the days that followed, Mary learned to recognize when her baby wanted to be rocked. She was so in tune with him that she could perfectly adapt the rhythm of the rocking movements to the demands of the baby. While rocking, Mary started to croon tunes, and words were added. Like millions of other mothers she had discovered lullabies. This is how Jesus started to learn about movement and, therefore, about space. This is how he started to learn about rhythm and, therefore, about time. He was gradually entering a space and time reality. As baby Jesus grew, Mary began to introduce more and more words into her lullabies and this is how Jesus learned his mother tongue.

Odent, Michel. "Interlude 3: Nativity Revisited." The Scientification of Love. London: Free Association, 1999. 124-26. Print.

Isn’t that interesting? If there were more than seven minutes until time to start school for the boys, I would offer some thoughts about this but they will have to wait until later or another day. In the meantime, feel free to ponder this.