Pregnancy
Want to Pray through Birth?
At Mothering Spirit, we believe mothers need more resources for pregnancy and birth, both the beautiful and painful parts of bringing new life into the world. Here are a few of our favorites: 1. When you’re preparing for birth Get a copy of our e-books: Prayers for Pregnancy & Prayers for Birth. The collections feature prayers for pregnancy…
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Prayer for Birth and Racial Trauma
Heavenly Father, I thank You for the honor of being a mother. Thank You for entrusting me with this precious gift. As I bring my children into the world, my heart is heavy. I wonder what people will think of me as a Black mother. Will I meet their expectations? Or will I disappoint them?…
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Fighting For Our Lives
“I am very frustrated. I don’t understand why you can’t just be confident in our care!” My perinatal specialist yelled these words to me when I was around 24 weeks pregnant with quadruplets. Why? Because I was asking her questions about what my children’s birth might look like. Up to this point, no one had…
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Time, transitions, and beginnings: your turn
This week on Mothering Spirit Vanesa’s essay invited us to reflect on the shifting experience of time through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Kayla’s prayer helped us to bless the beginnings and transitions in our callings as parents. Resources to keep reflecting For prayer during pregnancy, check out our e-books of Prayers for Pregnancy and Prayers for Birth. Exciting news: we’ve got…
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As A Mother Comforts Her Child
I was not excited when I found out I was pregnant. In fact, I remember staring at the five pregnancy tests in our tiny apartment in Texas trying very unsuccessfully to not fall in a panic attack. All I could think as I saw that plus sign in front of me was, “I can’t do…
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A Prayer for Infertility
God of Abraham and Sarah, wait with us and help us to believe. God of Rebecca and Isaac, hear our prayers and speak to our struggles. God of Jacob and Rachel, forgive us our envy and free us from jealousy. God of Hannah and Elkanah, hold our anger and weep with us. God of Elizabeth and Zechariah,…
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To Be Vessel And Passage
Right now are the waning days of pregnancy. Contractions come and go. Intense, then subsiding. I can’t walk without waddling. Sleep is fitful, restless. Comfort is elusive. I wake a hundred times. Every morning the kids ask if the baby will be born today. No one knows. These are my last days to carry. To…
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a prayer for morning sickness
Morning sickness is awful. At best it’s a nuisance for a few weeks; at worst it’s debilitating for months. I’ve had both scenarios, so my sympathies leap out to any expectant mother who suffers – and longs for a prayer during these hardest times. I’ve written ad nauseam (ha) about morning sickness: “In Which We Are All…
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in which we are all (begrudgingly) images of God
I do not like the experience of pregnancy. There. I said it. I like the fact of being pregnant. I love the gift of life, the sheer blessedness of getting to bring a child into this world. I love the answer to prayer brought by pregnancy after infertility and miscarriage, the undeserved grace that this…
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on carrying and missing
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We’d planned it perfectly. A baby in early spring, before work got too busy and the summer too hot. The worst of the morning sickness would be passed in time for the holidays, and I could curl up on the couch for football season in the fall when…
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seeing stars in sunlight
“The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision…He brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (from…
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Mary of the Third Trimester
I wonder how she felt in the final weeks. Whether she was tired of carrying, exhausted from the extra weight and the swollen ankles and the restless nights and the ceaseless kicks. Or whether she loved wondering about the mystery of this babe, watching the strange, sudden stretch of skin across her stomach, limbs pushing…
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“Oh, honey!” She shrieked as she came running towards us, nightgown flapping. “Look at you!” I smiled, the meager smile of a large pregnant woman, bracing herself to hear the usual round of “you’re due when?!” or “you’re sure it’s not twins?” Be nice, I admonished myself. She’s a sweet neighbor. Let the comments be. But…
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The Holy Spirit can be hard to pin down. God’s presence with us, everywhere and always, sure. But many of us wonder what that means, what that looks like. Flames of fire? Speaking in tongues? Here’s what Scripture has to say, which speaks to the Spirit’s presence during labor: Brothers and sisters: The Spirit comes…
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The prayer that got me through the toughest part of my labor with my first baby was—quite unexpectedly—part of the prayer of the breastplate of St. Patrick. This was a prayer that I was familiar with but never felt any particular affinity for. Yes, it was a lovely prayer; yes, it came from my Irish…
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When I was pregnant with my first son, my newly-graduated-from-theological-school self wanted to compile a journal of prayers for childbirth. Given my fear of the pain and the unknown that lay ahead of me, I was convinced that having prayers to accompany me through labor and birth would keep me calm, centered, and cool. Then…
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One of the best things about blogging is seeing what brings perfect strangers to your writing. Everyday I can see the list of searches that bring people here. What brings more visitors here than anything else? Prayers for pregnancy. Over time many of these searches were phrased in ways that broke my heart, that found me wondering about the back stories, even…
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I wasn’t supposed to feel like this. Halfway through this pregnancy, I’m supposed to be feeling good. The morning sickness should have subsided, the second trimester energies should have kicked in. Right now is supposed to be the glowing part of pregnancy. Instead I find myself every week, more mornings than I care to admit,…
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