Trusting Ourselves

It amazes me how little we, as women, trust ourselves. When someone else says that we feel a certain way about ourselves, we trust their opinion more than we trust our own. When it comes to our bodies, we trust doctors, husbands and people that we haven't even met, more than we trust what we feel.

Why is that? Why do we so totally discount what our bodies tell us, if others are telling us something different? Is it because we consider them more important than we are? Do we think that they are smarter or better educated about our bodies than we could possibly be?? We live in our bodies 24/7 yet others know it better than we do? Why do we think that's the case?

As a Doula, I talk to women a lot. When you're pregnant, it's only natural to read everything you can about pregnancy and babies. When I was pregnant, I did the same. I wanted to know what was best for me, for the baby, and how to give my family the best start possible. Here's the problem, and it's a big one... The experts don't always agree.

Yep, you heard me right, they don't agree. They never have, and they never will. When I was a baby, I was started on solid food almost immediately.  Two weeks after I was born, My mother was mixing a bit of cereal into my formula, and I was gulping it down like candy. Now, they tell you that solid food before the age of 6 months is harmful to the baby. It will cause obesity, allergies, and all manner of evil things.

Here's the rub, since they started giving this advice, obesity rates in children are up, and so are allergy rates.

I'm not saying that they're wrong, I'm saying that perhaps they don't have the whole picture. I'm also not saying that, when it comes to your child, children, or yourself, you shouldn't trust those that call themselves experts. They have a lot to say, and they are often right. What I am trying to say, is that you need to trust yourself as well.

We, as women, are not stupid. We are not uninformed and we do not need to follow, blindly, every piece of advice we're given. The Divine, whether you call it Jehovah, Allah or the Earth Mother, (this isn't and all inclusive list) gave each and every one of us a brain. We have feelings and intuitions as well. When it comes to birth or child rearing, we need to do things that we think best, not because the doctors are telling us to, but because we have decided that it's the best way for us.

Come to think of it, that's really not bad advice in other areas of life as well.

Live, laugh, love...