Nova Ode
My name is Michelle and my Anishnaabe name is Waabanangagokwe which means Morning Star Woman in English. I gave birth to my 3rd child at Morning Star Birth Center. This was really significant to me in many ways. My first two births were life changing and empowering in so many ways but being confide to the hospitals rules and prcedures made me feel as though some of my power was take away from allowing the birth to happen the way the universe intended it to. Having staff there that I did not feel an intimate connection with or that I feel may not have had mine and the babies best interest in mind. and also not being allowed to create the spiritual environment that i feel is essential to childbirth for mom and baby to connect fully the way I was able to do at the birth center. So being able to experience my 3rd child at the Birth Center allowed me to more fully have this experience. I feel humbled and grateful. In the past I wanted to be able to have a home birth and a water birth. I did not have the funds to pay for this kind of care so my only option was to go to the local hospital. It is such great news that the women who started this birth center and continue to keep the birth center going have created an oppertunity to reach out to women who may not have had the option in the past. Such love and compassion will go far as it will change peoples lives. The birth experience is the beginning of life itself. What a powerful and beautiful ceramony we go through as a new life transitions into this world. WE as women need the space and freedom to llow this transition to unfold without interference. I was able to have this freedom and space during my 3rd birth at the Birth Center. The mindset of the staff was to assist me and the baby in any way they could and try to connect to me on a spiritual/emotional level but also to back up and let me do what I knew I had to do. The women that helped me I ahve so much gratitude and respect for and I only hope that htey recieve repayment in some way for the love, time, energy, and assistancfe they gave me and the baby and our family. I will go more in detail now of the birth of my 3rd daughter.
I gave birth to Nova Orde in the blue and silver room. I asked my mom to attend the birth and she travelled from Red Cliff Wisconsin with my oldest daughter Shannon. On the way to the birth center they saw Northern Lights. The birth itself was 6 hours long. She was born in the birth tub at 4:00am. The tub was made into a cedar bath to spiritually cleanse the birth process and protect me and the baby. My great grandma passed down the teaching to us that when you start labor to take a cedar bath. Nova was born into the cedar bath and the cedar bath and the cedar from her birth was collected and burried with her placenta into the earth. burying the placenta is also a tradition passed down from my grandmother. When you bury the placenta the baby will have a connection to the mother earth. Everything goes back to the mother earth.