68. Intro to God's Design for Birth Series

Ever wondered how the divine blueprint of childbirth differs from the current societal norms? On the Radiant Mission podcast, we're embarking on a new series to explore this intriguing concept. This first episode is an introduction to this new topic and what to expect!

As your host, I invite you, our radiant listeners, to continue this exploration in the next episode where we'll be delving into the wonder of God’s intricate design for birth. We'll discuss how awe-inspiringly God knits us in our mother’s womb, and how this miraculous process is often overshadowed by modern practices. You'll hear from two amazing mothers who share their birth experiences and insights. So take this journey with us, as we strive to understand and embrace childbirth from God's perspective and celebrate the sheer miracle of life.

Chapters

• 0:06 God's Design for Birth
• 11:31 Being Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Music Music End Graph. Hello and welcome to the Radiant Mission podcast. We are on a mission to encourage and inspire you as you're navigating through your life and with your relationship with Christ. My name is Rebecca Toomey and I'm your hostess, and I'm here all by myself today, which is unusual, because I'm usually here with my sister and co-host, rachel Smith or you may have been listening to this recent marriage series with my husband, mike. Either way, I'm usually here with somebody, and today I'm all by myself, and I am going to be honest with you guys.

Speaker 1: 1:07

Recording this episode has been a challenge. This is the third time I'm recording this episode. I decided I need to try to simplify editing because, as I'm sure you're aware if you've been listening for a while, not only this podcast is not my full-time thing, this is just a passion project that I feel the Lord called me to. I work full-time, I am a mom of three as well, and so this is an extra thing on top. That's just for, like I said, this is a passion project, and so I've been trying to find ways to make the process of recording, editing and all that faster, simpler, and instead have made it more work for myself. It's taking more. Sometimes it takes time to learn a tool, that's one thing. But I recorded the first time and my microphone was on too loud and I just, with as much editing, I could not figure out how to make it sound good. So I re-recorded it and the recording failed and it didn't save. So now I am recording a third time for you guys, and just know that's how dedicated to this podcast that I am that I will record as many times as I need to.

Speaker 1: 2:27

This episode is a transitionary episode. We have just completed our marriage series and, as you may have noticed, we're doing mini-series on this podcast. So we'll talk about a topic for a little bit and then we'll move on to a new topic, and so now is a time where we're going to be transitioning to a new topic. Of course you are guessing it by the title it's birth. That makes sense, because Rachel and I just went through birth. Now let me back up a little bit. We, both Rachel and I, needed to take some time after we had our babies to really enjoy that time. So we have been on pre-record on the show. We pre-recorded all of the marriage episodes and the holiday episodes and all of those episodes previous so that we could have that time. So for the past four months I have been editing pre-recorded episodes and now here we are. I'm recording right now in real time. Guys, hi, hello, I'm here, it's real time and everything is awesome and we can't wait to share more with you as we get back into recording. Just wanted to give you a little bit of context on all of that good stuff.

Speaker 1: 3:49

Now let's transition to this new topic God's Design for Birth. You know I'm passionate about this. It is something that is near and dear to me, and the reason is because I have forever been changed through the process of being pregnant and through birth. The Lord has just been such a monumental time in my life as a believer where I've been able to get closer to the Lord than ever before, as I'm understanding the miracle that is creation, that is being pregnant, that is the process of giving birth. It's how incredible the female body is in that one hormone triggers off something else and it triggers off this, and there's just this whole symphony that occurs when a woman is in her birthing timer, in labor, and that alone is a miracle, not even mentioning the pregnancy growing the baby part. That is also a miracle.

Speaker 1: 5:02

We really want to dive into these topics a bit deeper and I'll also say the birth episodes that we've done so far have been our most listened to episodes, aside from the ones we've done on Vs. That is a very close second, but our episodes that we did with Dr Stu really stirred something up and it really showed me and revealed to me through numbers that you guys care about birth too. This may not apply to everyone, but it's going to apply to those that I'm seeing are listening to these other episodes. I see this as such an important topic to continue diving into, and the approach that we're going to be taking is God's design for birth. Just like we discussed God's design for our health, now we're going to be talking about God's design for birth and how he made our bodies for it.

Speaker 1: 6:11

Now we live in modern society. There have been a lot of things that have happened to the way that women give birth in our society over the years, and the way that women are birthing is not the way that the Lord intended us to birth. I'm just going to say it. We are not birthing the way that the Lord created our bodies to birth. We are trying to encourage babies to come out before they are meant to come out. That is not how the Lord designed our bodies, and I'm not saying this to upset anyone. I'm not saying this to offend anyone. I'm saying from a perspective of how the human body is made. It was not meant for that specific thing to occur. I'm not going to talk about that on this episode. It's just one little piece, one little example of something that we will be talking about in this series, though about inductions and why that's counterintuitive to the birth process. So little teaser what you can expect.

Speaker 1: 7:32

Next. We actually did prerecord two birth episodes. We're with two women on their births. We will likely split those into two episodes for each story, but we have China's story, and she shares with us some thoughts on children participating in birth. And, of course, I before went on maternity leave, recorded that episode and had certain thoughts about what I might want during the birth of our third baby, and then, when I got into that birth time, what I thought I wanted before and what I wanted in the moment were very different. So I can't wait to share that story with you on the birth of our third baby.

Speaker 1: 8:18

She's four months old now. Yes, it's a girl. Her name is Bryn Rose Toomey and I'll be sharing the story of her birth. She was another home birth, as well as Rachel's coming on to share the story of Haven's birth, who was her V-back after two C-sections. So you're not going to want to miss all the birth, the birthy story coming up, and then our other mom that we interviewed for the podcast. Her name is Courtney and she shares her experience with a birthing center and it's not what you might think. So stay tuned, those episodes are going to be coming up.

Speaker 1: 8:59

I'm really excited for us to dive into this topic more. Of course, we are certainly enjoying our time here with our adorable little newborn girl. Well, she's four months. I guess she's not quite newborn anymore, but she's just such a joy. She's always smiling and laughing and rolling and happy and she's just a sweetie pie and we're just so smitten with her. Of course, you guys know we love newborns here.

Speaker 1: 9:27

One last thing I just want to thank you all for your messages during the past couple of months. I love seeing messages pop up in my Instagram hey, I've listened to the podcast, this I related to this, or this was so helpful. Whatever it might be, I'm pregnant and comradery. I love those messages. So thank you so much for reaching out to me. You can reach out to me anytime at the Radiant Mission on Instagram or at the Radiant Mission podcast on Facebook. Please be sure to do that.

Speaker 1: 10:02

And today I'm going to close us with one of my favorite passages. It's one that you've heard on this show before, but it is just so fitting for the introduction of our new topic on God's design for birth, and it is Psalm 139, verses one through verses 18. You have searched me, lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You're familiar with all of my ways, before a word is on my tongue. You, lord, know completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Speaker 1: 10:55

Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast If I say surely, the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day. Her darkness is as light to you.

Speaker 1: 11:31

For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, god. How vast is the sum of them? Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you and I'm wishing you a radiant week and we will see you next time. Bye.