We are wonderfully made.

While pregnant, I loved keeping track of my baby’s development. I read books that told me week-by-week what was happening- how hearts were beating, nervous systems developing, and eye lashes forming. I even got weekly e-mails informing me what new “trick” my baby could do (this week your baby can suck his thumb) or what vegetable-size he was that month. I would pick up an eggplant at the grocery store and say, “Look Honey, this is how big our baby is right now!”

With each of my children, the thought of them growing inside me was incredible. As I started to feel the flutters of twirling and somersaulting and later the kick and jabs of feet, shoulders, and elbows, I was truly amazed and humbled by the miracle of creation.

After each of our children were born, Matt and I would spend those first few hours examining our new baby. We would go over every inch of the being that grew from Lima bean-size to cantaloupe and, finally, to emerge as this whole person. I remember my husband being blown away by their fingernails. “They already have fingernails that need to be trimmed. How cool is that?”

Here I am meeting my third child for the first time. Photo taken byMalory Teegarden.

I think we sometimes forget how amazing the human body is when we think about childbirth. I am not talking about the baby’s body; everyone seems to recognize how awesome that is. I’m talking about the mom’s body. Do we forget that we started off as that “amazing” baby? A birthing woman’s body is the same body that started off as two cells that become four, that became eight, and so on as she was knitted together in her mother’s womb.

Her body knew what to do then and it knows what to do now. We can trust in birth- we can trust in our bodies to give birth.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14