Thirty Million Times

Read it out loud & see how it feels. Sometimes it feels good just to voice things! Post your spoken word video, using either our poem, or your own birth related poem, in the comments section of our facebook page. We look forward to listening to your expression. #speakingofbirth #birthspokenword #momspeaks #birthart #pregnancyart #birthpoetry

I cannot be rushed or held down.
I start when I am ready and I roar to the finish.
Everyone tries to break me with beds and blades,
but I keep returning as powerful as I was before.

I can be loud. I can be silent. I can be certain.
I'm not afraid to get messy.
Everyone tries to rush me with clocks and timers,
but I return again and again - ready to go slowly.

Sometimes others try to make me more powerful
than I am in the mood for,
with interventions and medicines,
but I am as powerful as I want when I want.

I do a dance that needs time, 
takes motion, requires love. 
I return every single time 
ready to slow dance with baby.

If I'm in a rush I'll let you know
and if I want to go slowly then I'll let you know
and if I just don't have it in me that day,
I will ask for your help. 

So who am I? I am labor.
I am ready to dance with another baby.
I will be ready over one hundred and
​thirty million times just this year.

So stop rushing me.
Stop getting ahead of me.
Stop holding me down.
Stop trying to control me.

Let me be. Let me be.
Let. Me. Be.... Bold and Beautiful.