Giving birth is one of the most incredible, powerful things you can d0. I knew I wanted a natural birth with my first baby, but the life-changing intensity - and world-shaking process - of giving birth was a lot to work up to. I read a lot about birth, and collected natural birth quotes and read them over and over…

…19 years (and 8 babies) later, these are some of my favorite natural birth quotes. They will inspire you to find the strength that’s already deep inside - and carry you as you step into your power to bring your baby into the world.

Natural Birth Quotes that Bring Out Your Power

1. "Whenever and however you intend to give birth, your experience will impact your emotions, your mind, your body, and your spirit for the rest of your life."

~Ina May Gaskin~

2. "There is a power that comes to women when they give birth. They don’t ask for it, it simply invades them. Accumulates like clouds on the horizon and passes through, carrying the child with it."

~Sheryl Feldman~

3. "There’s no point in belittling or ridiculing women for standing up and saying that they want a natural birth - and doing the work it takes to get it."

~Kristen Burgess~

Get All 21 Quotes as a Beautiful Printable

4. "We must understand that childbirth is fundamentally a spiritual, as well as a physical, achievement. The birth of a child is the ultimate perfection of human love."

~Dr. Grantly Dick-Read~

5. "A woman in birth is at once her most powerful, and most vulnerable. But any woman who has birthed unhindered understands that we are stronger than we know."

~Marcie Macari~

6. "Birth is not only about making babies. It’s about making mothers; strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and believe in their inner strength."

~Barbara Katz Rothman~

7. "Birth should not be a time in a woman’s life when she has to FIGHT for anything."

~Carla Hartley~

8. "Remember this, for it is as true as true gets: your body is not a lemon. You are not a machine. The Creator is not a careless mechanic. Human female bodies have the same potential to give birth well as aardvarks, lions, rhinoceri, elephants, moose, and water buffalo. Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body."

~Ina May Gaskin~

9. "The wisdom and compassion a woman can intuitively experience in childbirth can make her a source of healing and understanding for other women."

~Stephen Gaskin~

10. "In giving birth to our babies, we may find that we give birth to new possibilities within ourselves."

~Jon Kabat-Zinn~

11. "Before I had children I always wondered whether their births would be, for me, like the ultimate in gym class failures. And I discovered instead… that I’d finally found my sport."

~Joyce Maynard~

12. "We learn over and over that the best way to safeguard our mothers and babies is to feed them well, support them, and let them birth as nature intended"

~Kristen Burgess~

13. "Although the popularly desired outcome is ‘healthy mother, healthy baby,’ I think there is room in that equation for ‘happy, non-traumatized, empowered and elated mother and baby."

~Midwifery Today~

14. "Birth isn't something we suffer, but something we actively do, and exalt in!"

~Sheila Kitzinger~

15. "When I say painless, please understand, I don’t mean you will not feel anything. What you will feel is a lot of pressure; you will feel the might of creation move through you. Pain, however, is associated with something gone wrong. Childbirth is a lot of hard work, and the sensations that accompany it are very strong, but there is nothing wrong with labor."

~Giuditta Tornetta~

16. "However much we know about birth in general, we know nothing about a particular birth. We must let it unfold with its own uniqueness."

~Elizabeth Noble~

17. "Childbirth is an experience in a woman’s life that holds the power to transform her forever. Passing through these powerful gates – in her own way – remembering all the generations of women who walk with her… She is never alone."

~Suzanne Arms~

18. "Birth matters. It brings us into being, on many levels."

~Ananda Lowe~

19. "The same movements that get the baby in, get the baby out."

~Birthing From Within~

20. "Muscles send messages to each other. Clenched fists, a tight mouth, a furrowed brow, all send signals to the birth-passage muscles, the very ones that need to be loosened. Opening up to relax these upper-body parts relaxes the lower ones."

~Dr. Sears~

21. "Birth is vast and multifaceted; radiant and mysterious. Birth contains multitudes, and through her we birth our multitudes. We give birth to our hopes and our fears, to our ecstasies and our agonies, to our joy and our disappointments. We give birth to our babies, each one perfect and radiant. We give birth through our instincts, and we give birth to our instincts. We give birth to our capacity for instincts, which will match us perfectly with our babies, who are, and always will be, instinctive creatures. May we all be blessed through instinctive birth."

~Sarah Buckley~

Get All 21 Quotes as a Beautiful Printable