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Story · Ajahn Brahm

Labour energy, not labour pain

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Being Afraid | Ajahn Brahm | 16 March 2018

2 min read

Content note: medical/childbirth claims (short, painless labours) unverified — needs framing; book not named (probably Ina May Gaskin, Spiritual Midwifery, The Farm)

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

this is one of the books which I remember we had in our monastery so many years ago. It was about how to give birth. How when you're pregnant, how to give birth. We had this in a monastery full of monks in northeast Thailand. And people go, "What you got that in here for?" And the reason we had it in there for because it was actually a wonderful example just of how you can change the world by changing attitudes. So in this birthing book which apparently people said became like a almost like a standard text. It was you know basically practiced by a bunch of hippies who you know left you know the summer of love in San Francisco hate Ashbury and just got a little commune together did things differently and of course young people uh when people got pregnant. Number one they never called it labor pain. That was a no no. Call it labor pain and it becomes pain. They call it labor energy. Now this, you know, you think this is not much, but when for, you know, when you found out you're pregnant for seven months or 6 months or whatever, being conditioned, you know, the first couple of months, you don't know. Maybe I don't really know what I'm talking about, but you know, roughly you get the idea that um that when you call it labor energy, call it labor pain, it changes the psychology of it. And of course, they didn't just have the the um the the husband there. They had just the whole family just about. Everybody was like at a football match. And when you had a big contraction, yeah, go for it. Wow, that's a big one. Wow, that was amazing. And everyone was cheering them along. And because it was just so much like a party when they were giving birth and they never looked at pain, they their labors were incredibly short. They had a had a a a doctor, you know, a a doctor from the local town or something who was just amazed at this, you know, how it well it worked. Short, not painful, and amazing babies were born because they took away the idea of fear from the whole process.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 7:39 (to 9:58)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

A birthing book from a hippie commune, of all places in a Thai forest monastery, spoke of labour energy, not labour pain, with the family cheering every contraction. Ajahn Brahm reports its claims second-hand; birth still needs proper care. The lesson is broader: we learn much of our fear, and changing the words we use can soften it.

In brief (our summary)

A monastery full of monks in north-east Thailand kept a book on how to give birth. It came from a commune of hippies who left Haight-Ashbury after the summer of love: they never said 'labour pain', only 'labour energy', and the whole family attended, cheering each contraction like a football crowd. A local doctor was amazed: labours were short, not painful, and amazing babies were born — because they took fear out of the process.

Teaching point

Changing the perception — the words and the atmosphere — can remove fear and with it much of the pain.

When this story may help

  • pregnancy
  • childbirth
  • facing pain

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Being Afraid | Ajahn Brahm | 16 March 2018 · 2018-03-18 · ▶ watch from 7:39 to 9:58 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

2 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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