Authors: Chana Weisberg
ISBN-13: 9789657108512, ISBN-10: 9657108519
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Urim Publications
Date Published: April 2005
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Expecting Miracles is a collection of refreshingly honest and inspiring interviews with traditionally observant Jewish mothers about their diverse experiences of pregnancy and childbearing. It is about the ways in which mothers have managed to make these important stages in their lives into a time for personal growth, spirituality and real-life miracles. These wonderfully different, engaging and vibrant women, who represent a wide cross-section of the religious community, will quickly draw you in. Their personal stories will energize you to approach your own pregnancy with new insights and understanding. Have you ever asked yourself what Judaism can teach you about pregnancy? Leading Jewish women scholars, including Rabbaniot Chana Henkin, Tziporah Heller and Emuna Witt offer illuminating ideas for making these nine months more meaningful. Shaarei Tsedek Medical Center's Bambi Chalkowski, Jerusalem's most senior midwife, and alternative birthing midwife Sarah Landau will leave you more confident and well-informed for your journey of bringing your new baby into the world. In addition, you will discover that Jewish mysticism holds a treasure-chest of practical ideas as well as kabbalistic breathing exercises to make your birth a more positive and spiritually-enhancing experience.
Everyone talks about the "miracle of pregnancy," but how often have you, the expectant mother, actually felt that way about this experience? After the first burst of enthusiasm when you received the results of your pregnancy test, you have probably found, as most of us do, that processing this earth-shaking transition gets pushed aside by the rush and routine of daily life and the unrelenting demands of work/study, family and home. The time that you take to read this book over the course of your pregnancy will provide the necessary space in your life to recapture that original sense of awe and wonder, and will enable you to discover ways in which you can revitalize your pregnancy experience by growing and developing along with the baby inside of you. Expecting Miracles is filled with emotions that will touch the heart of anyone who has ever traveled the path towards motherhood and will inspire readers to find meaning, spirituality and Jewish expression in their own childbearing experiences. It provides new insights for pregnant women through a diverse array of personal accounts of pregnancy and childbirth by traditionally observant women living in Jerusalem, and includes interviews with distinguished educators and midwives, who discuss how pregnancy and childbirth relate to Judaism and the religious community.
Introduction--My Story | 13 | |
About the Women in this Book | 26 | |
Religious Jewish Women and Childbearing--An Overview | 29 | |
Miracles | 38 | |
Section 1 | A Time to Prepare for Motherhood | 49 |
1. | Fourteen Babies Calling from Heaven | 51 |
2. | "Shlomo Says" | 61 |
3. | Motherhood and a Spiritual Awakening | 63 |
4. | "What I Do and What You Do" | 70 |
5. | The Reluctant Mother | 71 |
Section 2 | A Time to Accept that We are Not in Control | 79 |
6. | Three Babies in Twelve Months and Avodat Hashem | 81 |
7. | Learning Torah in the Womb | 89 |
8. | The Power of Weakness | 90 |
9. | "A Pretty Techinah for a Pregnant Woman" | 100 |
10. | From Intellectual M.D. to Spiritual Mother | 101 |
11. | "A Shlomo Story" | 109 |
Section 3 | A Time to Pray | 111 |
12. | Spiritual Nutrition | 113 |
13. | "The Capacity of the Holy One" | 122 |
14. | The Mikveh Lady | 124 |
15. | "Giraffe Fish" | 129 |
16. | I'm on My Feet, Baruch Hashem | 130 |
17. | "Prayers Throughout Pregnancy" | 138 |
18. | Breaking Through the Cold Hard Rock | 139 |
19. | A Techinah for a Pregnant Woman to Say for Herself | 145 |
20. | Prayer, Pregnancy and Spiritual Amplification | 147 |
Section 4 | A Time to Find the Right Shlichim | 155 |
21. | A Diabetic Pregnancy and God's Help | 157 |
22. | "Praying for Mothers in the Temple" | 166 |
23. | Pregnancy Culture Shock | 167 |
24. | "The Effect of What You Eat" | 175 |
25. | Mother of Fifteen in Meah Shearim | 176 |
Section 5 | A Time to Overcome Challenges | 183 |
26. | Pregnancy and Sexual Abuse | 185 |
27. | Rebecca's Response to Despair in Pregnancy | 193 |
28. | Hyperemesis--Recovery from a Traumatic Pregnancy | 195 |
29. | "Childbirth and Redemption" | 204 |
30. | Birthing Towards the Final Redemption | 205 |
Section 6 | A Time to Invest in Ourselves | 213 |
31. | Being Happy is Hard Work | 215 |
32. | "Serious Cravings" | 223 |
33. | Educated Imas | 224 |
34. | "Unstruck Match" | 230 |
35. | Motherhood and Coping Emotionally | 231 |
Section 7 | A Time to Start Noticing Miracles | 241 |
36. | My Mother and Me | 243 |
37. | "The Blessing of Sarah" | 250 |
38. | A Modern Day Sara Imenu | 251 |
39. | "Chana Begging at the Feast" | 260 |
40. | Nine Months to a Baby--a Different Way | 262 |
Section 8 | A Time to Look Forward to the Miracle of Birth | 273 |
41. | The Privilege and the Lesson of Giving Birth | 275 |
42. | "Climbing in Utero" | 284 |
43. | Meaningful Screams | 285 |
44. | A Techinah to Say for a Woman During Childbirth | 293 |
45. | The Miracle of Pain Relief | 295 |
46. | A Chassidic View | 303 |
47. | P'nimiyut HaTorah and Childbearing | 305 |
Section 9 | A Time to Prepare for a Spiritual and Safe Birth Experience | 317 |
48. | Jerusalem's Midwife | 319 |
49. | "Toward a Meaningful Birth" | 326 |
50. | Spiritual Midwifery | 327 |
51. | A Rebbetzin's Thoughts on Childbirth | 334 |
52. | Birth and Breslov: Living Rebbe Nachman's Teachings | 336 |
53. | "A Kabbalistic Birth Meditation" | 343 |
Glossary | 351 |