Article written by Dr. Michelle Strydom MD, Photo by Daniel Reche
I’d like you to open your heart to consider that God intended the birth experience to be beautiful, wonderful, fulfilling and healing for the woman. This teaching is for God to come into this generation and restore to women what was lost and what the enemy has robbed from them in the birth experience. Before reading through this chapter, there are two other chapters that you need to read through first which have important background information:
Before reading through this chapter, there are two other chapters that you need to read through first which have important background information:
1. “How Long Term Fear, Anxiety and Stress Affects The Body” on page 180 – fear has a great impact on how a birth unfolds. Thus you need to understand the different stages of stress and the body’s response to stress hormones.
2. “Genetically Inherited Diseases” on page 153 – we have to take into account generational iniquities because these also affect the baby and the birth process.
Nearly every woman you meet nowadays has had a bad birth experience. They have horrific stories of how it was excruciating and terrible. There are many people who have had to overcome issues coming from a traumatic birth – cords wrapped around necks, not being able to breathe and all sorts of problems that stem from that. During my training as a doctor I worked for several months in the government hospitals in the Obstetrics department where I spent the entire time delivering babies. Sometimes I felt like I was in a horror movie with all the women in the labor ward screaming in agony and the many complications that I had to deal with. I saw miscarriages, still births, cord wrapped around necks, severe physical trauma to mothers who Open your heart to consider that God intended the birth experience to be beautiful, wonderful, fulfilling and healing. suffered third degree tears, breach deliveries and many other terrible things. And so we have a mindset that has infiltrated our society that giving birth is an awful experience but there are epidurals and other drugs you can take to get you through it. The idea of giving birth naturally with no medical intervention or drugs sounds shocking. Even as Christians we have accepted the idea that delivering babies is a painful, terrible experience because of the curse on women in Genesis after the fall of Adam and Eve where God said that your sorrows will greatly multiply in childbirth.
Open your heart to consider that God intended the birth experience to be beautiful, wonderful, fulfilling and healing.
Genesis 3 v 16: “Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, in sorrow thou shall bring forth children.” KJV
Amplified Bible: “To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your grief and your suffering in pregnancy and the pangs of childbearing; with spasms of distress you will bring forth children.”
Firstly, when Jesus died on the cross, He became a curse for us so that our sins may be forgiven and that by His stripes we would be healed and made whole. There is power in the blood of Jesus to break all curses over our lives including the curse of child bearing. We are relieved from that curse when we appropriate that blessing by faith.
Isaiah 53 v 4-5: “Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered him stricken, smitten and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well being was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.”
Secondly, according to the Strong’s Concordance, the words in Genesis 3 v 16 which talk about the woman’s sorrow being multiplied during child birth are not referring to pain as we understand it. When we use the word pain, we equate it to the pain that we would, for example get when we have an injury. However that is not what this scripture is referring to. The word actually comes from toil which is also what Adam had to do when the curse was put on him for his sin. The word toil also means pang which is a pressure that comes – in other words a contraction during labor. So if you understand this scripture correctly the word pressure should take the place of the word pain and therefore, Biblically, a painless delivery is possible. And all those women who have had children are going to say, “Yeah, right!” This is not an ideal world but I have listened to several testimonies of women who have learnt the principles of this teaching, applied it and who have literally had a painless birth. It’s possible! God intended our births to be beautiful and wonderful, although easy is not in the equation because labor is labor.
The key issue is to get rid of the fear of pain, fear of giving birth and the fear of the unknown and then you really won’t experience what we understand to be pain during your labor and delivery.
The Fear of Giving Birth and the Fear of Pain
It is very important, especially for first time mothers, to be educated about what physically happens in the birth process and to know what to expect during labor. Education and getting rid of fear is crucial. The chapter I initially referred you to explained how fear affects the body and it also has a huge impact on the birth process because fear affects the body in the same way during birth. Medical research has shown that anxiety will increase the level of pain experienced by the mother. She becomes exhausted more quickly and this in turn prolongs the labor which ultimately has adverse effects on the baby. If you have fear and anxiety in your thought life during labor and the delivery, your body will go into stage 1, 2 and 3 of stress. Because you are in the “fight or flight” state, the blood flow is shunted away from your uterus to your brain, heart, arms and legs so that you are geared up to either fight or run for your life (flight). As a result the uterus does not get enough blood and oxygen. The labor becomes unproductive because the uterus does not have the fuel or energy to effectively contract and push the baby out like it is meant to. Therefore it is very important to get rid of fear and anxiety so that your body can function in the labor and delivery process as God designed it to.
The key issue is to get rid of the fear of pain, fear of giving birth and the fear of the unknown
The key is to keep your mind fixed on the Lord and His Word throughout the whole birth process. God said in Isaiah 26 v 3: “You will guard and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.”
Another scripture that is very special is the Lord’s promise in Hebrews 13 v 5-6 “God Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will, not, I will not, I will not [the Amplified Bible really does say “I will not” three times!] in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake you nor let you down or relax My hold on you. Assuredly not! So we can take comfort and be encouraged and confidently and boldly say: “The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm. I will not fear or dread or be terrified.”
Some women have found it helpful to take some praise and worship into the birth room. When your mind is at peace, your body is at peace. As a result the blood flow to your uterus will be good and the contractions will be effective. Therefore the labor will progress well. Furthermore although you will feel a discomfort during the contractions, they will not be painful.
As I explained in the Introduction of this book, much of my understanding of the spiritual aspects of disease comes from the teaching of Pastor Henry Wright. His wife, Donna Wright had a painless birth when she delivered her daughter. She reported that the only time she had pain was when she was on her way to the hospital and she had this thought, “Oh dear, I might have her in the car” and she had fear come in. At that moment a contraction was coming and she tensed. Fear will make your muscles tense. Your muscles are not able to respond the way they are supposed to when you are all tensed up, anxious and in fear. She quickly got rid of that fearful thought and repented of it. She had her baby in 45 minutes and apparently it was a beautiful birth. So you need to appropriate even what medical science is telling you – get out of fear and your body will behave nicely.
When you feel the intensity of the contraction as it presses down on the baby, it may be uncomfortable (I didn’t say painful) but it is important that you don’t resist it. Contractions are good – they might not feel good but they are a good thing. They were designed by God and are necessary to get the baby out! Think about it practically: we have a big baby that needs to go through a small exit door but God has designed a way to miraculously make this happen. Therefore rather than resisting those contractions when they come, get into agreement with God’s plan for your body. Say, “This is good, this is a God thing. Lord, You are helping me push this baby down.” The labor and delivery will be a lot easier if you do this.
Here is another woman’s testimony about her birth experience: “A friend and my husband were with me in my labor. We were prayed up [It’s not really the time to start praying when you are in labor – you should be prayed up by the time you get to the birth room]. I had gone through everything. We had really walked through this. With everything I had I just believed and I was so excited about this. But I also knew that if it didn’t go that way then it didn’t go that way and I had come to that peaceful place. I had educated myself a whole lot – I had done a lot of reading on the biology part of things but I didn’t know how strong things were supposed to feel – you don’t know. We took some praise music for me which was helpful. It was the most awesome experience I think I could describe. God met me in every way. There was no screaming or squeezing or none of that stuff – it was a very calm experience. In Isaiah He tells us that if you keep your mind focused on Him He’ll keep you in perfect peace…and that’s exactly where my mind was – on God. I just stayed completely at peace and released myself to what was happening. It wasn’t a long labor. 10 minutes after the delivery I told my husband I was ready to do the whole thing again! The doctor was leaving and I said “Wait you can’t leave, what about my placenta?” She said, “Honey that’s gone!” After the birth I just felt whole and complete. I told my husband that I think God blessed women with this. I think it’s a huge blessing and sometimes I told him, “I think you guys miss out – I really do.” It was the most wonderful and incredible experience and then came our precious little baby…”
It’s really just about getting a whole new mindset: we’ve all been taught that child birth is rough, tough stuff but God has always had something beautiful to give us but we haven’t been able to appropriate it because of our ignorance and the different fears that we have.
Some people have to get delivered of the fear that comes from previous traumatic births that they had. One woman phoned Henry Wright’s ministry – they had to pray for this woman over the phone and say, “I release you from the fear from that last birth.” This lady was having a difficult labor because she had so much fear from what had happened last time. She was worried that it was going to happen again and that fear was affecting how her body was functioning physically. After being prayed for and being delivered of that fear, that lady’s baby dropped and came down into birthing position. She gave birth soon after that. That’s just an example of how when you are clammed up with fear it affects how you carry your baby and how your labor and delivery unfolds.
Don’t allow your friends to tell you their horror stories about their births. When they tell you about somebody who had a traumatic birth, you will struggle with the fear that it might happen to you. Having a difficult delivery is not contagious. But fear is! So just politely say, “Excuse me, I don’t want to hear that thank you. Only positive stories please.” Pregnancy is a very vulnerable time and you need to guard your heart against fear.
I’d like to challenge you to begin to have faith that God’s plan is for your birth experience to be wonderful. Every time a fearful thought comes to your mind during your pregnancy that the birth may be diff icult or painful, simply say something like, “Father I repent for believing this fear. I ask you to forgive me. In faith I’m trusting You that my birth will be all that You intended it to be in all its beauty and fullness.” Even if you have to do it 25 times a day, just keep renewing your mind and bringing those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10 v 5). It’s a journey and you need to just take it step by step.
Why You Need to Labor for it
The parents and grandparents of today lived in a generation where they knew what it was to work very hard. However life for the young generation in our society today has been made very, very easy. We have washing machines, dish washers, microwaves, cars, cell phones etc The young generation of today does not have a clue as to how good they have it and because life has been made so easy for them, many of them do not have a very good work ethic. They think that everything must be handed to them on a silver plate. When they get married they expect to have everything that mom and dad have to start with and don’t take into account that they worked a lifetime to get where they are. They buy everything on a credit card so that they can have the luxuries now rather than working for it and earning the money first.
Before the fall Adam and Eve also had it very easy. They lived in the Garden of Eden where there was a buffet of fruit whenever they felt like it, there was no need to work and they enjoyed fellowship with God in the cool of the evenings. It couldn’t get any better than that. Adam and Eve didn’t have to put in any real effort for anything. Then when they sinned, God declared the consequences of that would be that Adam had to work in the lands and Eve would also have to work during childbirth. What was God’s wisdom in requiring a woman to labor during childbirth? Well when you have to really work for something, when you finally get it you appreciate it so much more than if it was just handed to you on a silver platter. During childbirth, when a woman has to work for it (I didn’t say pain for it), there is a deep work that occurs within her that one cannot begin to articulate in words. Medical studies have shown that epidurals and caesarians take something away from the woman that was supposed to be accomplished during the birth process and they are subsequently more prone to postnatal depression.
How the Woman is Saved during Childbirth
In 1 Timothy 2 v 15 it says that a woman shall be saved in child bearing. The word saved in that scripture is not referring to salvation – women do not gain their salvation through having children! That word saved means that she shall be healed through child bearing; it also means that she shall be preserved and made whole. One of the things that the enemy has tried to cheat women from in the birth experience is being healed, preserved and made whole. When a woman goes from the beginning to the end of the child birth process without some extreme medical intervention or drugs, there is a deep work that is accomplished within her body and soul that is unparalleled to anything in the world that a woman could ever experience.
Here is part of a testimony of one woman who had a beautiful and painless birth: “I don’t condemn anybody who had epidurals because I would have been the first candidate to raise my hand for pain relief but it’s just that I didn’t need it. The way that God met me in those moments is a way that is hard to talk about without getting emotional. It restored to me my womanhood in a way that I didn’t know I needed to be restored. It took me to a place in my womanhood, in my identity and in my being where there was a strengthening in who I am. When I have times in my life where I’m having a really rough day or am going through a difficult period, this sounds so bizarre but what I think about to encourage myself in the Lord is my birthing experience! Most people don’t want to think about it ever again! But the way God met me and the way God brought life into me through trusting Him through that experience – I’m a better woman because of it. I have more to give out to anybody who comes near me because of what happened in that birthing time where it says that you’ll be healed, preserved and be made whole. That’s what the Lord intended during child birth. I don’t know how He came up with the idea to use that in a birthing experience but He did and I believe that that is what the enemy wants to rob from women.”
Through child bearing women are healed, preserved and made whole.
If you didn’t experience a good birth, God can still restore to you what you lost because He is God – it doesn’t mean you have to go have a baby and relive a birthing experience so you can be restored, healed, preserved and made whole. Childbirth is probably one of many different situations in life that God uses to heal and restore us. If you ask Him, God will restore the years that the locusts have eaten in your life. You can go to Him and say “God I was ripped off back in 1963 and I’m coming to you to get that restoration.”
It is not only the women that benefit from the work that is done during the birth experience but also the men. They are the first ones to reap the fruit of a woman being healed, preserved and made whole. This is why this teaching is for God to come and restore to women what has been lost; because what the women have been robbed of, the men have been robbed of also. The birth experience is also an important bonding time – between the woman and God, between the woman and her husband and with her baby. It’s a time like no other where she learns to trust in God more deeply, rest in Him and just see what He’s going to do.
If you are a person who always likes to be in control, I recommend that you get over that issue before you go into labor because when you’re in labor, you’re going until you’re done and you get to a place where only God knows what is going on in your body. Even if the birth is going really well and it’s all great, there comes a place in that birth when it’s you and God and nobody else. It’s a place that can’t be adequately described in words but it is a place that every woman who has given birth knows: this is where you get to that point where you think, “Am I going to die?” It’s not because you’re in pain physically, it is just that it is the strangest place you have ever been because you have zero control over your body. That body will do what it is made to do whether you like it or not! And when that thought comes, your relationship with God is the biggest factor that pulls you through that moment.
Allow God to deal with any fear and control issues in your life because it will affect the way your baby is born and interfere with His plan for your birth experience.
Don’t Try to Tailor Make Your Own Birth Experience
Something that many women don’t realize when they get married is that their bodies are no longer their own (see 1 Corinthians 7 v 4). When you said, “I do” you gave the power of your body over to your husband, and part of that was for having babies. Furthermore, once you conceive and that baby is grows on the inside of you and is eventually born, it is going to get everything. In a sense it is going to rule your life. You may have to change the way you eat, how you think about the way you look and you may have to change your ways about what you can do physically. You are going to have to breast feed and you are going to realize that your body doesn’t belong to you any more.
We tend to be very self-centered. It’s all about what we want and need. However, when it comes to your birth experience I would like to encourage you to shift your mindset from what it is you think you want to what God wants for you. Many women want to tailor make their own birthing experience: “I want this but I don’t want that. I want to be in labor for this long and for the delivery to work out in this way at this time etc” And so they have this whole mental ideal about how their perfect birth experience should unfold and what they want. It’s OK to have these desires and in fact many of them are very health orientated. However, often the birth doesn’t go exactly as we planned and then when it’s finished we are disillusioned and disappointed because we think we’ve failed God, failed our babies or failed ourselves. Because the birth didn’t work out the way we wanted it to, we think that we didn’t get the birth experience that God ordained. But that may not necessarily be true.
What we should be saying is, “How does God want it to be?” Only God knows that child. He is the only One who knows the child’s personality and what its gifts and talents are going to be. Therefore only God knows what that child needs and what is the best for it. So we need to trust God and ask Him to tailor make the birth experience for what is best for the child. What we want at the end of the day is a healthy baby and a healthy mother and we’re going to trust God on how to achieve that. We need to say, “Lord, as parents we want what You want. We want to make sure that You get what You saw when you created this child before the foundation of the world and the birth is a significant part of that. We are going to trust You Lord to orchestrate the birth according to Your divine plan for this child.”
We need to trust God and ask Him to tailor make the birth experience for what is best for the child.
In Exodus chapter 1 v 15 – 20 a decree was issued from Egypt where the king ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill the male babies when the Hebrew women gave birth. When the king saw that the midwives were not doing this he called them in to find out why they had allowed the male babies to live. The midwives said that they couldn’t get there in time because the Hebrew women delivered the babies too quickly. The midwives told the king that the Hebrew women were not as the Egyptian women – they were lively! The Hebrew women were pushing those babies out before the midwives even arrived on the scene. What God allowed then, He can allow now and that is that the labor and delivery happens in a timely manner. I mentioned previously that Donna Wright gave birth to her daughter in 45 minutes. Now we can’t use that as a standard as God’s timing is different for every woman because every child is different, but it should certainly be a goal in our generation. There is no formula or set pattern of what labor and delivery should look like. I cannot tell you exactly how long it should be because it depends on what you can handle and what God wants to do. It is a different journey for each woman. So rather than comparing yourself with other women, trust in what God has for you.
Here is part of one woman’s testimony and the lesson she had to learn in trusting God and His timing rather than on what she wanted: “I like to have my babies in a timely manner. I don’t want to sit there for 2 or 3 days in labor and we shouldn’t. But when I was having my 3rd child I realized that it wasn’t going like I like to have my babies. And it was bothering me! I tell you the mental stuff and spiritual stuff was more laborious than having my baby because I’m thinking “Do I need to repent for something? Have I done something wrong?” And that’s when you start bouncing these things off your other helpers and they’re like “You’re fine. Chill out. Just rest.” And you know this scripture popped into my head…and I didn’t even know what the scripture was…I just heard Hebrews 10 v 35. I asked my husband to go read it for me and it said, “Cast not away your confidence which has great recompense of reward” Because I was starting to go into self doubt and was wondering if I had done something wrong.
I was beginning to think that I can’t do this. God said don’t cast away your confidence for you have need of patience! Now this is out of context – if you read all of Hebrews chapter 10 God is not talking about a birthing situation, but He was talking to me in that hospital room at that very moment, “You have need of patience. But after you have done the will of God (and for me the will of God was to have peace and confidence at that point) you might receive the promise, for yet a little while and he that shall come (and it was a boy ok) and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith” So God met me with a word right then and it helped me. That was a turning point. I was at 8cm (2cm more before I can push the baby out) and I was at no discomfort…that’s a God thing! I ended up waiting at 8cm for a few hours and it was starting to get uncomfortable but as soon as God gave me that word, I had the understanding that this isn’t about me. God gave me that conclusion – this is not about me or my birthing experience.
This is about my child. He wasn’t in any hurry to come and I understood that. It started coming to me that this is about how God wants me to bring him into the world – not about what kind of testimony I’m going to have about what God has done in my life. It’s about my child’s life. When we got to the point of letting God have his way with my body and that child and I got out of the way, that was fun. I found a place of joy and gladness in birthing and that’s a God thing. I was singing songs because God was doing something in my heart that was very spiritual at the time and God can do what ever He wants to if we get out of the way.”
I encourage you to go into the birth room with the attitude that you’d like to do it as natural as possible but if at any point you can’t handle it – order the pain medication! There is no need for you to be a martyr. It is not a failure on your part, it is a place of help. Many of the testimonies of women that I have listened to who gave birth naturally didn’t have pain medication simply because they didn’t need it. However if for some reason it doesn’t go that way for you, don’t lose your peace. Sometimes things happen in a birth that we didn’t plan for. You just have to look at your options and keep going. Keep trusting and depending on God.
Something that is difficult to deal with where the fear factor is concerned is when you go over your due date. At this time the doctors start getting unsettled and begin pressuring you to induce your labor with medical drugs. The reason is because the medical literature indicates that there is an increased risk of fetal distress during the delivery and meconium aspiration when a pregnancy progresses beyond 42 weeks. Fetal distress is a medical term which means that the baby is in trouble for some reason (for example is not getting enough oxygen) and is in danger. Meconium is the first stool that a baby passes. If the baby passes meconium while it is still in the womb (this is one of the signs of fetal distress), it could swallow and choke on some of the meconium.
If the meconium gets into the lungs it can cause damage and lead to pneumonia. Despite the fact that these complications are rare and the possibility of them occurring is so minimal, doctors will want to induce labor because they also have to cover themselves. If you were allowed to continue with the pregnancy and these complications developed, they would be liable to be sued. However the most common cause of a pregnancy being over due is incorrect dates i.e. the due date was not calculated correctly.
Most of the time going over dates is not a bad thing. In this light, to those of you who are not pregnant but who know a pregnant woman: when she is very large, looking like she is about to pop and near to or over her due date, please do not go and say to her, “You haven’t had that baby yet! Aren’t you supposed to have had it by now?!!” This is only going to unsettle her and she doesn’t need that. Remember I explained that pregnancy is a very vulnerable time for the woman. She needs your encouragement and positive affirmation. The timing of the baby’s birth comes from the Father and His timing is always perfect. He is the One Who calls that child forth.
You’re Blessed, You’re There to Be Blessed and to be a Blessing
Many women who are pregnant act like they are sick or disabled. Pregnancy is not a curse! It’s a blessing! Infertility is a curse! I encourage you to have the same attitude as this lady who said the following while she was sharing her testimony about her labor and delivery, “I decided that when I went there I was not going to act like I’m sick. I put on my Nike shoes and I had my jogging pants on. I said “No thank you” to the wheel chair. I went up to labor and delivery and said, “I’m here to have a baby!” I was not going to be there because I am sick and there is something terribly wrong with me – I’m there because I’m blessed, I’m there to be blessed and I’m there to bless. I’m just going to be myself and I’m not going to be Miss Sicky while I’m there. As soon as I’d had the baby I put on my make up and when the doctor came afterwards he thought I was the sister visiting.”
Catching the Attention of the World
When you see the women doing what God intended and the childbirth being a wonderful, beautiful and peaceful experience– it catches the attention of the world. Donna Wright and various other ladies who have had a birth experience as God ordained have had the nurses and head nurses come and say, “We just don’t see that kind of thing around here. How did you do that? What church do you go to? What religion are you all?” They have even been asked to go and share their testimonies and teach the students at nursing colleges. There is no better form of evangelism than demonstrating God’s power and love through the way that you live.
The Importance of the Father’s Covering
In the 1960’s doctors became the authority. It was “The doctor knows what is best and what he says goes.” During this time medicine made a very big mistake and that was to take the father out of the birth room. Husbands were not allowed to be there with their wives while they were delivering their babies. We have allowed our culture to take away what God intended for us to be together. Natural birth is not just about taking medicine out, it is about putting the fathers back in. The man has a very important role to play during child birth. Granted men are not very helpful in the actual birth process and certainly don’t have a clue as to what you are going through. However the husband is the spiritual covering and authority in his family. When a man has been there to cover his wife, it has prevented many things in the birthing situation, including death. Furthermore just being there with the woman to encourage her through the process does something for the woman that is just incredible. She’s comforted by him being there and she wants him there. Most importantly, the husband must be there so that as soon as the child comes out, he (or she) hears daddy speaking blessing over him. The father needs to be there saying to his child, “Good boy! You’re a good son! Good girl! What a beautiful daughter you are! I’m so glad you were born! You are such a blessing and you are going to be blessed everywhere you go and in all you do!” We are yet to see the phenomenal results in the next generation from the fathers being there to cover their wives, administer the father’s love and speak blessing over their children as they are coming forth out of the womb.
We are yet to see the phenomenal results from the fathers speaking blessing over their children as they are coming forth out of the womb.
Don’t underestimate the power of the father’s covering. Donna Wright told the story of when she was pregnant with one of her daughters. The baby would often stick its foot under her rib which was very uncomfortable. She would get her husband, Henry Wright to speak to the child and tell it to move – and every time the child moved. She knew that it was because he has authority over her and her child. Husbands must speak health and wholeness into the woman’s body, sometimes on a daily basis. The Bible says that the power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs 18 v 21) and that is very true when it comes to fathers speaking over their pregnant wives and unborn children. Incredible things have happened when fathers spoke to ligaments and commanded them to stretch nicely, to bones to tell them to get ready for the birth and for the baby to get into the correct birthing position.
Husbands, when your wives are pregnant they need your affirmation. A pregnant woman is a beautiful woman and she needs to hear you tell her that. Whatever your woman looks like, even if her belly and hips are three times as big as yours, you tell her that she looks good.
There are some women who are not able to have a husband there to cover and support them when they deliver their babies. That is ok. The Bible says that your first husband is the Lord and He will be there to cover you and help you when your earthly husband can’t be there for you.
Isaiah 54 v 5: “For Your Maker is your Husband – the Lord of Hosts is His Name – and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; the Lord God of the whole earth He is called.”
Generational Iniquities Need to be Dealt With
Unfortunately in our families and in our lives we are carriers of iniquity – we don’t want to be, but we are. If we just leave these things un-dealt with, those iniquities running through our bloodline in our family tree will affect our children as well. One of the principles I am teaching in this book is that God’s perfect will is actually not healing, His perfect will is that you don’t get sick. The same principles that you apply to be healed are the same principles that when applied to your life now will prevent disease. You can prevent disease in your children’s lives by getting right with God and repenting for those iniquities in your life and in the generations of your family tree. You can by faith appropriate the redemption provided by Jesus on the cross and in His Name break the power of sin generationally. It is not only possible for God to reverse the curse but He can also heal genetic defects in the gift of miracles… and He does. I explained genetically inherited diseases and how to deal with them in more detail in the chapter on page 153.
It is a good idea for engaged couples and ideally before the child is conceived to deal with as many of the generational issues as possible in the family tree. This will not only help the child but it will also help the woman with the birth. It is important to get rid of the spirit of death that may be running through your family tree. If family members in the generations before you had miscarriages or complicated births, f ind out the spiritual roots behind that and deal with it (see page 153). If there’s anything physical in your life that may not be related to pregnancy or birth is still good to take a look and see what the root of that is and deal with it.
Before the child is conceived deal with as many of the generational issues as possible.
Here is a testimony of one women who had to deal with her anger because it was affecting her child in the womb: “When you’re dealing with things like anger and other sins, we not only deal with ourselves but we also turn around and address that child in the womb because we’re passing down our iniquity, like it or not. When I had my first child I wasn’t doing too good and I was angry about something. I justified my anger by saying, “Well Lord You understand”. I felt the baby start kicking and kicking. The baby had not been kicking like that previously – my anger was even affecting the child in the womb. I tell you I repented double time because it’s one thing to deal with your own stuff but when you see it’s affecting another life, you want to deal with it quick. I called my husband in and I said “I need to repent. I’ve got anger going on and it’s affecting this child.” He prayed for me and for the baby. The baby came to total peace and never before or after did that baby act up again like that in the womb. So I want to encourage you that if you are ministering to women that have a child, you can pray for that child in the womb. You don’t have to wait till they are born. You can do it now.”
Before the child is conceived deal with as many of the generational issues as possible.
Even When There’s Complications, God can Still have His Way
I’ve read several case reports where God miraculously intervened in the lives of women who had complications during pregnancy. For example I know of 3 women who had placenta praevia. Placenta preavia is a condition where the placenta attaches in the wrong place in the womb: instead of attaching in the upper portion of the womb, it attaches at the bottom of the womb near the cervix where the baby is supposed to exit the womb when it is being born. As a result doctors have to perform a caesarian to get the baby out because if left to deliver naturally, both the mother and baby’s life could be in danger as a result of complications that can occur with placenta praevia. However, with God, it doesn’t have to be that way. There are spiritual roots behind placenta praevia just like most other diseases. These 3 women dealt with those spiritual roots through repentance. When they went to the doctor and had another ultrasound, in all three women the placenta had moved. From a medical perspective this is a radical miracle because once a placenta is attached, it does not normally move. It is like your ears are attached in a certain place and then after repentance and prayer they suddenly move to a different position! That’s what happened to these women’s placentas in the womb. Here is the testimony of one woman:
15 June 2006: “We especially want to thank all of you who have been praying for us regarding the pregnancy of our little son. There were many days where we wondered if we were going to hold our little one. It was a real fight but the Lord had His hand on us. For those of you who didn’t know, I had a few miscarriages and it looked like I was going to have another one. It was a long nine months. When I was five months along I went into labor but our wonderful church family stood with us interceding and believing. Then we found out we were going to have to have a caesarian because the placenta was blocking the baby from being born. The doctor was concerned that the placenta could detach and cause the baby’s life to be in danger. Once again we began to pray and intercede for a miracle. At my next doctor’s appointment the doctor did another ultrasound and stood there in shock. He said, “I can’t believe it! The placenta totally moved!” We looked at him and told him, “We have been praying for a miracle.” He looked at us and agreed – that is exactly what it was. God had reached into my womb and moved the placenta.”
This baby was born healthy. The mother was healthy. Mark 11 v 22-24: “22And Jesus said to them, Have faith in God [constantly]. 23Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea! And does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him. 24For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it].”
Jesus also said in Matthew 9 v 27 – 29: “According to your faith and trust and reliance [on the power invested in Me] be it done to you.” All things are possible with God! However we have to have the wisdom and discernment to know why these complications happened in the first place; we need to deal with the spiritual roots behind them through prayer, repentance, deliverance and renewing of the mind. Then you will see miracles happen. Placenta praevia! The medical community has never heard of the placenta detaching and reattaching in the right place! That’s a God thing! And so I want to encourage your faith to believe that God can have His way with how He wants our children to be birthed, even in the face of serious complications.
Don’t Come Under Condemnation
In this chapter I have included several testimonies of women who applied God’s principles concerning childbirth and subsequently had beautiful deliveries. However if you had previous births where it didn’t go that way for you, please do not allow the devil to use these testimonies as an accusation to bring you under judgment and condemnation. Some of you had bad experiences in child birth and you may never have any more children. I do believe that the devil robbed you but that doesn’t mean that God is able to heal and restore you in a way that He wants to. The problem is that as Hosea 4 v 6 says that we perish for lack of knowledge. So I have to teach these principles, I can’t avoid telling you the truth because it may offend you. If you have overwhelming feelings of failure because you read through this and realized that you didn’t do things the way they were supposed to have been done – release yourself from that in Jesus’ Name. You need to release yourself from any guilt and shame surrounding bad birth experiences because when Jesus died on the cross He took your guilt and shame. I ask you to please forgive yourself and just let it go. If you had a bad experience with doctors where there were wrong decisions, negligence or malpractice involved – it is very important for your sake that you forgive them. You may even have to forgive God because you feel that He is to blame for what happened or that He let you down. I explain more about forgiveness in the chapter on page 481.
If you were one of those people who went through a bad birth experience, whether you were the child or the mother and whether it was trauma at the time of birth, cords wrapped around necks, not being able to breath, a death and so on, I recommend that you deal with it through ministry. You need a pastor or somebody who is walking close with God to pray over you. You may need deliverance from the spirit of death and ungodly grief. You need to break the power of it in the Name of Jesus so that is no longer affects your mind and body. There is a grief that is a God ordained way of dealing with loss but there is also an ungodly grief that binds you to the past and prevents you from moving forward into the future and taking hold of all God has for you.
Paul said in Philippians 3 v 13 – 14: “One thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.”
REFERENCE: The knowledge in this chapter came from a teaching by Donna Wright and Adrienne Shales called “Giving Birth A More Excellent Way.” To find out more contact the ministry of Henry and Donna Wright at the details shown on the reference page.
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