Hearing the Soul's Voice:
A Midwife's Storyby Elisabeth Hallett
This column has focused on communication before conception--the mind-bending evidence of a pre-existing, conscious soul. But does the soul's communication stop at conception? I propose that it continues throughout pregnancy, and that it has wondrous practical implications.
As dream researcher Robert Moss affirms, "The unborn child communicates not only with its mother, but with receptive people in its environment who may find themselves cast in the role of interpreters or message-carriers"(Dreaming True, NY: Pocket Books, 2000, p.171). Moss calls these receptive people "soul-helpers," and the information they receive is often about a needed change to benefit mother and/or child, such as adding more protein to the mother's diet. Sometimes the message is more like an announcement, as if the soul is introducing itself to a third person who will carry the news to the parents. Through these interactions with an "outsider," independent of any physical connection, the unborn soul adds weight to the evidence that it exists.
The soul's ability to communicate opens up new possibilities for easing the transition of birth for both mother and baby. Claire Winstone, a student of perinatal psychology, realized while recalling her own birth that there had been no one present who was aware of what she was experiencing. She explains, "I felt that everyone was out of sync with me variously coaching impatiently, and panicking, when in my own pain and terror I most needed connection and gentle, sensitive reassurance and encouragement that I could survive that last agonizing scrape over the sacrum and ischial spines." She has suggested having, at each delivery, one attendant whose task is to maintain a connection with the baby (At her website, www.speaking4baby.com, Claire welcomes accounts of such communications from and with babies.)
It is exciting to learn that some babies and some birth attendants have already discovered how to use telepathic communication in pregnancy and labor. "Joy" (not her real name) is a nurse midwife in private practice. She has allowed me to share her story, and hopes that others will be encouraged by it to believe they may indeed be hearing from the unborn soul.
Occasionally an unborn baby of one of my patients "talks" to me telepathically. Most often this happens during labor to suggest some position change to make descent easier, or to tell me of a change in maternal blood pressure, maternal fever, and so on. This information always proves true and often shortens labor. Sometimes the "talking" happens during prenatal office visits to tell me of something affecting the mother at home that I wouldn't know otherwise, such as drug abuse, domestic violence, or extreme stress. I use the information to bring up the subject nonchalantly with the mother and we talk about options from there. These communications do not happen with every baby, seem to be for specific purposes, and end abruptly with the delivery of the baby's head, almost as if it has passed through some veil and communication is not possible for me now.
At least three times I have heard a joyful "I'm coming! I'm coming right now!" as the baby makes a rapid descent and precipitous delivery. I am rushing to the bedside fumbling with my gloves. I ask the baby, "Would you please wait until I get my gloves on?" The reply is always the same: "I can't. I've got to come right NOW!" I know the mothers and fathers must wonder why their nurse-midwife is bursting out laughing as their little one is entering the world but I get tickled at the baby's excited comments and insistence on rushing right out!
Joy's abilities expanded dramatically in response to an urgent need. It began when she received a telephone call from the mother of her friend Lynn (not her real name): "We just found out Lynn was raped several months ago, and she is pregnant -- pretty far along. Will you come over right now?"
You can imagine the genuine shock we all felt -- including the birth mother. She had been in deep denial about the assault and the pregnancy. Even though she was six months along, she hadn't allowed herself to accept it until the doctor's visit that day proved the pregnancy. This shows one of my "blind spots." I am sure all of us who see and hear things must have blind spots, and it is important to know what yours are! I am not one of those people who can just look at a woman and say, "You're pregnant" long before she knows or shows. I cannot know a woman is pregnant until she knows and accepts it. Often then I can know the sex of the baby.
Up until this time, I had only short, specifically purposeful communications with a few babies of my patients -- approximately three or four a month. But that night started a long-term, frequent connection between Lynn's baby and me. He started talking to me that night very soon after I arrived at her mother's home.
I knew the baby was a boy. He expressed disappointment that his hiding place had been found out. It was almost like a little boy with a secret tree house that has just been discovered by adults. He knew he would be discovered at some point, but he was "bummed out!" He said his mother knew about him, of course, on some unconscious level, and that the family dog had known about him from almost the beginning. But he was terrified by the family reaction to his presence. He kept saying over and over, "Don't let them hurt me... Please don't let them hurt me."
As a nurse-midwife, I was the immediate objective consultant who laid out all the options for my friend. She was about to start the last possible week where termination was legal in our state. As much as I disliked that option this late in pregnancy and as hard as it was to discuss above the roaring comments by the baby, I still presented all options to Lynn in a nonbiased fashion. This was her decision to make. After several days she chose adoption as the option she wanted. We all agreed to support her in any decision. But the baby expressed relief to me with this one.
Throughout her pregnancy he continued to talk to me, frequently at times, and then not for days at other times. He explained that to him it didn't matter how he was conceived but that he was coming for a purpose. I asked him which he would choose, if given a choice between being raised by his biological mother or being adopted. His answer consistently was, "I will be where I am supposed to be." He seemed to be a wise, older presence, always answering my questions deeply, patiently, and with great understanding. He seemed to know so much more about the "big picture." After Lynn had picked out the adoptive family, he seemed to be pleased that all was going as it should be.
He continually asked me to share with his biological family that he knew them all --mother, grandmother, grandfather, uncle--and that he loved them dearly even though they may not see much of him after birth. He even knew the adoptive family by name. Love for all of them came flowing over me like ocean waves. They were the most intense feelings I think I have ever experienced. I couldn't help but break out in tears and shake all over. When I asked what he wanted me to call him, he told me "Kevin." Incidentally this is not the name chosen by the adoptive family. He said their name for him "was okay for out there, but for now you should call me Kevin."
Because the family had known Joy for years and knew of her clairvoyant abilities, she was able to share this experience with them, and they found it comforting. Her telepathic connection with "Kevin" eased the traumatic situation not only for him but for the whole family.
Most of the time when he talked to me I was just doing my usual chores when a feeling came over me and his words started spilling into my head, totally unsolicited and unexpected. Only a few times did he "zap me" while I was meditating. On two occasions when he came to me while I was meditating, I went with him to his "womb" instead of mine (pardon the pun). I could see the red/pink striations of the inside of the uterus through a milky veil (the amniotic bag). I could hear the maternal heartbeat and intestines. And most amazing of all, I could clearly see Kevin's face! You can imagine my shock when he was delivered -- actually when just his head was delivered -- and he rotated his shoulders internally as babies do. I looked upon the very same face I had seen these two times in meditation. Now I know I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was about to fall over! I have to admit this in-utero conversation was a little too weird for me. I felt I had invaded the mother who had been invaded by the rapist months earlier, and I have not been able to tell her about that.
When the time for his birth came (an induction as the baby was overdue), the initiation of labor was slow. Lynn asked me to go home for a while to check on my daughters. While there, I did a little meditation and sought out Kevin. This was the first time I initiated the conversation. I knew that no baby ever spoke to me after delivery of the head, so I wanted to say goodbye and also to ask how he was doing.
He kept telling me over and over, "I am afraid... I am afraid to come out. I think it will hurt and I know there will be a lot of sorrow from my mother when she gives me to the other family. I am afraid." I reassured him that the grandmother and I would be there with him and his mother the whole time and that it was going to be all right. I told Kevin, "Yes, the parting will be painful, but the adoptive family loves you so very much. For all our pain, they have an equal measure of joy. Your birth will be okay. We will be there with you and your mama."
Only about thirty minutes after this conversation, Lynn's mother called me to come back to the hospital -- labor had suddenly become intense and she wanted me. Kevin only talked to me once in labor, about a needed position change for Lynn because he was having trouble turning his head to get into the pelvis "this way." It was short and sweet, as so many other conversations with babies had been for me -- specific in nature. After the position change, Lynn rapidly dilated from four centimeters to complete, and her four-and-a-half hour labor was soon over.
Joy's story raises some important questions. How rare is her telepathic gift? Can it be taught to other birth attendants? In Joy's case, the "hearing" developed spontaneously in her midwifery work. At first, she says, "I thought it was another of those strange things that I needed to keep to myself and not share with anyone." Like many others, Joy had been silenced as a child when she spoke of seeing spirits and colors around people. Perhaps there are many midwives, nurses, and physicians who hear babies communicating with them, but hesitate to reveal their experience. Given the discovery that the unborn child is, in Thomas Verny's words, "a feeling, remembering, aware being," given the evidence that the soul communicates even before conception, isn't it time we explore such a promising possibility?*
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*This article draws upon a chapter of my new book, Stories of the Unborn Soul: The Mystery and Delight of Pre-Birth Communication (iUniverse, 2002), available through bookstores, from my website, www.light-hearts.com, or from online bookstores such as Amazon.com.Return to
Communications Before Conception