I had the joy and privilege of attending a birth this week. This was the mother's second birth, which was a first for me. Working with a woman who has already birthed makes my work easier since she already has a good idea of what she wants and doesn't want, and she was so confident and relaxed after baby arrived.

As you may have noticed, I talk a lot about empowerment in my discussion of fertility, pregnancy and childbirth. Recent conversations and articles have been pushing me to deeply examine what "empowered birth" really means, and how it affects women.

There is a yogic principle regarding effort and surrender (the yogic terms are Tapas and Ishvara Pranidhana, and the words "effort" and "surrender" are two simple translations) that I believe applies directly to birth as well as to our larger life journeys.