Birthdays...how important are they?

As we grow up, birthdays seem to become less important. I know that has been the case for myself the older I have got. It's not until you become a parent yourself that you realise that these annual events are actually something to be treasured; because for a parent, your parent, or you, this was the day you first met your child. What could be more significant than that?

I began thinking about this this month, as Birth Wight turned one. My children's birthdays are special for them (granted, they will turn 3 and 5 this year, so for them it's the most exciting day ever!), but for me, it's a chance to regress, to think back and to remember those amazing days when their lives began. I am lucky, those memories are positive and so precious. What great days they both were. No negatvitiy, no fear, no real stress (beyond becoming a parent - eek!). Beautiful.

For our children's birthdays are our birth days. They are the day we birthed. The day this fictional, abstract being, became real. They arrived. They were beautiful. They were here! All that planning, all that preparation; a positive and joyful day.

And that is what anticipating a birth day should be like. It should not be filled with dread, with fear, with anxiety, with stress or worry. It is a miraculous and amazing experience, one seldom experienced and one to be cherished. So that in the years ahead, when we remember back to that day, we remember it only with joy, not with shadows of 'what if's' and memories of horror.

And so, to Birth Wight's first birthday. This day filled me with many emotions. I remember that birth day with anticipation, a little anxiety of the unknown and nerves about how it would go, but also with excitement.

Like my 20+ clients over this first year, I knew that I knew my stuff. I was prepared. I was ready. I had my skills. I had my knowledge. I had my resources. I knew how to maximise my environment. I knew how to work with my support team (my very first clients, the fabulous Emma and Stu). And I knew how to achieve my ambition. I was ready.

It was exhilarating to begin this journey that has seen 20 beautiful babies born to 20 sets of confident, calm and relaxed parents. Parents that have taken their knowledge, skills and belief into the birthing room and emerged victorious, emerged elated, and without fear or negativity.

So, as these 20 babies grow, I look forward to remembering their birthdays too, and I know that as each year rolls by, their parents will look back to their birth day with nothing other than bliss, elation and wonderful, happy, emopowered memories.

Happy birth day to Birth Wight! (b. 16 March 2014)