When I was in my senior year of high school, I had already taken all the advanced classes, so I started taking college classes. One class I took still stays with me. It was called Women in the Bible. I was raised Baptist, and studied the Bible quite a lot over the years, but there was so much I realized I didn’t know once I took this class. I am reminded of that class when reading Heatherlady’s post on her blog about The Importance of Birth. Coming from an LDS point of view, she writes:

One of the things I’ve noticed as I’ve studied the scriptures is that birth is an over arching theme in the stories of the women in the scriptures. A good portion of the stories about women in the scriptures center around women’s ability to bear, or inability to bear, children.

Personally, the births of my children have been incredible spiritual experiences for me and have completely changed my outlook on life and eternity. I’ve gained great spiritual strength through the birth process and a closer relationships with my Heavenly Father and Mother. As I’ve reflected on my own experiences and as I read about the important role birth plays in the lives of the women of the scriptures I am prompted to believe the ability to give life is a central part of what it means to be an eternal woman and that the birth process is incredibly important to God.

A friend pointed out that in the Proclamation to the Family it says, “We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed.” The means by which mortal life is created is through the processes of conception, pregnancy and birth. It stands to reason that if God designed the way children are conceived to be deeply and powerfully symbolic of a man and a woman becoming “one flesh” (Genesis 2 :24) then He has also designed the way children are born into this world to be deeply and powerfully symbolic.

In order to understand the symbolism and meaning behind labor and birth, and to understand why so many of the stories of women in the scriptures center around birth, we have to go back to Eve and the Garden.

Head over to her richly detailed and referenced post to read the rest. She makes such beautiful points, and I think it is a very interesting read whether you are LDS or not (but especially if you are!) It is such a lovely take on the importance of our birth choices. This is definitely a must-read!