The Jewish Pregnancy Book

Daniel Judson, Sandy Falk

Description

A first-of-its-kind guide to nourishing your pregnancy
with wisdom from Jewish tradition.

B’shah Tovah! You’re pregnant! With all the changes happening to your body right now, it would be easy to focus only on the physical aspects of this life-changing event. But pregnancy is also a spiritually meaningful period in life, a time to reflect and comfort the soul.

The Jewish Pregnancy Book is the first resource to nurture the body, mind and soul of the pregnant woman by combining up-to-date medical information with spiritual nourishment from Jewish tradition.

• For the soul—Ancient and modern prayers and rituals for each stage of pregnancy, as well as traditional Jewish wisdom on pregnancy.
• For the body—Pre-natal Aleph-Bet yoga, a unique blend of yoga and spirituality inspired by the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
• For the mind—Medical information on topics such as fetal development, pre-natal testing, and potential pregnancy problems, as well as discussions from a contemporary Jewish perspective on ethical issues such as selective reduction and home birth.

In clear, easy-to-follow, accessible language, this groundbreaking handbook guides you through the miraculous and challenging process of creation, engaging your whole being in a uniquely Jewish way.

Sujets

• Vie de famille
• Maternité
• Religion
• Judaism
• Jewish philosophy
• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 14 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580236478
• Langue: English

Extrait

The
Jewish
Pregnancy
Book

A Resource for the Soul, Body Mind during Pregnancy, Birth the First Three Months
Sandy Falk, M.D., and Rabbi Daniel Judson with Steven A. Rapp
T o my mother, Bruria Bodek Falik, with love and gratitude. May every child be blessed with a parent for whom her heart cries out, and is always answered.
-S.F .
T o my mother, Betty Judson, who loved being pregnant so much that she had many children, each of whom is blessed to have her worry, her respect, and her love.
-D.J .
T o my mother, Anita W. Rapp, of blessed memory, who carried me for nine months and beyond.
-S.R .
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 The First Trimester
You re Pregnant! B sha-ah Tovah! A Prayer upon Learning of a Pregnancy Morning Sickness Exercise Diet Cravings Fetal Development in the First Trimester Ensoulment The Spiritual Development of the Fetus Sex during Pregnancy Protection against Miscarriage An Eighteenth-Century Prayer for Every Day of Pregnancy
2 The Second Trimester
Quickening Prayer Following Quickening Will My Child Be Normal? Kavvana for a Healthy Child Prenatal Diagnostic Testing Blood Tests for Jewish Genetic Diseases Ultrasound Prayer before an Ultrasound Prayer before an Amniocentesis What Do We Do Now? Prayer for Carrying a Fetus with a Problem Aborting a Fetus with a Problem: Jewish Perspectives Multiple Gestation Selective Reduction: Jewish Perspectives Sephardic Celebration of Pregnancy
3 The Third Trimester
Prayer for Entering the Seventh Month of Pregnancy Prayer for a Good Neshama (Soul) B sha-ah Tovah: Jewish Customs around Baby Showers Preparing to Become a Jewish Parent Preparing for Birth What Will You Bring? A Jewish Packing List Drugs or Not? Home Birthing Visiting the Mikvah Preterm Labor Maternal Illness in Pregnancy Almost There
4 Labor and Delivery
When Will I Go into Labor? Prayer on the Approach of Accouchement (Delivery) The First Stage of Labor: Moving through the Red Sea Damn Snake, Damn Eve: The Pain of Labor An Etrog a Day Keeps the Pain Away: A Jewish Folk Custom for Easing the Pain of Labor Prayers and Psalms for Labor and Delivery Kavvanot (Intentions) for Labor and Delivery The Second Stage of Labor: Pushing and Delivery Cesarean Section Prayer before a Cesarean Section The Moment of Delivery The Third Stage of Labor: Delivering the Placenta Birth Pangs of the Messiah
5 The Days after Birth
Bringing Your Baby Home Prayer for Bringing a Baby Home for the First Time Welcoming a Jewish Baby Older Siblings Welcoming a New Baby The Partner Prayer for Sleep Lilith Breast-feeding Postpartum Depression Psalm 27 Rituals of Closure Visiting the Mikvah Birkat Hagomel : Thanksgiving Blessing
6 From This Narrow Place I Call to You: Pregnancy Loss
A Synagogue Ritual for Miscarriage One Hundred and Eighty Degrees: A Miscarriage
7 Aleph-Bet Yoga for Pregnancy
Yoga for Overall Well-Being during Pregnancy What Is Yoga? Why Practice Yoga during Pregnancy Yoga for Each Stage of Your Pregnancy Yoga for the Jewish Soul Getting Ready to Practice How to Practice the Aleph-Bet Yoga Series Cautionary Notes for Practicing Yoga during Pregnancy The Aleph-Bet Yoga Poses What Is the Correct Order for Practicing Aleph-Bet Yoga during Each Trimester? Guidelines for a Shorter Session
Notes
Glossary
Further Resources
Index

About the Authors
Copyright
Also Available
About Jewish Lights

Cautionary Note for Practicing Yoga during Pregnancy
During the first trimester and first two months following delivery, you should avoid practicing certain Aleph-Bet Yoga poses; others should be avoided during second and third trimesters. Also, before starting or continuing a yoga practice while pregnant, you should consult with your physician.
Acknowledgments
W e would like to thank Stuart M. Matlins, publisher of Jewish Lights, for believing that there is no life-cycle event that Judaism cannot enhance and enrich. We would also like to thank Emily Wichland, managing editor at Jewish Lights, and our editor, Donna Zerner. Donna s meticulous reading of the manuscript with both her mind and her soul was invaluable.
We were blessed to work with Steven Rapp as our coauthor. Steve s writing reflects his personality-kind, open, gentle, and wise. Dan has been honored to have Steve as a congregant and as a teacher. He is a gifted poet, a talented yoga teacher (even for the inflexible among us), a spiritually vibrant soul, and-perhaps most important-a true mensch.
We would also like to thank those authors who wrote a poem or a story for this project: Rabbi Amy Bardack, Joanna Selznick Dulkin, Amy Friedman, Franci Levine Grater, Martha Hausman, Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses, Aurora Mendelsohn, Rabbi Michelle Robinson, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, Rabbi Susan Silverman, Sandy Slavet, Rabbi Shira Stern, and Rabbi Shohama Wiener.
We are grateful to Rabbi Amy Bardack and Naomi Rush for their insightful comments on the manuscript.
Rabbis Marjorie Slome, Barbara Penzner, and Rifat Sonsino were helpful in providing resources for sections of the book.
Finally, we would like to thank Naftali Lev Falk-Judson, the inspiration for this book and the daily joy of our lives.
Sandy Falk Dan Judson
I would like to thank Sandy Falk and Dan Judson for inviting me to collaborate on this special project. I especially want to thank Ulrike Rapp and Abby Jacob (and Kennedy) for modeling so beautifully for the yoga photos. Similarly, a big thanks to photographer Steven Lewis for his artistic eye and skillful work. Special thanks to the JFK Fitness Center and its members for providing the space to take the photographs. And finally, profound thanks to my mother and all the women in my family, who carried my ancestors and, in doing so, carried me to this moment.
Steven Rapp
Introduction
W hen people ask each of us what our spouse does, and we answer that we are an obstetrician and a rabbi, we often get comments such as, Oh, a doctor and a rabbi, a marriage of opposites. One of you deals with the body, while the other deals with the soul. When it comes to pregnancy, however, an obstetrician and a rabbi are not opposites. Pregnancy encompasses both body and soul. When Sandy was pregnant and reached the final weeks of her pregnancy, we were very conscious of the fact that she could go into labor at any time. There was an unpredictability that felt like she was sitting in the palm of God s hand. Pregnancy is a miraculous and challenging process of creation. It is a partnership between a woman, her partner, her doctor or midwife, and God.
If you are picking up this book, you probably already regard pregnancy and birth as a spiritual experience. In the past few years, more and more women are coming to see their pregnancy not simply as a physical experience to be endured, but as a spiritually meaningful period in their life. This book provides a wealth of Jewish resources to enrich and enhance your experience of pregnancy.
There is only one small problem. The talmudic Rabbis, who formulated the basis of traditional Jewish prayer, ritual, and law, were men. And because they were men, they never experienced pregnancy. The Rabbis never felt the disquiet of morning sickness, never endured the discomfort of trying to sleep with a huge belly, and never had their bodies enveloped by labor pains. As Blu Greenberg, the orthodox Jewish feminist, noted, the Rabbis maleness may account for the dearth of prayers, rituals, and blessings that Judaism has for pregnancy and delivery. The Rabbis were very detail-oriented: They created blessings for many events, such as a blessing for before and after eating, a blessing for seeing someone who looked unusual, a blessing for smelling a fragrant tree, a blessing for hearing bad news, even a blessing for buying new clothes. And so it is quite striking that the Rabbis skipped this entire passage of life. If the Rabbis were women, Blu Greenberg speculates, there would probably be some fantastic birthing rituals. 1
In recent years, Jewish women have been trying to make up for this silence by creating their own pregnancy prayers and rituals. Women have also searched the cobwebs of Jewish tradition to find prayers that our foremothers passed from one generation to the next. In this book, we continue the process of creating Jewish prayers and rituals and include some traditional ones as well. We also provide other resources beyond rituals and prayers. This book is for the whole being: the mind, body, and soul of a pregnant Jewish woman.
For your mind, we have basic medical information on topics such as fetal development, morning sickness, genetic testing, and the stages of labor. Interwoven with this medical information are traditional and contemporary Jewish sources on these subjects. This book also offers the Jewish perspective on a number of ethical issues that may arise during your pregnancy, such as selective reduction and prenatal testing.
For your body, we have prenatal Aleph-Bet Yoga, a unique blend of yoga and the Hebrew letters created by Steven Rapp, author of Aleph-Bet Yoga: Embodying the Hebrew Letters for Physical and Spiritual Well-Being (Jewish Lights). Aleph-Bet Yoga is a method of moving your body through hatha yoga poses that approximate letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet . A prenatal yoga practice is an ideal way for a woman to prepare physically for the one of the most challenging athletic events of her life. A regimen of yoga may mean less physical discomfort, less stress, and more energy for an easier pregnancy and an easier labor. Aleph-Bet prenatal yoga is designed to help your body gently carry your pregnancy and ready itself for delivery. The poses are suitable for beginners as well as intermediate yoga practitioners.
Aleph-Bet Yoga provides more than just physical benefits, though. By forming the Hebrew letters, you focus on the deeper meaning of those letters, providing a spiritual connection to your physical workout. The Hebr