Pregnancy is the perfect time to strengthen your intuitive awareness by focusing on the chakras as a powerful tool for connecting with your inner birthing guidance.  The seven major chakras are vibrational energy centres which support us to stay grounded in the physical realm, to access our own spiritual wisdom and align with our heaven-earth connection.

The different qualities of the chakras relate to the way we resonate with both daily and spiritual life.  When the chakras are balanced we feel a greater sense of life purpose, increased vitality and overall well-being.  Balancing the chakras raises your vibration, clears the aura and enhances the mother-child bond with your baby in the womb as you prepare to give birth.

Pregnant women may share their fears of birth in a way which directly correlates with the chakras, such as ¨I´m afraid of how I will cope with pain¨ relates to the Base Chakra – fear of the unknown/lack of support/dissconnection from physical body.  The use of deep breathing, with a focus on the lower two chakras (Base & Sacral), visualising roots reaching down into the earth like a tree, then imagining the fear leaving the body as a gentle waterfall can help bring balance on both the physical and spiritual levels.

The chakras hold the key to our spiritual awakening and what greater awakening than the transformational process of giving birth!  Here is a general guide to the main qualities of each chakra and how they relate to pregnancy and birth –

• BASE CHAKRA (Mooladhara) – Grounding, Embodiment, Security, Safety, Support.  For a pregnant woman to feel safe enough to surrender to the natural process of birth she must choose her birth place wisely.  The safest place for birth is where you feel the most comfortable, whether in hospital, a birth centre or at home.  Trusting your intuition and feelings about the right environment and support team, including midwife or doctor, is vital to create the birth experience you wish for… if you feel unsure explore different options.
  The base chakra also reflects our connection to life force energy and helps us to stay grounded and embodied – all important factors for birth.  The birthing mother must stay ´ín her body´ during labour to effectively draw upon the strong energetic, potentially ecstatic, waves of birthing energy.  Being present in your physical body supports giving birth in your powerful feminine presence.
• SACRAL CHAKRA (Swadhistana) – Feminine Creative Energy, Sensuality, Sexuality, Trusting & Expressing Emotions.  Creativity is a key quality for the sacral chakra, and your baby growing in the healthy, protected and nuturing womb space is your major creative project right now!  Connecting with your baby in meditation can give helpful insights for bith and beyond.  Trusting your feelings and expressing them freely also suppots the balance of this chakra by creating more healthy emotional flow.
  Enjoying sensuality, sexuality and pleasure all assist in enhancing the natural poduction of oxytocin (the hormone of birth and of love making) which encourages the rhythmic flow of labour to bring your baby earth-side.
• SOLAR PLEXUS CHAKRA (Manipura) – Confidence, Gut Feelings, Freedom from Control, Empowerment.  The solar plexus is the centre of confidence and empowerment, two areas which relate both to birth choices and to self-belief.  This chakra connects with our ´mental body´, the layer of the aura where beliefs sit.  Feeling influenced or controlled by the opinions of others can have a negative effect on our level of self-confidence.  Exploring your own beliefs about birth and releasing any negative thoughts beforehand is essential to come to a place of empowerment.  Pregnancy is the time to ´stand in your power´ and do what is right for you and your baby.
• HEART CHAKRA (Anahata) – Unconditional Love, Compassion, Self-Love, Gratitude, Opening the heart to welcome your baby.  The heart sits at the centre of the seven major chakras as the point of heaven-earth connection.  As pregnancy progresses and the baby is growing many women express a feeling of divine love, cosmic bliss or at the very least being ´day dreamy´.  Nature´s softening and opening hormones are doing their job perfectly, bringing your focus inwards to connect with your new role of mothering.  Practising unconditional love and gratitude duing pregnancy helps to expand your heart in preparation to welcome this divine being into your heart and into your arms.
• THROAT CHAKRA (Vissudhi) – Self-expression, Speaking your truth, Creativity, Sound/Toning.  There is a powerful energetic link between the throat chakra and the cervix – when the throat is relaxed and open, our cervix follows.  Chanting or singing during pregnancy are beautiful practices for creative expression.  Speaking your truth clearly in the lead up to giving birth is vital to having your needs met.  Expressing yourself freely using your voice through sound during labour is also a potent way to connect with your body and open to the expansive surges of birth.
• THIRD EYE CHAKRA (Ajna) – Intuition, Visioning, Birth Vision, Bigger Picture.  This meditation centre is the home of our intuition and ability to ´see clearly´ (clairvoyance).  Pregnancy can be a time of psychic awakening, as the intuitive pathways open you may experience enhanced visions or spiritual insights.  Attending pre-natal yoga or creating a space for quiet reflection will strengthen your intuitive visions.  Visualisation is a wonderful way to create a birth vision – focus on the bigger picture, the qualities you would like to feel during the birth, the supportive energy of the people you would like around you and the connection between yourself and your baby for giving birth joyfully.
• CROWN CHAKRA (Sahasrara) – Spiritual Wisdom, Connection to Source.  In meditation, the symbolic lotus in the crown chakra opens to receive divine support.  ´Getting out of my own way´ is a phrase used by mothers who have surrendered to receiving loving support from higher spiritual realms during labour.  With balanced chakras you can draw on all the available support – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – as you blissfully birth your baby in a grounded, empowered, sensual and connected way.

Create more intuitive awareness of these important energy centres during pregnancy by tuning-in to the subtle needs of yourself and your baby, rather than coming from a mental (or learned) perspective.  An example of this is the relationship with colour to the chakras, which is often depicted in the classic ´rainbow´ colour spectrum.  As a spiritual healer, I see the whole range of varied and beautiful colours in the holographic energy rings which make up each chakra with my clients.

A simple exercise to begin trusting your intuition more – close your eyes and bring awareness to your sacral chakra (womb space), gently tune-in to this feminine centre and your baby (if you are pregnant).  Ask yourself which colour your body and baby would find most healing right now?  Then imagine pure light in this nuturing and nourishing colour flowing into your chakra as you take some deep, relaxing breaths.  When the coloured light overflows, allow it to form a gentle waterfall, watering your own root system and releasing into Mother Earth.

Visualising your chakras coming into balance, or seeking the support of a spiritual or energy healer, is a powerful way to create alignment for birthing your baby in a loving and harmonious way.

Anna Watts is a Sacred Birth Educator, Doula Trainer, Cousellor and Spiritual Healer.  She offers regular Sacred Birth Doula Trainings for both new and experienced Doulas to explore birth as a journey of transformation and healing.  Please visit the website for dates and information about her personal sessions, including Chakra Balancing in person or via Skype anywhere in the world –  www.celebrationofbirth.com