What a powerful image by @lifeandlens_photography on Instagram.

I love it.

Look at that beautiful woman, birthing her baby with commitment, focus and strength.

And then notice the gentle curls of blood floating into the water...

Interestingly this is where many couples falter.

There has become a lack of familiarity with blood in birth. We see it as worrisome, concerning, wrong.

But why?

How have we become so disconnected?

Blood in birth is fairly common and caused by the rupture of small blood vessels in the cervix as it effaces and dilates - by which I mean stretches, gets thinner and opens in preparation of baby being born.

Understandably women seem less bothered about bleeding than male birth partners but we need to cut them some slack here. As women we have become used to seeing blood each month, we know the path between rich, red early blood through to darker brown finishing blood.

So for us, blood is normal. And it is normal to see in birth also.

However, most film or television portrayals of birth are clean and sanitised, unless the scene is to evoke fear and trepidation, then they’ll show us blood. But of course real birth is far, far removed from what we see on film and television.

So blood, softly curling into the water or small amounts onto your pads during labour is very normal indeed.