Conversations with Elizabeth Tuazon: Pregnancy and Embracing Discomfort
Elizabeth is rewriting the Mot(her) Code to find her own path in the birthing process. She grew up with the narrative “go for the epidural” and use whatever technology is available to avoid the pain.
As a professional dancer, Elizabeth Tuazon is no stranger to being in tune with her body. However, nothing could prepare her for the myriad of sensations beyond her control that come with pregnancy. There is nothing like an inner kick to the ribs to remind you that you are about to welcome new life into the world.
Elizabeth muses with humor and grace on her impending birth and what it means to navigate the choices women have for delivery, even when it means breaking from traditional beliefs that she grew up with. Join Elizabeth and Dr. Gertrude Lyons as they explore what it means to pave your own way in pregnancy and childbirth in this frank and vulnerable discussion.
Elizabeth Tuazon
Elizabeth is a professional performing artist, teacher, and director in music and dance. She is also a professional life coach. She is a PCC certified coach with the International Coaching Federation and has been on a deep journey of personal growth. She also directs, designs, and manages curriculum specializing in social-emotional intelligence.
Embracing discomfort
Elizabeth is no stranger to discomfort. As a professional dancer, she often has to stretch herself beyond her current capacities and lean into discomfort. Dance serves as an appropriate metaphor for how she is leaning into the discomfort of her personal growth work. She muses on how society teaches us to avoid discomfort at all costs when in reality, it can be renewing and synonymous with growth.
Discomfort can also birth new creations, and no creation is more miraculous than life.
This counters the code that pregnancy is going to be uncomfortable, and therefore must be a bad thing. Instead, rewriting the code around pregnancy and pain can be asking: what is this pain teaching me?
Pregnancy and societal expectations
Elizabeth and Dr. Lyons discuss how pregnancy not only comes with the physical aspects of biological birth but also the inevitable societal expectations that come from friends, family and community. Elizabeth talks about her mother and her lifelong career in the conventional medical establishment. She remembers how she considered painkillers to be the obvious choice and doesn't remember alternative options ever being discussed or considered before she found herself confronted with her own pregnancy.
Both women discuss the blessing and the curse of women sharing their pregnancy and birth experiences. For many women, there is a fine line between wanting to share and learn from each other and simply unloading complaints that serve no benefit. Being able to filter the societal noise becomes paramount in the process.
Rewriting her Mot(her) Code
Elizabeth is rewriting the Mot(her) Code to find her own path in the birthing process. She grew up with the narrative “go for the epidural” and use whatever technology is available to avoid the pain. However, confronted with her pregnancy, she is now asking more questions. Having visited a birthing center, she encountered the philosophy that women are stronger and more resilient than they have been led to believe. This statement was a revelation. It rang true to her and she knew she wanted to be a part of that mindset. Consequently, she plans on taking as little intervention as possible during birth. In general, she wants to rewrite the code that pregnancy and birth is something to overcome: as if it’s a burden or like a bad diagnosis.
To Elizabeth, rewriting the Mot(her) means redefining, rediscovering, and writing her own definition of what it means to be a woman and a feminine presence in the world today. She’s looking at things with love (even critical love) while discovering what she would like to create while asking what it is that she is hungry to express, to become.
Elizabeth ends the podcast episode with a beautiful lyrical performance.
“I’ve always thought that women were the source of all creation.”
Show highlights
There are more birthing options available than women have been led to believe
Pregnancy is viewed as a “problem” or “diagnosis” by the medical profession instead of viewing it as a positive choice
The importance of making decisions for oneself
The concept of the fourth trimester and envisioning a birthing and newborn baby phase that resonates with you
Breastfeeding and everyone’s unsolicited opinion, for better or worse.
The idea that a good mother “just knows how to do this”