My Introduction: Treasuring Life

Dear TGOGL Blog Readers,

Hello! Hello!  I get to be the first to introduce myself.  My name is Robyn Allgood. I promised Felice I would try not to be too nerdy. Ha! Actually, Felice told me I could be as nerdy as I want.  And I really am just a BIG NERD!

So how did I come upon this project?  A little over a year ago I sat pregnant with my fifth baby.  I was discussing with my sister and mother pregnancy and birth.  I told them that birth had taught me a lot about the Atonement and the Savior.  My sister said, “oh really, explain that to me.” I tried to put it into words but found myself unable to articulate what I meant.

Being the birth junkie that I am I was annoyed with myself for not having the ability to explain how personal the Savior became to me as I gave life to my little ones.  So I grabbed a notebook and my scriptures and started writing.  My first draft of “Birth in Remembrance of Him” was 5 pages but soon became many more. (Don’t worry we are editing it so that it is easier to digest.)  

I admit to being afraid to share it and afraid to not share it.  I had poured my heart out in those pages and I was nervous of having it criticized.  At the same time I wanted other women to benefit from what I felt the Lord inspired me to write.  I knew He gave me the words and that He meant for them to be shared.  I saw the call for essays on this blog and decided to ignore my fears and send it in anyway.  I’m glad I did.  Felice invited me to join the group and write more. 

As I have witnessed the “offering” that each woman (and her family) has made to bring about this project I am humbled.  The women I have come to know via the internet are “wonderfully and fearfully made”(Psalms 139:14).  I think you will laugh, cry, and change as you read from the pages of this book. I know I have.

What else should you know about me?

If someone would have told me I would be a birth junkie someday I would have laughed.  I had some serious fears about birth (and anything involving blood for that matter).  My first baby was born by cesarean which taught me a lot.  I was scared to death to have another baby after that but I knew I was supposed to have more children so I started to devour birth books. 

I was convinced I needed to take a comprehensive childbirth class when I was pregnant with baby #2.  Options were limited in my community so we traveled 5 hours round trip each weekend to attend Bradley® classes.  I know it sounds crazy but the Spirit urged me there and luckily my husband was supportive.  We were blessed with an unplanned unassisted birth (90 min labor).  That birth changed our family forever.  I have since had 3 more beautiful VBAC births. 

I have been teaching Husband-Coached Childbirth® classes and attending births as a doula for the last 7 years.  Last year I helped start the first ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network) chapter in Idaho and now we have a 3^rd chapter in the works!  I am also a part of a group called DOVE-Idaho (Doulas of the Valleys of Easter Idaho).  We provide free monthly childbirth classes to the community along with other support and information.

Being a part of this project has enabled me to combine my passion for birth with the things in life I treasure most: my love of the Gospel, my testimony of the Savior, and my family.  One of my favorite scriptures reads, 

“for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” -Matt. 6:21  

Part of my “treasure” is waiting for me in heaven.  His name is Kyle (my first VBAC).  He passed away when he was only 2 years old.  Missing his physical presence motivates me to do whatever I can to have an eternal family.  The Gift of Giving Life is about treasuring life. What greater treasure is there than to take part in such a divine gift?  My hope is that you will be inspired as this book takes life.

True Love

I have been thinking a lot about this poem by Sharon Olds.

True Love

In the middle of the night, when we get up
after making love, we look at each other in
complete friendship, we know so fully
what the other has been doing. Bound to each other
like mountaineers coming down from a mountain,
bound with the tie of the delivery-room,
we wander down the hall to the bathroom, I can
hardly walk, I wobble through the granular
shadowless air, I know where you are
with my eyes closed, we are bound to each other
with huge invisible threads, our sexes
muted, exhausted, crushed, the whole
body a sex -- surely this
is the most blessed time of my life,
our children asleep in their beds, each fate
like a vein of abiding-mineral
not discovered yet. I sit
on the toilet in the night, you are somewhere in the room,
I open the window and snow has fallen in a
steep drift, against the pane, I
look up, into it,
a wall of cold crystals, silent
and glistening, I quietly call to you
and you come and hold my hand and I say
I cannot see beyond it, I cannot see beyond it.


I realized that what makes this poem so beautiful, what makes it more than just a poem about two people getting up to pee after sex, is that she and her true love are bound to each other. In fact she uses the word bound three times. Bound like mountaineers. Mountain climbing is dangerous. You are tied with rope but also with a trust. Life or death is involved, and I don't think there is any greater trust than to trust someone with your life.

There is also the tie of the delivery room--their children, asleep in their beds. If you've ever had to be separated overnight from your little ones, you know that there is no greater peace than having them home, asleep and accounted for.

And then there is sex that binds them. What a wonderful feeling to barely be able to walk through the dark to the bathroom. I hope you all know it.

To me, this poem illustrates God's plan of happiness. It is God's plan that men and women be bound to each other and that they have families, "that they may have joy and rejoicing in their posterity."

I don't know if Sharon Olds knows God's plan of happiness, but it is working in her life. In the exact middle of the poem is the line "surely this is the most blessed time of my life."

Beautiful.