Dream Report

Red Fox

I happen to see Naomi at a friend’s birthday party some days after she had the dream. She was concerned with the violent imagery in general but especially at such a vulnerable time in her pregnancy. There’s no time but the present moment, so we found a private corner and dove in.

Red Fox Dream: January 2013

When I was 6 weeks pregnant with my son I had this dream. I am walking in a forest and I am much further along in my pregnancy. All of a sudden, this red fox appears out of nowhere and starts scratching my belly, clawing and clawing. I tried to fight the fox to get the fox off of me and to protect my baby. As I fought and fought, this intuitive voice inside me said “if you resist, then you will harm yourself and the baby”. So, I surrendered and the fox clawed and clawed and got the baby out and held my baby in their paws. I just starred at the fox in shock and woke up.

Naomi’s response

The first thing she said to her husband in the morning is “I’m a horrible mother!!!” She was only 6 weeks pregnant at the time. As she sat with this dream, it was quite intense and she was concerned, not knowing what to make of it.

Embodied Dreamwork 

Naomi and I role played herself in the dream and the fox. The greatest insight came from the fox who clearly stated: “I am not here to harm you or your baby. I am here to help you and your baby. I am here to protect you and your baby.” .”  

We went a step further and I asked Naomi ‘who is the fox in relation to this pregnancy?’. Naomi was immediately clear the fox represented the hospital and medical intervention since her hope and plan was to have a home birth with a midwife. We were able to make the connection to her waking life very quickly. In doing so, she was able to drop the mounting fear, tension and judgement around such intense imagery and work with this golden insight and forewarning at the start of her pregnancy.

What ended up happening

From 6 weeks all the way to the end, i.e. almost 35 weeks, she meditated with the red fox on surrendering. She saw the red fox as one of her son’s spirit animals that he sent to help her with the pregnancy.

Still set and very passionate about a homebirth in spite of the red fox warning dream, Naomi hadn’t packed a hospital bag. What ended up happening is that after her water broke, she was in labour for 36 hours at home with a midwife. If the baby isn’t born within a certain time frame, there is a high risk of having the baby’s heart rate drop or having something else go wrong. After 36 hours of trying and trying and trying to birth her son, the midwife said “we need to go to the hospital”. This was a deeply difficult decision for her. She remembered the red fox dream and the message to surrender. “The fox is here to help to protect you and your baby not harm you and your baby..” Still Naomi was in the back seat of the car, crying and grieving about having to transition to the hospital because it felt like defeat and failure. She got to the hospital and called in for more support and while her sister sang to them, the baby came out in just 4 minutes of pushing!

The Heart of the Matter

This dream came to help Naomi surrender and let go of attachment and just honour the birth that was meant to be. It also came as a warning that the baby may need to be ripped out with urgency. The fact that she was further along in her pregnancy was a sign that the dream was speaking of what’s coming. What a blessing to have this kind of insight months before the actual delivery. The dream is always here to show us something that we cannot see from where we are standing. The dream is here to invite us into creative action around what we see.

Reflections

As we follow her experience we realize that transitioning to the hospital was difficult enough for Naomi, even with this great teaching, let alone without it. The dreamer was being asked to broaden her horizons around a particular issue she was very firmly set on. In hindsight, we can clearly see the more she was able to work with and accept what the dream was asking for, i.e. shift her mindset around how the childbirth would be, the easier the actual delivery would be. What a truly remarkable dream. If we can take our dreams seriously, they will prove to be an undisputable source of guidance and healing you can trust.  

Follow up

I recently followed up with Naomi and she said funny enough I just told my son that story a few weeks ago because he was having a really hard time with change during this Covid-19 time. She always thought he had chosen a hospital birth so she never shared how hard it was for her to surrender. But realizing how much he was struggling with transition inspired her to share this piece of his birth story.

She shared in detail her own struggle to transition environments from home to the hospital room and that he was part of that journey of difficulty with change. They were in that difficulty together. As she shared that story with him, he lightened. It was an important teaching for him to hear that was part of his initial journey into the world. It’s something he’s going to keep working with throughout his life and something she’s going to keep working with. They were both grateful to the red fox, and the support and guidance Naomi received around understanding how to work with the teachings of this dream … now, ongoing and beyond.

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