During my most recent pregnancy, I read Annie Murphy Paul’s Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives. She shared a small study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University which found that “women who rely on dreams and emotions to guess their babies’ sex have a surprisingly good chance of being correct.” Within their study group (45 well-educated pregnant women) were seventeen who had a “feeling” about the sex of their baby. Only four of those women were wrong. And, of the eight women who had dreamed about their baby’s gender, “every single one of them was on the money.” These findings were “contrary to expectations,” and the researchers acknowledged, “It is always possible that this was a spurious finding. It is equally likely that there is simply much about the maternal-fetal connection that we do not know” (p. 126). I’d wager it’s probably the latter.
I do pay attention to my dreams (and the dreams of others). Perhaps this is because dreams have been key bits of communication and insight over and over throughout my life. I have a vivid dream partially to thank for prompting me to pursue the reserved, unaggressive young man who became my husband over 10 years ago. Before that dream, I hadn’t really paid much attention to him, but how grateful I am that I got a nocturnal nudge in the right direction. Some frightening dreams have alerted me to intense emotions lingering under the surface of my consciousness, enabling me to work through them and move on. I have seen my deceased brother and his wife many times in dreams, and those have brought me joy and comfort. And there have been many dreams of my children before they were born.
I’m thinking about one of those dreams today. Before I became pregnant with my fourth baby, I had several dreams about a daughter who would be joining us in the future. In several of those dreams she was a newborn, but in one of those dreams she was a feisty older toddler, probably three-years-old. I’m thinking about that dream today because my baby girl has been ill for several days.
We spent several hours in the E.R. last night and left without any clear explanation for her situation. There is almost nothing that fills my heart with fear and stress more than having a sick child. The Lord has assured us that my baby girl will be healed, but I still find my faith wavering and fears filling my heart. So, it was with a glimmer of hope that I recalled my dream from a couple of years ago. I have seen her as a thriving three-year-old child in my dreams. God has promised me she will get better. I just need to trust Him.
I have also been reminded of Barbara Bishop’s piece, “Dreams as Gifts of the Spirit,” published in Segullah in summer of 2009. She says, “In contrast with other versions of modern Christianity, Mormonism has an established and ongoing tradition that encourages individuals to seek personal revelation. The idea that dreams offer valuable information has been reiterated by many Church leaders throughout our history.” I loved Barbara’s piece and nodded my head in agreement all the way through it. I suspect that some individuals are more likely to receive revelation through dreams while others will hear God’s voice better through other means. For me, there is no doubt that dreams can be powerful messages from the Divine. I especially love Barbara’s closing words: “Like other forms of revelation, we have to ask and then wait for understanding. If we trust that God’s love manifests itself in dream narratives, spending time with them will yield the equivalent of a banquet table, overflowing with spiritual food that we can partake of regularly.”
I have seen God’s hand and felt His love through my dreams, especially in my role as a mother. Have you?
Yes I have! Before adopting our little girl, I saw her in a vision of sorts. I desperately wanted a child so much that it was the reason why I became a Christian. We were asked why we serve God in a sermon by a visiting pastor, and that was my answer… to have another baby. Going to the alter to repent, our pastors wife prayed with me about it and she said that I needed to say goodbye to all of the children that the Lord had wanted to give to me, to be able to release His will for me. I began to see outlines of faces one upon another going off in the distance. Then I saw a little girl, blond hair and blue eyes, toddler, sitting on a block. I really didn’t want to say goodbye to her, but I did with many tears. That was October 3, 1988. December 17,1988 our daughter was born and we had her in our arms the next day!!. She has blue eyes and blond hair. Quite the Christmas gift from God!!
I have to admit that I have not had many dreams make a lot of sense to me. And I have longed to dream more about my son that died. He has only been in few of my dreams but I have felt his presence more when I have been awake. God does have a way of reaching us according to our needs and circumstances. Who knew you would need that dream of your baby as a 3 yr old to give you peace at a time like this? He did. I do love how dreams are full of symbolism. Now if I could just remember more of them maybe I could decipher them.
I was convinced that the baby I’m pregnant with now was going to be a boy, but dreams that I had in the months before I conceived were of a tiny baby girl. In fact, I had a fleeting vision in the temple last March of a toddler girl who looked like I did at that age. But still I was convinced we were having a boy (I wanted a boy), but the ultrasound revealed that my dreams were coming to pass.
My husband has had visions of and even some level of communication with a little boy, but the boy said that he wouldn’t come until we are ready. I guess we need a girl first for some reason.
I don’t feel like a very intuitive person, but I have had a few experiences. We didn’t find out the sex before birth with either of my two pregnancies, and I felt like girl names were so much easier to think of. Good thing – both turned out to be girls. My husband had a dream towards the end of the second pregnancy that he was giving a baby blessing to our baby, and in the dream he called the baby Rebecca. That felt right to me when he told me, so that’s the name we used. Lastly, this past summer, after Rebecca turned one, I was feeling ambivalent about having more children. But in November, I had a vivid dream of giving birth to another girl. I don’t think the way I gave birth in the dream is even possible, though. I labored until well into pushing then labor stopped and I gave birth 2 weeks later. I even have a feeling from that dream about a name (but not sure the name feels right) and when this baby will be born. (But I’ll keep those details to myself until this baby is actually born.) But the most important part of this dream is that I now do feel excited about having another child.
By the way, I followed one of your links & read the whole story of your 4th birth. Because of my 2nd birth, I can relate to being a little traumatized by a fast active labor/birth.