Here is an article I wrote that was published in Birthing Magazine Summer/ Fall 2012:
The moment I found out I was pregnant I filled out online applications for all of the midwife clinics in calgary, we were in India visiting with my husbands family at the time. It was a bit of a surprise but I had been ‘researching’ birth for over a year, I am a practicing herbalist and was going to apply for the midwife program at Mount Royal in the Fall of 2011. Plans changed drastically but this was going to be the best introduction to the profession. I was very excited and a bit scared.
When I told my family and friends we had midwife most of them hadn’t had much experience or knowledge of the profession. Everyone was so afraid we were planning a home birth and we heard various horror stories of what can happen that a midwife may not be prepared for, we assured everyone we would go to the hospital. At first we were confident with the hospital idea, we rent the top floor of a house and there are tenants in the basement, i thought it may freak them out to know that i was delivering a baby upstairs. Someone did assure me that I was entitled to have my baby at home and I would be labouring there anyways. Around my sixth month we decided we would prefer the home birth but we would stay flexible, so we prepared ourselves for both hospital and home birth but only informing the people who needed to know.
I have always thought a little ‘outside the box’ in comparison to my family and friends so this was not the only controversial topic. My pregnancy was normal and uncomplicated so I decided there was no need for an ultra-sound unless I experienced problems. I don’t recommend this for everyone, I just instinctively felt we didn’t need one. This was one topic my mom agreed with me upon, when she was pregnant with me an ultrasound showed some strange results that caused a lot of unnecessary stress for her during her pregnancy. Some people made it very temping trying to persuade me to get the ultrasound so I can see my little one. I thought I was having a boy but when most people guessed a girl I was confused. The father is dark and I am white so would we have a zebra baby? We were positive the baby would have a lot of hair though.
‘Health Canada has established Guidelines for the Safe Use of Diagnostic Ultrasound. The Guidelines state that ultrasound should not be used for any of the following activities:
- to have a picture of the fetus, solely for non-medical reasons
- to learn the sex of the fetus, solely for non-medical reasons
- for commercial purposes, such as trade shows or producing pictures or videos of the fetus’
(http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/med/ultrasound-echographie-eng.php)
My husband and I practice and teach yoga and during my pregnancy all I felt like doing was a couple of relaxation postures and Yoga nidra or Savasana. We were gardening as a full time job during my first and second trimester so I was doing a lot of squatting as is. Some of my yoga friends told me about classmates who were these 6,7 or 8 months pregnant yogic warriors in full practice. I did visit an Ayurvedic doctor in India during my first month who told me to relax and let myself get a bit fatty. I suppose one ought to practice what they feel they can tolerate when they are pregnant, listening to our own bodies and the baby is especially important.
When I got to 38 weeks I bought an exercise ball and bounced on it as much as possible, I took larger doses of raspberry leaf tea and followed our wonderful midwives instructions. At 39 weeks I started to feel like I was getting my period and I looked kinda puffy. At 2:30 am on November 13, I woke up to what I figured were contractions. They weren’t too close together yet so I curled up next to the fireplace in the living room and tried to sleep through it. The body produces the best drugs and after each contraction I felt like someone was sprinkling sparkles over me which eventually put me back to sleep. I woke up that morning to my husband with me on the floor, cuddling me tightly. That day I made butternut squash soup that was way too spicy and thick for labour and I slowly paced around the house while my husband stood by. In the afternoon I thought I was in active labour so we called the midwife to check me. I was fully effaced, she could feel the head but I was only 1 cm dilated! She had some other clients to attend to, it was a really busy day for them, a full moon the night before. At 7pm we called again and the story was similar, I felt like I was probably 7 cm but I was 2…poo:( I was feeling a bit nauseous, the midwife gave me a little gravol so I could get some sleep. I slept intermittently as my husband, stayed by my side gently whispering ‘relax, relax,’ probably a useful mantra for both of us at the time. At 10pm I told him without so many words that he needed to call the midwife again, she arrived at about 10:15 and as she entered the room I felt the need to begin pushing. She could see at first glance that I was almost ready and she checked me then asked, ‘do you want the good news, or the good news.’ We were ready to go! As she checked for the heartbeat we had a moment or two where it couldn’t be detected but I felt like I knew the baby was ready, coming and okay. I am lucky, I pushed about 5 times and we saw the head crown. The cord was around the neck but it was lose and without a moment of stress the midwife gently unwrapped it and proceeded. I let out a large grunt and pushed ‘right into my bottom’ as directed by our midwife, she caught our baby and lay him on my chest at 10:45pm. My husband had tears in his eyes, I felt like a warrior and the baby was beautiful. It was after 10 minutes of us holding the baby that our midwife asked if we wanted to check the sex. It was a boy, he is healthy, happy the most wonderful creation I have ever accomplished. It was so natural to sleep in our own bed that night with our baby boy by our side, then to wake up in the morning and make breakfast together while chatting on Skype with our families in India and throughout North America. The basement tenants were surprised that I gave birth at home because they only heard me scream once and the baby’s initial cry.
I believe this positive birth story can and has already empowered pregnant woman to follow and trust their intuition. I am happy to say my friends and family were curious and overjoyed that our experience was so wonderful. It was not easy, labour is work not a vacation but it was all a bona fide experience I will forever cherish. I am truly blessed to have found my natural calling as mom.
moksha mama 