I chose to have an intuitive unassisted pregnancy and childbirth.
This is a little different for most people to wrap their brains around, since we live in a technological age, where it's easier to watch and monitor what's going on inside of our bodies with machines than reach inside of ourselves with meditation and intuition and feel our human instincts at work.
What this means during pregnancy: No Ultrasounds, No Monthly or Weekly Checkups, No Blood Tests (except one at the same time as my pregnancy test which showed I was low in iron, which I quickly ameliorated with Yellow Dock and Burdock Root tinctures), continuation of a regular exercise routine which included: Pilates, yoga, walking, and light strength training, drinking Raspberry Leaf Tea, and lots of good healthy food.
I am not here to speak against hospital births, or doctors, or anything of the sort. I just want to display that it is possible to produce a perfectly healthy human without those things. My choice wasn't based on anything but an instinct, and a desire to follow what was in my heart. I am not alone in this choice, however. There is support out there for U.P.'ers and U.C.'ers!
My pregnancy was relatively complication free, minus some aches and pains right under my ribs where her feet took root and jabbed me every few minutes all day and all night. The only craving I remember having was soups and breads in the beginning, and bananas all the way through. I gained 30 lbs, which came off relatively easily and quickly. I'm sure the second one is/will be much harder to get the weight off! At least that is what most two-time mothers say.
At 25 weeks I did meet with a midwife in Green Bay for an external checkup (heart rate, blood pressure, position of baby) and to discuss her possible attendance at the birth. We were due April 20th. Around mid-March the midwife informed us that she would be away in Texas during the week we were due, so she could help us find backup, or another midwife. Green Bay is over an hour away from our house, a hospital is a little over 30 minutes, and the next closest midwife is about an hour and a half, in Appleton. I felt more nervous about having a stranger in our house monitoring me than I felt about going it alone. With only a few weeks to go, we decided we'd probably end up having this baby by ourselves, though we did draw up an emergency plan, if, when the time came, we thought something was wrong, and that were incapable of pulling it off (or out!). As my belly grew larger and larger, I inhaled as many birth stories as I could. I read Baby Catcher, Ina May Gaskins Guide to Childbirth, and Unassisted Childbirth by Laura Shanley. I frequented the webforums on freebirthing, watched water birthing videos, ordered a birthing kit from Cascade HealthCare Products, Inc. , wrote my birth plan for before, during, and after labor, and relaxed and watched some good movies.
On the full moon, April 9th, at Midnight, while watching The Darjeeling Limited, my water broke.
Birth Story to come.....
I really liked reading that! You should blog more about Lilith and pregnancy/being a mother! I like learning about it and hearing other people's stories incase I ever decide I'd like to be a mother...atleast I can live through someone vicariously for now. It's nice (and informative) to see an "old tradition" perspective.
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