Himmat, my courage

My birthing experience

Our gift to Manpal's Mom, that's how we surprised her with the news

I know lot of you have been waiting for this post. And to be honest, I'm excited to share my experience too! It was such a memorable and wonderful experience... I would definitely do the same for next baby.






Most of you know by now I was planning on doing a natural birth from the beginning of my pregnancy. I started off seeing a OBGYN because I thought that was what you were suppose to do. (I later learned from the hypnobirthing class about how OBGYN came in the picture, plus my friend who is originally from England explained to how they see midwives; they only see OBGYNs for emergencies or complications) I saw a midwife in the office for the most part but it still wasn't what I was looking for. On my 4th month check up, my midwife gave me brochures of different classes I could take to prepare for the birth, fitness classes, and support groups. The hypno-birthing brochure popped out to me instantly.

I took a class with +Katie Tolbert, Peace on Birth. At first my husband wasn't too excited to come with me but later he became interested in the whole process too. She did an amazing job explaining everything, the different types of natural births, the history, what your body is going through, and so much more. I truly came out of the class prepared and ready to get this baby out! Also from her I learned about +NOVA Birth Center, I remember the day I found out about them... I was beyond relief and ecstatic. Because I already knew I wanted natural birth but I wasn't looking forward to the whole hospital setting. Originally wanted to do a home birth but with our living situation it wasn't ideal.

The midwives that helped me during the birth

Moving forward I began going to +NOVA Birth Center, they were exactly what I was looking for. Natural. I didn't want numerous amount of ridiculous test done. I had one test done that rang an false alarm all because of a technician error; it had me all worried for nothing... not to mention the $400 bill. But that's beside the point, I wanted my birthing experience to be memorable and wanted to feel the real power a women has to birth a life. My close family and friend already knew I am a strong-willed person and I would be able to natural birth, but I did have a few skeptics.

 The due date my midwife at the OBGYN gave me was Sept 16 and the date came... and nothing. So I decided to help my body out a little... or a lot. I did everything possible to get the contractions started.

• Eat crabs and lobster
• Essential Oils
• Organic Dates
• Castrol Oil, mixed with orange juice in a blender bottle real good and drank it with my eyes closed
• Went to +Teavana to get Raspberry tea, the young lady knew exactly why I was there so she made it extra potent
• Bounced on the yoga ball
• Hot shower

I did ALL of these the night before and at 4am the contraction started!! At first the contraction were about 20-30 mins apart, I was able to handle it and able to walk it off. Then they started becoming closer and we called the midwife on duty at the +NOVA Birth Center. She advised us to stay at home until the contractions were 5-10mins aparts. Soon after the call I started getting surges to push, so we called the midwife again and headed to the birthing center. I remember at one point when the contractions became closer, I told my husband to just take me to the hospital and he immediately responded "NO baby! You can do this!" I instantly got the motivation I needed. (by the way, he learned how to response to my reactions like that from the class) As soon as we got there I got ready to get in the tub, which is how I wanted to birth. At the same time, the midwife and the student midwives, checked my temperature and blood pressure.

When I got in the tub my husband did exactly how I wanted, put his phone next to my ear with relaxing hindi music

• Theme song from Fanaa
• Tera Liya From Veer Zara
• Instrumental to Mirza

In the meantime, my mother in law waited patiently for the arrival of her grandchild, not knowing if it was a boy or girl. My husband called my sisters and mom to come. When the contraction started my husband would massaged my back which relieved the pain. My water broke in the tub and I could feel the head. The midwives guided me when to push and encouraged me to keep breathing, staying hydrated. I had prepared labor aid couple of weeks before so I was drinking that to keep me hydrated. I was so eager to meet baby ghuman I began to scream and push. However the midwife relaxed me and told me that I would put my body in flight & fright and it would be hard to get out. Thusly I began to breath deeply in and out. Dosed off, relaxed, completely merged within the water.






With 3 pushes and out came baby ghuman! They laid him on my chest, tears came rolling down my cheeks. I looked up at my husband and his eyes were watery too. Then it hit me, I still didn't know if it was a boy or girl.I At 8:36 am on Sept 20th Himmat Singh Ghuman was born. My son. My courage.

At Home, cutting a birth-day cake 

After the birth, the midwifes help me stabilize, got me out the water, helped me shower...go bathroom, assisted me with having him latch on, and overall just make me feel comfortable. They told us we could stay there as long  as we needed to. Manpal brought food and we all ate then began to get ready to go home. Around 12pm we were all ready to go. We stopped by Raj Khalsa Gurughar(Holy Temple) to receive blessing. At 2pm I was at the comfort of my own bed and sleeping with my son, Himmat Singh.

SIDE NOTE: I know I didn't go into too much detail about vaccines, medicine, and other somewhat important details. But I would be more than happy to talk to any of you about my thoughts, experience, and belief.

Chaar Sahibzade

A reminder of the past...

Last week, we went to go watch Chaar Sahibzade. It was my husband, little brother kuljeet, little sister harinder, mom, and my nana ji (mom's dad), we were all eager to see the movie. Kuljeet was the most excited one of all, he loves listening to our history and shows a passion for our culture/religion. He previously went to go see Saadda Haq with us too and asked many questions trying to understand what happened. Therefore, I was excited to see this reaction to this movies; especially since it was animated. 

If your not familiar with Sikh history, let me give a brief overview of this film. Guru Gobind Singh ji, our last of ten gurus, sacrificed the lives of his 4 sons aka Chaar Sahibzaade for religion, injustice, and tyranny of the Mughals. 

When the movie started, I immediately noticed that the animated characters were very well done. Each of the Sahibzade were beautifully characterized. Their punjabi was so polite and rich with culture (which I expected). What I didn't except was to be so emotional over an animated movie. I thought if there were actual actors, I would be more attached, but I was wrong. I cried numerous times throughout the movie.

I also appreciated the fact the Guru ji was shown but no one voiced for him. At first, I was a bit skeptical how this would work but when I saw it... I was impressed. It is hard to this but they did a great job.

I'm not going to go into scene by scene to tell you how much I loved it... you just have to see it yourself. Take the whole family, reconnect your kids, little cousins, nieces and nephews with our rich history of sikhism. I love the fact that our future generation now has a well depicted movie of our history. Making the film into 3-D was a great idea, I personally didn't watch it 3-D but that will definitely get any kids attention.

At the end of movie, we left with tears rolling down our cheeks and thinking how distant we have become from our roots. The chota Sahibzade spoke with such pride, confidence, and passion about sikhi that it re-energize us as future generation. My nana ji, who lost his own son during the 1984 attack on the Golden Temple, had puffy eyes and red nose from crying. Kuljeet was left speechless, I think that the movie was so well done that he understood what happened and why it happened, leaving him very more passionate about being a guru sikh.


Great job Harry Baweja! You have two thumbs up and a standing ovation from my family and I. Even chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, loved it so much that he stated no tax will be charged on this movie! Famous actors like Shilpa Shetty, Tabu, Raj Kundra, and Bipasha Basu were all at the launch premier. It took Harry Baweja couple of year to make the film, perfecting and gathering correct information about history... but it was well worth the wait.   

Looking forward for more movies like these to watch with my kids in the future.