My birthing experience
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
