three years ago i birthed my twins via an elective cesarean (you may read the story here) as it was the safest option for all of us and as happy as i was with the entire experience and recovery i couldn't help but feel a slight tinge of disappointment because my body didn't get to go through a natural birth. i really thought that jade and leo would be it for us but the universe had other plans and we were blessed with another angel.
i learnt of hypnobirthing from a few friends of mine years ago and i have always been intrigued by what it was all about. could there really be such a thing as a painfree birth? during my first pregnancy i didn't find any hypnobirthing courses so i jumped at the first opportunity when i found out about the second pregnancy. i signed up when i was about four months, which was very early but since we live in jakarta and the courses were offered in kuala lumpur, i had to make do while we were in KL during the children's school holidays.
in a nutshell hypnobirthing is really about bringing your baby into the world in the most gentle way as possible, focusing on your breath and being emotionally prepared for anything that may happen during birth. nowadays, we have so many options that allow the mother a 'comfortable' birth but many of us don't realise what exactly these options are made of and how they affect the mother and baby. epidurals for instance if not administered properly may leave the mother with backaches and migraines for the rest of her life, or not knowing how much to push resulting in vacuum or forcep deliveries, and the list goes on and on. i also feel that 'pain' will be felt in one way or another, one just needs to decide whether you'd like it before or after the birth.
because i had a cesarean birth, i was even more adamant on birthing my baby completely au naturel because emotionally and psychologically i suffered for a long time. i took the longest time to emotionally bond with my babies, i absolutely hated breastfeeding, i was depressed for at least a year and a half and though i could walk within the first couple of days after surgery my lower abdomen will forever be numb and dead.
the first decision i made was where i was going to deliver tara. first i was set on flying back to kl but after weighing children's school, our living situation, husband's work and flying all of us back here, i thought let's not be silly i will birth here and the only person who will have to do the flying is my mother for when she has to take care of me. after we decided on the country of delivery we had to look for a doctor, so i asked around and was recommended the ever-so-calm, ever-so-gentle dr aswin. from the moment i met him i knew that he would be the perfect doctor for a natural delivery.
after that was sorted i continued listening to my relaxing scripts every night before i went to bed and really just waited for baby tara to come. i had my performance in between and life continued as normal. i ate much healthier this pregnancy, i drank a lot of water, i didn't gain much weight and my body did not retain much water either. no swollen anything right till the end.
since i had the twins at 36 weeks i never experienced surges of any kind, braxton or real. so when the braxton hicks first started i got all excited and started timing. of course they tend to stop if you stand up or have a glass of water so that really never got anywhere and i kept thinking to myself come on, when is this labour going to start and when it does when will i know.
we made 2 trips to the hospital only to be sent back with a tightly shut cervix. but when the labour started oh i sure as hell knew. on the 23rd of dec, after many days of chor tai tai and gin rummy with my family, my sister decided to spice things up and we watched magic mike, seeing that it was still early on in the day we moved onto kabhi khushi kabhi gham in the evening and by the time shah rukh khan was kicked out of the house i was in excruciating pain and had to waddle my way up to my room to cry on my bed because i didn't want to look like a weak ass. in my mind i was already thinking, 'if it hurts so bad already how am i going to handle the next 12 hours?' so i called up raymond to the room and said that i think it's time this time.
the surges kept coming as we headed to the hospital, which was a good sign that this was the real deal what wasn't very good was having a surge while you went through potholes or speed bumps, no, that was not very good. we went straight up to the familiar labour ward and went to the observation room where they hooked me up to a machine to monitor my surges, heartbeat and baby's heartbeat for 30 minutes. i kid you not, within minutes of walking into the labour ward i heard a little bit of moaning and a newborn cry. i was like, 'whoa, no indian drama screaming? these women are hardcore!' little did i know i would be the yelling indian drama 12 hours later.
to be continued...
i learnt of hypnobirthing from a few friends of mine years ago and i have always been intrigued by what it was all about. could there really be such a thing as a painfree birth? during my first pregnancy i didn't find any hypnobirthing courses so i jumped at the first opportunity when i found out about the second pregnancy. i signed up when i was about four months, which was very early but since we live in jakarta and the courses were offered in kuala lumpur, i had to make do while we were in KL during the children's school holidays.
in a nutshell hypnobirthing is really about bringing your baby into the world in the most gentle way as possible, focusing on your breath and being emotionally prepared for anything that may happen during birth. nowadays, we have so many options that allow the mother a 'comfortable' birth but many of us don't realise what exactly these options are made of and how they affect the mother and baby. epidurals for instance if not administered properly may leave the mother with backaches and migraines for the rest of her life, or not knowing how much to push resulting in vacuum or forcep deliveries, and the list goes on and on. i also feel that 'pain' will be felt in one way or another, one just needs to decide whether you'd like it before or after the birth.
because i had a cesarean birth, i was even more adamant on birthing my baby completely au naturel because emotionally and psychologically i suffered for a long time. i took the longest time to emotionally bond with my babies, i absolutely hated breastfeeding, i was depressed for at least a year and a half and though i could walk within the first couple of days after surgery my lower abdomen will forever be numb and dead.
the first decision i made was where i was going to deliver tara. first i was set on flying back to kl but after weighing children's school, our living situation, husband's work and flying all of us back here, i thought let's not be silly i will birth here and the only person who will have to do the flying is my mother for when she has to take care of me. after we decided on the country of delivery we had to look for a doctor, so i asked around and was recommended the ever-so-calm, ever-so-gentle dr aswin. from the moment i met him i knew that he would be the perfect doctor for a natural delivery.
after that was sorted i continued listening to my relaxing scripts every night before i went to bed and really just waited for baby tara to come. i had my performance in between and life continued as normal. i ate much healthier this pregnancy, i drank a lot of water, i didn't gain much weight and my body did not retain much water either. no swollen anything right till the end.
since i had the twins at 36 weeks i never experienced surges of any kind, braxton or real. so when the braxton hicks first started i got all excited and started timing. of course they tend to stop if you stand up or have a glass of water so that really never got anywhere and i kept thinking to myself come on, when is this labour going to start and when it does when will i know.
we made 2 trips to the hospital only to be sent back with a tightly shut cervix. but when the labour started oh i sure as hell knew. on the 23rd of dec, after many days of chor tai tai and gin rummy with my family, my sister decided to spice things up and we watched magic mike, seeing that it was still early on in the day we moved onto kabhi khushi kabhi gham in the evening and by the time shah rukh khan was kicked out of the house i was in excruciating pain and had to waddle my way up to my room to cry on my bed because i didn't want to look like a weak ass. in my mind i was already thinking, 'if it hurts so bad already how am i going to handle the next 12 hours?' so i called up raymond to the room and said that i think it's time this time.
the surges kept coming as we headed to the hospital, which was a good sign that this was the real deal what wasn't very good was having a surge while you went through potholes or speed bumps, no, that was not very good. we went straight up to the familiar labour ward and went to the observation room where they hooked me up to a machine to monitor my surges, heartbeat and baby's heartbeat for 30 minutes. i kid you not, within minutes of walking into the labour ward i heard a little bit of moaning and a newborn cry. i was like, 'whoa, no indian drama screaming? these women are hardcore!' little did i know i would be the yelling indian drama 12 hours later.
to be continued...
 |
| as an avid cold water bather i was surprised at how comforting warm water was... |
No comments:
Post a Comment