Spring fever 2009 (already huge at the beginning of my third trimester, a few months before giving birth to Ruby!):
Along these lines, birth has been on my mind. It's baby season in Brooklyn, plus I have had a few people tell me recently that they are pregnant.
Here is a book, Birthing From Within, that my friend Emily (doula, soon-to-be-midwife, all-around amazing birthing expert) gave me last year while I was getting ready to give birth to my daughter. I love this book because it's very holistic and inclusive in its approach to birthing. And because I think it really got me into a good mindset somewhere in between "planning" how I wanted to give birth, and also understanding that I wouldn't be able to control it all and that I would need to be flexible in my expectations in order to have the wonderful experience I wanted. This helped me immeasurably when push came to shove and the complications of my labor kept me from being allowed to give birth in the natural birthing center that I had planned for and I had to give birth in the dreaded hospital (not at all what I had in mind). Much of what I had taken away from Birthing From Within helped me to shift my mindset in the moment to quickly get over my disappointment and still have a beautiful, memorable, drug-free birth in my little hospital room after 36 hours of sleepless labor.
As I write this with my windows open and Ruby sleeping soundly beside me, I can hear the voices of all the neighborhood kids squealing in delight at the playground down the street. It is one of the unmistakable sounds of spring and the fruit of our hard labors (literally)!
Here is a book, Birthing From Within, that my friend Emily (doula, soon-to-be-midwife, all-around amazing birthing expert) gave me last year while I was getting ready to give birth to my daughter. I love this book because it's very holistic and inclusive in its approach to birthing. And because I think it really got me into a good mindset somewhere in between "planning" how I wanted to give birth, and also understanding that I wouldn't be able to control it all and that I would need to be flexible in my expectations in order to have the wonderful experience I wanted. This helped me immeasurably when push came to shove and the complications of my labor kept me from being allowed to give birth in the natural birthing center that I had planned for and I had to give birth in the dreaded hospital (not at all what I had in mind). Much of what I had taken away from Birthing From Within helped me to shift my mindset in the moment to quickly get over my disappointment and still have a beautiful, memorable, drug-free birth in my little hospital room after 36 hours of sleepless labor.
As I write this with my windows open and Ruby sleeping soundly beside me, I can hear the voices of all the neighborhood kids squealing in delight at the playground down the street. It is one of the unmistakable sounds of spring and the fruit of our hard labors (literally)!
Hope your spring is sheer bliss!
I LOVED Birthing From Within. It really helped me come to terms with finding out Delilah would need to be born by Caesarian, rather than the natural Waterbirth I had been hoping for. The Thinking Woman's Guide to Better Birth is another one I highly recommend!
ReplyDelete~Joella
my birth plans were also changed last min. our little boy was 15 days late, so we were no longer able to have a waterbirth at home (b/c his fluid was too low) and we had a 37 hour drug-free labor before an em. c-section (the little boy was OP with his chin turned the wrong way). i will have to read this book.
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