I Want a Natural Birth - So There!

I want to have a natural birth......there I said it.  For some reason telling people this these days brings fourth snickers, and jeers and sarcastic remarks from parents.  Now call me naive...I have not yet given birth, but why is it so shameful or silly to think that a woman could actually want to do one of the most natural things that our bodies were created to do, that millions of women before us have done sans drugs and medical intervention??!!

Ivan and I have a wonderful Doctor, who has been very supportive in our wishes to have a natural birth.  We had considered doing a home birth with a Midwife (no they are not Witches or voodoo spirits), but Ivan didn't want to wreck the hardwood floors...hahaha.  Seriously though, for our first baby, I am just not quite comfortable doing it at home...maybe for baby number two.  So we have opted to have a hospital birth, and have carefully prepared a suit case filled with flicker candles (battery operated of course) massage oils, heat/cool packs, my vision board and pillows and blankies that will make us feel a little more comfortable.

I feel nothing but pure joy and excitement about having this baby....I feel very prepared and I know my body will instinctively know what to do in order to give birth.  My husband has been wonderful throughout this whole pregnancy as well and very involved in the learning process too.  We have read one of the most thoughtful and amazing books that I think every single women who may be considering children should read AND it was recommended by our Doctor...its called Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Child Birth . It has taught us so much about the natural birth process and how it has been so mutilated by Westernized society...it brings us back to the basics when women trusted their bodies and didn't have an option for an epidural, or vacuum or forceps or c-section etc.  And it teaches you techniques in order to naturally assist the dilation process for a slow labour, and how to cope with the "rushes"  the term she uses for the more ugly term "contractions".  Anyway, I could talk about how amazing this book is forever...my advice is to just read it.

Almost 99% of the women/mothers I speak to ask if I am scared/terrified/nervous to give birth and my answer is always no. I am just excited.  I think the media, movies and popular television has done a bang up job of scaring the shit out of us with their dramatic birth...remember drama sells... But if you take the time to read about birth and watch movies about natural birth....view videos of real women giving birth then it begins to take the mystery out of it.  I mean come on...most of us can't really say we have been regularly exposed to birth...so naturally it would be sort of a scary...unknown, taboo type topic. Before our research, the last time I had seen a birth was in grade 9 sex ed class with a bunch of squeamish teenagers....probably not the best imprint in ones mind as to how birth should be.

So we have now watched numerous births...the first one we saw was in our Pre-Natal classes offered by Douglas College at St. Pauls in Vancouver, taught by Sandra Lopez and was AMAZING...she had all three of her babies naturally and is certainly an inspiration to myself!  She showed a few videos of natural births and at first it was uncomfortable to watch....I could feel the energy in the room get tense...but after watching a few births, I began to really enjoy watching them...and all of the raw emotions that come with it.  Ivan and I would sit in class with tears in our eyes, as we watched these little miracles occur.  So we downloaded a movie called Orgasmic Birth (please watch the video trailer) and were awed even further.  Yes did you know that many women actually experience orgasm when giving birth...I sure as heck didn't know that....but how fascinating...if more women knew this was possible, perhaps the whole "Too posh to push" fad (aka. the planned C-section) would not have become so popular.  Another movie I highly recommend is The Business of Being Born .

Now I may be saying all of this, and Ivan and I may have the very best of intentions to have a beautiful natural birth....and yes I do understand that things may not go as we have planned or hope they will go in our minds.....but either way, I am so happy that we have taken the time to do some research...beyond what the Western medical system teaches us, as we have learned so much and feel so excited and blessed for the experience that we are about to have in the next few weeks.....Happy and Healthy is all anyone could wish for of course...and that is the wish for our baby, so we will keep you posted and wish all of the soon-to-be mommies a safe and healthy birth that you truly do enjoy!