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| Kortedala (Sweden) |
Mats started to fill up the birth tub with hot water. For another 30 hours, I was in and out of the birth tub, guided by Mats and sometimes Nanette, to continuously focus on the breathing, especially during contractions. At the night of the 16th, I was sleep deprived and feeling really exhausted. By that time, I haven't slept a full hour for almost 6 days.
I wanted to give up and go to the hospital. But I really don't want to go to the hospital because then all my effort of not having to do with pharmaceuticals and not even subjecting Babeb to ultrasounds would be a total waste. So I stayed strong and powered through.
'If most women can go through child birth naturally, then why can't I? I can do this!' I thought to myself.
As the contractions become more intense and closer to each other, I spent most of the time in the birth tub. Between each contractions, Mats would gently lay my head to lean on the birth tub to preserve my energy and allow me to sleep. As the pushing sensations became stronger and stronger, my body instinctively wanted to be in a squatting position, and then I breathed out Babeb's head.
"Something's out! Head! Head's out!" I called out to Mats full of excitement.
His hands dived in to the water and immediately caught her head. Then her body followed quickly.
She was finally born at 7.30am on the 17th of September 2017.
Since her arrival, my exhausted body and mind suddenly somehow recuperated. I continued on not sleeping for another 48 hours. I was extremely excited and overwhelmed with love and joy. I could never ask for a better midwife than Mats. His love and support really helped me go through the whole process, including the overdue pregnancy which went on for approximately another 2-3 months.
My gratitude as well for Nanette for being there to help out and most of all, for allowing the birth process to happen in her apartment.
Through a great team work of the 4 of us (myself, Babeb, Mats and Nanette), we succeeded to have a natural unassisted child birth.
Now it has been 2 weeks since Babeb came in to our lives and we finally have decided a name for her:
Ralephka Thothiana Ganesh Matsdottir Manaf Lagnevall
My decision to give birth unassisted at home is definitely one of the best decisions I've made in my life. It is a hard one to make, especially when I never subjected Ralephka to any ultrasounds to see how she was developing throughout the pregnancy. But having read enough to understand more about child birth gave me the confidence to the decision I made. I wrote about it in my previous blog (April 2017), check it out. Just click on the link: truth about childbirth.
Anyway, here are some pictures of Ralephka's grand entrance in to this world.
Welcome to this life Rara.
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| Me in the birth tub with a candle lit atmosphere and smell of sage in the air |
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| Candle light everywhere |
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| My last meal on the first night of pre labor before I only went on liquid diet throughout the labor |
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| The night of the 16th when I was really exhausted and sleeping between contractions |
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| Little Babeb when she made her grand entrance |
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| Grandmother visiting a few hours later, with the placenta still attached to Babeb |
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| Burning the umbilical cord |
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| Ralephka's favourite place to sleep.. Nothing like snuggle wuggle with daddy |
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| A week after Ralephka was born. She's gained more weight and starting to fill up her clothes. |
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