It was a great day for a birth!

Mom smsed at 4.30am to say she had had 8 contractions in the last hour. Things were happening quickly. I was at her house at 6am - she had a couple of contractions and we decided to go through to Linkwood, they were getting close together very quickly. Went through to Linkwood and she was already 7-8cm dilated. She was doing SO well! I set up the pool (in 20 mins - I am an expert now) and she delivered by 7.47am. It was dad's birthday too - a great birthday present!! They hadn't decided on a name yet (they were juggling between Layla and Rosie). I held her for about an hour while mom was being stitched (she tore slightly on her previous episiotomy).

Big sister (16 months old) came to visit and kept kissing her and saying "baba". My heart could have burst!

SMS from her last night - Hi there. Just wanted to say thanks for being so incredible today. It was amazing to have that support and assistance. I really appreciate every minute you helped me, it was ten thousand times different to my first birth. And we finally have a name: Lily Sofia. Lily is of Latin origin and symbolic of purity and beauty. Sofia means wisdom.

*BEAM* I am so blessed.

Birthin from Within

A friend of mine borrowed my copy of "Birthing from Within" and so I have not read it over the past year - waiting in anticipation to get the copy back. I forced myself to finish Suzanne Arms's "Immaculate Deception" (though it's a great book) so I could start reading my newly returned Pam England book. (My husband recons you can't start a new book before you have finished the previous one). Anyway, I am completely hooked. I am craving information and there is just such a lack of education available in South Africa. I have resorted to reading course material from the WHO website - thanks WHO :)

Anyway I a feel like I have started a journey and I am wondering if all this education is a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to my babies. I am afraid I am going to be too much "in my mind" and focused on the birth experience than the final result of a baby. If I am concentrating so much on the process and perfection - can you really say it's still natural birth, primal birth?

One of mine

She's now 2.5 months old, and so beautiful! This little girl, her mom and her dad will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you for inviting me into such an intimate part of your life.

Am I subsidizing an elective caesarian?

My husband and I were having our nightly bath chat last evening. We got onto the topic of medical aids and elective caesarians (not such a difficult topic to steer to in our home) and it got me thinking that as medical aid members, we are subsidizing other members’ medical procedures. Surely then, I should have a say where my money is going? Or surely I should be able to sign up to understand how they (the MAs) with a clear conscious are spending my money?

Take this into consideration, a homebirth – with all paraphernalia and including all prenatal visits with a midwife could cost about R8 000 + a doula at a stretch. An elective caesarian (just for the operation!) costs R30 000 + hospital cover + 12 gynae visits + scans. Conclusively an elective caesarian costs 5 times what a homebirth costs – and MY money is going towards that! I am all for pro-choice but this is not the mothers choice, this is the gynaecologist getting rebates from the medical aid for choosing an unnecessary medical procedure for the mother and baby. Yet, my monthly medical aid costs are now in excess of R3000 for myself and my husband. My R3000 is subsidizing a procedure which in 70% of cases in the private sector in South Africa is needless major surgery.

Discovery (South Africa’s largest medical aid) has in excess of 2 million members (July 2007) and growing. I have absolutely no idea what the ratio is of childbearing women in that total amount, but even if we say one tenth are of the female sex and at a childbearing age – that’s 200 000 people at an average of R2 000 each as their monthly premiums – R400 000 000 (that’s four hundred million Rand a month!), consider that 70% of these women will have elective caesarians (15% over and above that will have emergency caesarians according to the World Health Organisation’s statistics) – that is R5 600 000 000 unneccessary spend – that’s R5 200 000 000 MORE than their monthly premiums added together. Who do you think is paying for those 70% of uncalled for caesarians? Mr Singh whom for his whole life has worked at a salary of R12 000 a month, and his wife has had two natural births at home. His monthly premium being in the region of R4 000 a month. Does this sound fair? These numbers are even difficult to comprehend, but obviously this is small change for the medical aids. Small change because there is no movement towards encouraging natural birth, and certainly don’t even ASK your medical aid to pay for your home birth. You will spend 9 months trying to get a single cent out of them.

Medical aids like to call their products “consumer-driven plans”, this is a bit of an redundant comment.

“Consumers have an unlimited demand for healthcare, but the resources available to medical schemes to pay for healthcare services are limited to members' contributions. Someone has to ration healthcare, and it is best if consumers do so themselves, says Adrian Gore, the chief executive of Discovery Health.

If schemes do not give consumers the power to decide how to ration their own healthcare, schemes are likely to fail, he adds.”

I would love to see this happen, pipe dreams Mr Gore, pipe dreams.

* source: www.persfin.co.za

Welcome to the world little Gabriella

I met the couple exactly one week ago to the day. Mom is stunning, and so young (2 years younger than me) and dad is studying to be a Pastor. Their faith and commitment really was amazing. She was only 38 weeks today, but dad knew that baby will be here this week.

Anyway I got a call at about 11am from the dad to say that they had gone in for their weekly appointment and the midwife told them that she will be having this baby before sunset. So I agree with dad that I will be there in about 2 hours just so they can go home and get their bags etc. 5 minutes later the midwife calls me and says that I should get there quickly, she is dilating quickly and its going to be a very quick birth. So I get into Fourways traffic, takes me about an hour to get there. Luckily when I arrived the birth pool was set up already by the granny (hehe) and the midwife said that I had to needed to make an effort to connect with the mom (considering we had a very short week to do it in). I walked into the room and she didn't want ANYONE touching her. Within an hour I was rubbing her back and comforting her through the contractions. Their was a song playing on the radio that we all loved and the dad and I laughed and said it would be funny if the baby was born to that song. I was with her for about an hour before the midwife came in - she got to about 7-8cm dilated within this time. This girl, this amazing woman, managed her contractions so so well. She did cry, but she was so strong and so incredible that I am just in awe.

Baby was born in the birthing pool (with dad in it) at 15h05 - to the song that we laughed about earlier - a miracle I believe! (lyrics below). Gabriella weighed in at 2.85kgs. I helped mom take a bath after the birth, and baby latched absolutely perfectly first time. Mom and dad are amazing, and I would be blessed if my own birth went half as well as hers did. She had a slight nick, but nothing that needed to be stitched. It was a quick labour, about 8 hours in all.

The midwife let me put her first nappy on her and show mom and dad how to use the wecesan powder on the umbilical cord. I felt SO HONOURED to be asked to do that!

She was named after the Angel Gabriel, and this is the song she was born to (it is the most beautiful song, and I just cry when i think about it):

[i] verse 1

i see the king of glory coming on the clouds with fire the whole earth shakes the whole earth shakes.

verse 2

i see his love and mercy washing over all our sin the people sing the people sing.

chorus

hosanna hosanna, hosanna in the highest. hosanna hosanna, hosanna in the highest.

verse 3

i see a generation rising up to take their place with selfless faith with selfless faith.

verse 4

i see a near revival stirring as we pray and seek we're on our knees we're on our knees.

chorus

hosanna hosanna, hosanna in the highest. hosanna hosanna, hosanna in the highest.

bridge

heal my heart and make it clean open up my eyes to the things unseen show me how to love like you have loved me. break my heart for what breaks yours everything i am for your kingdoms cause as i walk from earth into eternity.

chorus

hosanna hosanna, hosanna in the highest. hosanna hosanna, hosanna in the highest. (x2)[/i]

Thank you Lord for another miracle.

I'm a happy doula

Had THE MOST AMAZING birth today! I feel so blessed! Will update tomorrow... still on too much of a high to put a comprehensive sentence together.

WOW WOW WOW!!!

My First Birth as a Doula...

... but technically my second. I still often think about this birth, it was amazing and one of the best experiences of my life. I don't think I helped much, but I was so grateful to the parents and the midwife for letting me be there. I cried my eyes out after that birth and if mine can be anything like it, I would be very blessed.

My Choice

Today I was asked what my birth choice would be, and I think the response really surprised my friends.

My first choice is to have a completely natural unmedicated home birth, with zero intervention. If I do not get this, I will have a caesarian. No middle ground for me – no dripping, inducing, medicating, cutting, salad server-ing me thank you very much!

I think I am so vocal about natural birth that people seem to assume that as long as the baby comes out of my vagina, I would be happy. But it’s not that way at all. Most of the horror or “birth rape” stories that I have heard have been about vaginal births gone wrong… gone wrong because they have been augmented, strapped to a bed with a baby monitor, baby has gone into distress and they have either been cut and and forcepted or the baby was taken out the “sun-roof”. I think people do not understand that interventions themselves are more emotionally damaging than a scheduled caesarian at 38 weeks.

So it’s all or nothing for me.