What an impressive, inspiring, rational, beautifully expressed account of an amazing achievement. You've done so well! And I may be biased but I love her name. x Hugs x
OMG Kat - that was an emmensley powerful and moving story.
I'm still not sure reading this 6 days after my own birth was the best idea - I have tears running down my face! Some of those are of utter relief that my own experience was pretty much what I had hoped it would be.
I had the priveledge of hearing Rhea Dempsey speak a couple of times during my pregnancy and have to admit I was fast on the road to becoming an 'aspirationally naive' woman myself - I think I must have read every natural birth text in the English language there was and thought I was armed with all the knowledge I needed for the 'perfect birth'. I don't know what diverted me from that path - a combination of my influences from my doula, yoga teacher, and close friend who teaches calmbirth I think helped me to 'keep it real'.
Thank you so much for sharing your story in such detail - I'm sure many of us will learn from your experience - especially the realisations you listed in the last post.
You are truely a courageous woman
Kat - thats so beautifully written and so raw, I had tears running down my face reading it - I felt like I was going through it with you.
I think Ivy will be really proud to read that one day, and hopefully as a young woman and eventually a mother she will understand the emotional rollercoaster you have gone through, as her birth story has been written with obvious love.
I'm so pleased you got skin on skin time before she was whisked away - thats my regret about Baileys birth as he was taken so quickly for treatment after birth, but ultimately his condition dictated that for us....
When we all go back for our 2nd child - our experiences from our first labours will be very much at the forefront of our minds, and hopefully guide us in perfecting the experience next time (as much as we can control)
Thanks for sharing such a personal and touching story - Ivy's birth is really inspirational
Hi Kat,
I read your story a few days ago and it's taken me a while to process it.
I think you did an amazing job and I can see it's easy to beat yourself up when things don't go the way you expect. I hope you are fully debriefed now and can be proud of giving birth.
My first reaction to your story was shock that you were in labour for so long. For some reason I thought early labours would be easy because obviously the baby wanted to come out, plus it would be smaller than a full-term baby. I think it's time I read up on labour now. I thought I had another two months before I had to worry about the details! So thank you for posting your story in all its gory and wonderful details.
I hope you are now having a lovely time with your lovely baby.
Bella - Rhea Dempsey is a birth attendant, educator, activist and writer. In her talks about natural birth she discusses different categories of women in their plans to give birth ranging from those who just want drugs and all interventions from the beginning, no matter what.... through to those who are so confident that they will have no trouble achieving their natural birth that they are "aspirationally naive". I don't think I can really do her definitions justice - it's worth tracking down her writing or seeing if you can attend one of her talks. I think she's Melbourne based so the latter could be tricky but if you ever get a chance to hear her speak, I highly recommend it. She is an amazing woman - very insightful, wise, feisty, brutally honest and hilarious.
Registered User
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks