Birth Stories

Just after my little girl Sumayah (now 3months old) was born and I was lying in bed till late in the morning after hubby and Bilaal left for work and school, recovering from the night shift, I started watching (rather obsessively) the Zone Reality channel, a programme called Birth Stories. I became addicted to this show, the stories of various women in the US and Canada, in their final trimester and their journeys in the final stretch to the birth. And on more than one occasion I would cry because it was like reliving my own birth every time... minus the pain of course. Thing is both my births were natural with no epidural, and while have delusions about the reality of the pain, those moments when my little boy and my little girl was first placed in my arms, was the most memorable, overwhelming, emotional moments of my life. And I am sure it is the same for most women no matter what type of birth they have.

But even though both my births were natural, they were very different, in fact I would go as far as to say that my first felt more natural than the second. See with my first born I had a midwife and therefore gave birth in the active birth room of the hospital... In my opinion it was like having the best of both worlds, a home-like environment in a hospital setting. The best thing was this total whatever-is-comfortable-for-you attitude the midwife had and the fact that my hubby could sleep over in the birthing room the first night. With my second birth I had a gynae and when i went into hospital the final time (after 3 false alarms) it was all very... medical. I think in a way that was part of the reason I had the false alarms, just as labout was getting under way, I would arrive at the hospital and it would stop. I read an article once in the Living and Loving that the hospital environment has been known to cause women anxiety, which slows labour! I didn't like the fact that I had to just lie there with the monitor thingy and wait. My gynae was wonderful, but isn;t really involved until it's time to push.

Next time I will try to go with a midwife again, but I am not complaining, because I am just grateful I was able to have a natural birth, with no complications and my 2 beautiful children were born healthy, algamdoelillah (praise be to god).