To start my story, I have had the best and the most amazing days of my life throughout my pregnancy. I came to know we are pregnant(myself and chan) when I was doing the advanced meditation course at Art of living Bangalore ashram. I enjoyed being at my inner peace, loved all my meditation, yoga, & breathing exercises. Thanks to these, I believe I was made strong right from the beginning. Once I was back home, as all the expectant MOMS-TO-BE do, I started researching all options on having a healthy and normal birth. I met Birthvillage via Facebook. I started going through each of the Birthvillage stories and was simply amazed by the genuineness and uniqueness of each of them. I was so inspired by each of the proud moms that It made me ponder in my mind, “why couldn’t I create such a story for myself”? It was after my first trimester, I informed chan (my husband) about my wish. As expected, he undoubtedly rejected the plan and asked me to remove such a notion from my head. I was shattered, however, it did not stop me from following the Birthvillage page. While we continued our appointments, I kept track of all BV updates in a parallel manner. Finally, I managed to convince chan to attend an appointment with Birth Village. We did our first appointment while I was on my 28th week. The appointment turned out to be a real eye-opener for us. Chan was convinced soon after the appointment. Thanks to our midwives for being so well composed, well informed, and highly patient, answering all our queries & clearing all our apprehensions and fear from our minds. I now knew that Birth Village was inevitably going to be my home during pregnancy. Thus on the verge of my 28th week, I started my BV journey. It was indeed an awesome experience. Each session, be it the informative prenatal appointments or the toiling fitness workout sessions, was well executed. Hats off to both of you beautiful ladies!!! I knew I had to do my part, and I made sure I was doing my quota of 45 minutes walk, stairs & lunges regularly. I supplemented my body with a healthy diet and avoided junk food, ensuring that I was feeding all adequate nutrients. I managed to chip in some time for swimming and even ventured out for 2-hour trekking to Ponmudi Meenmutty waterfalls during my 7th month. I should say it was all because of the courage, the knowledge, the guidance, and the support that I got from Birth Village. I remember quite well On Jan 15th how I sat in my last Lamaze class as we practiced good positions for labor, got my husband to run through on how best to support me in labor, and finally ended with a meditation. we were told what we needed to climb stairs as much as possible and try to head to a space specifically a mall where we could achieve it and that’s exactly what we did! Finally, coming to the day that kicked us! On Jan 16th, my water broke around 11 pm. I believe it was the laborious 600 steps that we had climbed inside Nucleus Mall that triggered the whole process. Chan soon came rushing from his place to hitch-hike with me on my labor journey. By 11:15 I realized that I had started my first stage contractions. As told in the sessions, we tried to sleep off and conserve our energy, assuming that the next day would be our D-DAY and would probably need all of our energy. However, the intensity and frequency of my contractions were soon picking up, and they were not letting me doze off. By 5 AM, I knew I had to make it to BV, we soon informed our midwives and told them that we were on our way. We reached BV at 5:40 AM and a little before it clocked 6, Krishay Nerimbodath marked his entry into our life. It all happened in a flash, He was right there after my fifth push. A blissful moment! What can I say, “COMETH THE HOUR, COMETH THE BABY”. An interesting note that I would like to add that my baby never really engaged in the pelvis before labor and often this is the cause of concern among many mothers is that natural birth may not be possible but I have clearly proved that theory wrong, Not only did it not matter … my labor was super short and was never an issue at all I also strongly believe that my take-home point from my Lamaze classes was to relax and to flow with labor rather than to fight it which helped me to open up when nature called me to do so
Post notes from BV This was such a mind-blowing birth and that too coming from a mother who kept asking”Whether I will be able to do it?” sometimes all women need are awakening to their inner strength and a gentle nudge that they have in them much more than they ever realized….. And not to mention the wonderful foil that her husband was to her in her greatest time of need The few precious minutes post-birth when they held their son together were priceless both for them as well as for us congratulations again!! Fabulous Teamwork, we say!!