I came to know about Lamaze Prenatal classes conducted in Kochi from a newspaper article long back in 2009 ( I suppose the year is correct) . At that time I was at Kollam , my home town… haven’t even thought of getting married. But still I found the article very good and different from what I have heard about the common and conventional things about pregnancy and child birth. I just followed the site of birthvillage and later the facebook page and read the testimonials and experiences shared over there, and got to know that this is something different and interesting. Later on I got job at Kochi … got married and we were staying at Kochi. The first thing that I did when I came to know that I was pregnant was to send a mail to birthvillage seeking for appointment. But unfortunately we couldn’t make it, as I had a miscarriage. Second time also we had a similar experience .. I got really worried whether birthvillage will consider me if I get pregnant again , as I know that Bv will consider only those who are healthy and fine. Next time when we came to know that I am carrying we first consulted a regular institution , because we want to make sure that everything is fine, even though in my mind I wanted to go to Birthvillage. First two months we consulted there just to make sure that everything is fine , but we were given medicines considering our previous history of miscarriage, which we even don’t know why, and also the main thing that I did not like at all is my name is written as Patient name . I know that it is a common practice to write the client name of a hospital as patient name , but still I did not like that at all because I was not feeling as a patient . I was totally feeling blessed as I had no common symptoms of illness or weakness during my whole pregnancy period. I asked Praveen (my husband) that we will consult birthvillage , initially he was not that convinced with the idea , but after the first appointment we had at birthvillage he got convinced. Even I felt very relaxed and happy after the first appointment at birthvillage, they told us that miscarriages that happens before the 3rd month of pregnancy is not generally because of any fault of the parents and often genetically linked and that upto 3 miscarriages is quite common.They told me that being pregnant is not an illness and asked me to be myself and continue with my normal routines like walking , using stairs etc and be active… not idle or to take rest. At birthvillage we are taught to go with our the instincts of our body. And thus I became part of birthvillage family . Now starts the story of the happy journey with birthvillage, goodbye completely to any other institution led visit ,medicines and the usual tensions on visiting hospitals. The active mamma workouts , wow really good and helped me a lot. Dance moves as exercises was very very interesting. I was a shy person and I don’t remember myself dancing at all in front of anyone…but here going step by step made me very confident and happy . After every workout classes , I was filled with lot of positive energy and a feeling that I am strong.our midwife cum exercise teacher used to pass the positive energy to us with the class and the talks that is done on the class after each exercise session . … I am gonna miss the work out sessions a lot……… Lamaze classes – Thanks a lot for the informative ,The information and details that we got from the classes helped us to take the correct decision at the time of labour. Even though we got the information that labor that happens any time from 37 weeks to 42 weeks of pregnancy are normal, we did not expect the least that ours is going to be on 37 weeks and 2 days. We attended the workout class on the day and completed our final Lamaze classes with two sessions on the same day and we decided to go shopping at Lulu to buy items for mamma bag and baby bag that is needed at the time of labor. We bought the items and came back late as since it was Saturday and there was heavy rush at lulu. Even though I felt mild cramps we didn’t expect that it can be the start of labor, we thought that it will be warm up as explained in the class. By about 12.30 or 1 , to our great surprise my water broke . I was totally shocked to find meconium stains in it, because as per the information if the color of water contains meconium , then the matter is considered serious and there can be chance to move the case to hospital. My only hope was the words that told in the class as if the baby’s heartbeat remains normal and labor starts by itself that it still possible can to have a natural birth despite meconium We called Priyanka at that time of night to inform the situation, she asked us to come to birthvillage. We reached birthvillage by 1.45 or so and found Our midwives waiting for us at that time of night with a smiling face. I was very worried thinking whether I would be transferred . But All my vitals checked and we could find that our baby was having normal heartbeat and was doing fine. That helped me to relax. Now the next concern was labor have to start by itself and since there was meconium it cannot be sat upon for more than a day. I could feel that everything was getting set positively for us , as my contractions slowly started by night itself. I feel strongly that I had a very natural delivery without any…. any type of medical interventions only because I was with Birthvillage. Also I had a very happy pregnancy period without any type of restrictions. I am thankful to my midwives to the very positive support that they gave me during the time of labor. They kept me reminding the techniques that was taught during our classes on how to cope with the pain of the contractions and also stayed with me with a hand and hugs of support. ..I will always remember the positive words that you told me after the delivery “ You did it, now believe that you can do anything in the world” . You always reminds us in the class that we are strong and confident women. That helped a lot. Thank you for taking care of our little one and also the classes and all the support. Thank you Praveen (my hubby) for remaining my pillar of support. He remained my constant support whole through with the correct and confident decision taken and being with me on all the stages of labor hand in hand on the walks and the stairs… and with all the decisions including selection of birthvillage . Finally I took the support of his shoulders and went on my knees to deliver our little one to the hands of Our midwives on November 6th 1.31 pm. I cannot forget our little one’s support and effort in the whole process, he remained strong without any variations in his heartbeat, which helped us to stay strong. We are thankful to each and every member or birthvillage , including the office staffs and chechi’s. Smija … Thank you for reminding us to buy the necessary items as early as possible . Chechi’s … Thank you for serving me the food and the nice bath given to me after the delivery . I feel really great , proud and happy ……. Thank you team for helping me know the strength of my body. Thanks a ton Anjali B , Praveen and little Aaron Bv notes Meconium is often one of the many reasons for a trigger for c section however with close monitoring and if everything remains within required parameters a natural birth is possible The American academy of pediatrics also lays down the guideline that even with meconium if baby is active and cries at birth to leave the baby alone and that no other intervention is required It takes a lot of careful evaluation monitoring and extra vigil where the staff at birthvillage worked back to back . We also did follow up with this little one for further pediatric evaluation Wherin he reinstated the same . What led to the success of this birth during the birth all pros and cons were discussed with both dad and mum and they were able to make good informed decisions for themselves without fear and by taking on responsibility for themselves Courage and clear thinking is what highlights this couple Differently Congratulations once again!
