When we finally decided to have a baby after six years of marriage, we were pretty sure of many things like, How he was going to be born? Where, how he is to be taken care of?. We have done every bit of research into it, we came to know about Birthvillage from a TV chat show. Right from the start, we knew that this was the place. We wanted him to be natural, pure as mother nature intended him to be RAW!! Now, this was also the time to put into test our Vedic principles, we actually tried to have a baby on the 16th day of her period, as per the Vedas this day was meant for a boy with wisdom and scholarly nature, not that we are against a girl. Actually, I hoped for a princess like Kavita! But boy /girl we were happy, the only thing was he/she should be natural and healthy. Hey, you won’t believe this Kavitha told me the next day itself that she was feeling butterflies in her underbelly and for me, the skeptic in me was holding me back from believing it! ( she doesn’t know this coz I pretended to be happy supporting her thoughts) and then came this magic wand which showed these two RED LINES!! I was wonder-struck, happy in ecstasy. As we follow mostly naturopathic principles we never took any medicines.After six weeks of pregnancy, we reached Birth village and had a chat with our midwives, the ambiance and the mood were right, we were shown the appointment room and the birthing pool, we were so amazed that it was so silent and blissful here! We knew we found the right place, perfect as God wanted it to be! We had regular classes and appointments from then on, one thing we faced was the hectic traveling from Kollam to Kochi and back, but Birth village was worth it. We were told that we should be ready and packed from the 36th week if everything is fine! We rented a house for a month and moved in by the 36th week, meanwhile we both never (me, sometimes) failed to do the regular yoga sessions which I believe was the key to her delivery.By then we had only one ultrasound scan done in the sixth month, we were even reluctant for that but our care providers pressed hard and the results were all healthy and fine.By the 39 the week we had our final class and appointment and to mention we felt like a family there with other expecting families, Kapila, Jyothi, and all ..we love them all. The only concern was the HB level which came down to the lower limit of normal, and Priyanka was pleading all the time to Kavita about her iron intake, but Kavitha was stern on no medicines!! But finally, we decided to take some ayurvedic medicines and some homeo tonics for iron build-up. That was the only medicine we took at the 40th week. The due date rolled on. Friends and relatives kept checking anxiously, then by the 40th week I put all the phones to silent. No more calls!!! We both were happy and Priyanka told us we will wait even till the 42 weeks if everything’s going fine. Kavitha and the baby were monitored every alternative day and both were fine, so we decided to wait. On Dec 4th Kavitha(41 weeks and 3 days) was scheduled for an internal examination but on that day Priyanka refused to do it with a smile on her face, that she will do it the next day, later on, she revealed to us she had an intuition about having the birth the next day, not because of anything but she simply felt so. By the evening we went for a walk beside the lake near to our home, we noticed that it was a near full moon, the next day was Karthika according to Hindu calendar and day after the full moon was due. The water which used to be knee-deep was now shallow we could feel the pull of the moon on the fluids on earth, it was nearly half seven in the night and we were still beside the lake enjoying the moon and suddenly Kavitha complained of a contraction with pain in her lower belly, she used to have contraction from 36th week but none was with the pain. She started having regular contractions and it never stopped it went on and on, I used the app on my phone to time her contractions and it really helped to track. I rang up Priyanka by half two in the morning she told me to give her a ring as soon as we start to Birthvillage, so she and Amy could reach there and get things ready for us. We reached Birthvillage by 3:30 am and our midwives were all smiles and welcoming us. For one hour they left us in the room to have some rest and sleep. But the contractions never stopped from where it started. It got stronger and stronger. By 4:15, it all started in full swing from then on.After keeping Priyanka, Amy, and me tensed for almost 6 hours we could see the baby’s head, we all encouraged Kavitha to push harder with every contraction Kavitha was leaning on my knees in the squatting position for almost 6 hours!! My legs were trembling with pressure but there is a limit to everything finally when I felt done, I don’t know from where the energy came I was afresh again, I also experienced power from within. Priyanka, Amy, and I ran into tears when Kavitha gave birth to Rudra at exactly 10:26 am, it was really heartbreaking and passionate experience for both of us, I bet Priyanka and Amy were also in bliss !!! at the same time. And to our surprise, we named him Rudra from the time we conceived him meaning lord of fire /dispeller of fear/one who drives away ignorance and lights up knowledge, maybe he waited all this long to come out on Trikkartika which according to Hindu belief was the lord of Agni/fire, dispeller of ignorance that is awesome and surprising for us!!! We will never forget these Godesses our dear midwives and Rudra was the connecting chain,, I like to believe Rudra was born for us to discover this loving friendship between Amy, Priyanka, Kavitha, and Me, oooops! Sorry, add mee too…Rudra … Lots of love and hugs to Priyanka & Amy from the three of us Muaaah from Rudra to Priyanka and Amy. Thanks, team Birthvillage (Smija and Donna too) for presenting us this wonderful life-changing opportunity to rediscover ourselves and our friendship. Penned by a very proud dad.
