Several of you have asked me how I prepare for the birth, the arrival of the little one and with it the inevitable 180 degree turn of life. All these things came to me gradually, either from talking to mothers around me, from the few books I read or I just feel it somehow. However, I have a very Zen-like approach to childbirth and six weeks, and I believe that the more calm I am, the more I will enjoy it. My peace cannot do without certain preparations, and even if I don't have to be tip top in the finals, I know that in my case they are not at all exaggerated or unnecessary. But everyone is different.
I divided it into three categories. At home means how our home changes, what is added to it or, on the contrary, subtracted from it. So in general there are things like yoga and the maternity ward. And the last part is about how I mentally prepare for childbirth and the days after it.
AT HOME
-
Baby equipment , without which it really wouldn't be possible, so I dedicate an entire article to it. Comming soon.
-
Full fridge, freezer and pantry. Our grandmothers are far away, and even though I believe in the kindness and willingness of our friends, it will be much easier for David and I to focus only on our new family, knowing that we won't starve to death even if we don't leave the house for a whole week. So I'm starting to gradually freeze broths and seasonal fruits from the market, I'm filling the pantry with nuts and legumes, and when it's really close, I'll prepare a pot of granola and a supply of tempeh for the fridge.
-
"The Throne". The throne is a place only for me and the little one. A place where I can sit comfortably and nurse for hours, a place with a glass of water, a dim light and a Kindle if I feel like it, a place where I can receive visitors.
-
Dried herbs for lemonades and teas during Lent. On the list I have raspberry, nettle, nettle, black elder, chamomile and motherwort and recipes from The First Forty Days .
-
The light . We have been using light bulbs at home for a few months now Philips Hue , with which we can regulate the color and intensity of radiation as needed. However, they are not the cheapest, so we are somewhere in the middle of replacing them, with the fact that we want to have it at home in the morning before the birth. On the subject of light and the fact that we should replace the classic, blue, incandescent light with warm red in the evening, this interview is great, for example.
-
Work desk from home . The idea that David works only and only from home, that he will not miss anything, that he will always be with us and that we will not disturb him while he is working is beautiful, but in practice it would not work very well. As a result, he wouldn't do anything or see anything, so we agreed that his work desk would definitely be moved from the house to the studio until the birth. And the aforementioned throne can go in its place.
SO TOTAL
-
Information, information, information . I'm not a fan of Googling everything I can get my hands on and I much prefer to let information stick to me by talking to people who are either active in the field or have already experienced something. Or books and articles from them. Because the more I know, the sooner I can make a decision if necessary.
-
Maternity. I had it easy with her, Rakovník. I inherited it from Martina , whom I trust one hundred percent in choosing many things. Rakovník fulfills most of the things I would like from a maternity hospital, and even if it might be more reasonable to give birth directly in Prague and not an hour by car (especially when we don't have our own car), its small size and openness to slower and more alternative births are worth it to me.
-
I knew that I wanted to have my own midwife even before I was pregnant and I booked her as the very first thing ever. I haven't given birth yet, so it's hard for me to evaluate her help, just the fact that she talks to me every month about everything that interests me and worries me, that she checks me more than the doctor himself, that she has already given birth to dozens of children, that she radiates peace and that she will be there when I need her the most is enough for me.
-
At the beginning, I did not plan the hypnobirthing course at all and thought that a classic prenatal course with a midwife would be enough for me. However, after watching the part about Hypnobirth on Dölníci života, I couldn't do it. We have completed the course and even if the stories about childbirth that does not hurt and the gradual "breathing out" of the baby (instead of pushing it out) still do not come to my mind, I am glad that this is also possible.
-
Yoga. I have been practicing yoga for the past 6 years and the idea that it would be different during pregnancy never crossed my mind. I didn't stop exercising even during the first trimester, which is usually recommended, but I adjusted my exercises, softened them and eliminated those that I didn't feel good in. Today, my morning yoga routine is more like stretching, I breathe a lot more than I do strength training, but I still feel fit, my back doesn't hurt, I sleep well and I'm not swollen, which is very nice for the eighth month.
-
Breathing is (supposedly) the alpha and omega of natural childbirth, so I try to breathe properly whenever possible. In the morning after waking up, in the evening before going to sleep, during yoga, in the tram, when idling and waiting, wherever I can think of. Breathing in the first and second stages of labor is diametrically different, so I recommend studying.
-
Walking. As much as I love walking, I hate subways, so if I have to walk 15 minutes to the tram and then another 15 minutes somewhere, I prefer to go that way. Thanks to this, I walk about 10,000 steps a day, and I will keep this number as long as I can.
-
Breastfeeding. I thought that I would deal with it "only later". Only after he is born. I only recently found out that there are only a few seconds between breastfeeding and giving birth, and there is no time to prepare in the meantime. And even though I don't know anything about him yet, I plan to change that by the time I give birth.
-
"Cleaning the table" is a big thing that I always have in front of me and it is related to work. If I am classically employed somewhere, I will go on maternity leave two months before giving birth and no one will see me there. It's much more complicated with my own company, I'll be happy if I manage to do it 2 weeks before the birth and from "cleaning the table", which means ending all started projects and selling all things to the girls, I'm quite terrified.
-
No visits until we talk. I consider the first days and weeks with only David and the baby as sacred, so we banned visits to the maternity ward and asked everyone who would like to show up immediately after the birth just because that's the way it is done, to wait. That we'll be in touch as soon as the three of us are ready.
PSYCHOLOGICALLY
-
Write down what I'm afraid of . My birth, the birth as I came into the world, was not exactly exemplary, but it was a birth cut out of that time. Confined to the bed, white light, nurses and doctors who were more disturbing than helpful, controlled pushing, jumping on the stomach and, as the icing on the cake, forceps. And a million stories from my childhood about how difficult my birth was and how my mother and I both survived it in the end. It's no wonder that all my life I was afraid of giving birth and associated it with excruciating and inevitable pain. Hormones are a great thing though. Since I've been pregnant, I'm not afraid of childbirth or pain. However, it still helped me to write down situations that could throw me off balance and justify why.
-
The book Born Again by Michel Odeta rewrote everything I thought about childbirth and after reading it I don't need to read anything else. I recommend it to every mother-to-be and I hope to read it at least once before giving birth.
-
Affirmations and relaxations are based on hypnobirthing (we got them right on the course) and I play one of them every morning and every evening. I have a total of 10 on my phone and I choose purely according to my mood. Sometimes I play one of them during the day, when I have the time and desire to turn it off for a while and connect with the baby, but it must be free days. Visualizing how my healthy tissues gradually open and how the baby passes through them with his angelic dance is quite difficult during normal operation.
I'll see where my pregnancy goes next. Towards the end, I should go even more into myself, focus on the baby, work little, walk a lot and enjoy myself, and I have that in my plan. However, I am open to anything just in case. C-sections, working until the last day, even freezers without a single broth.