People: We have a new child and I is very happy. Another lovely natural home birth, made to look easy (again) with the valiant effort of my lovely lady, with baby born into my hands.
There is no feeling like those first few seconds of emergence of a baby underwater in the hands. But perhaps nothing like the feeling of pushing them out - 4 conscious, pain-relief free deliveries by the inestimable wonderous woman in my life. 3 at home, one in hospital, all in pools.
Our new girl is so welcome in our family and her siblings are enjoying getting involved wherever possible.
If you ever have a child, fathers, say to the midwives you want to welcome the child, as it should be you - you helped put it in there! help get it out... :D They have to use plastic gloves - let your child feel your hands first if you can.
It's a treasure to not have to take a newborn outside in wintertime in their early days, as in times gone by, to not move a mother or baby if possible in the runup and aftermath of birth.
It has been lovely to be able to do that for our last two. One gets to gently recover, the other to gently arrive, surrounded by nearest and dearest only - no traffic, no forced separation in a car seat, no loud noises, no bright lights.
There are so many benefits to mother and baby for birth at home that I can't recommend it enough.
Congratulations @native-one to you and your family, another little being in the world. It's so true what you say about not moving the mum n baby, if only all births could go that way. Have a beautiful babymoon, those first few weeks are precious. And welcome to steemit. resteemed
Thanks for the congratulations. I noticed with the people we know, the congratulations for number 4 were rather....muted..shall we say, or uncertainly hearted... you know..slightly raised eyebrows as if to say 'is it congratulations?' and/or mixed with 'what have you done'... hahaha
I just randomly came across your post on reclaiming birth part 2 and think we likely agree a lot on keeping childbirth with as minimum of interventions as possible. I'll be joining the conversation on that post!
thanks for the welcome also still very much finding my way around..
Congratulations! A whole-hearted one, indeed! I am pregnant with #3!
Hey! big congratulations right back at ya! Welcome to the world of being outnumbered by little ones...nothing quite like it :D A whole new level of mayhem, and treasure <3
Congratulations @native-one. It would be great if homebirth was the standard and hospital births were only if needed but, as we know, many things are inverted in society these days.
Too True! We were dragged into a consultant meeting at hospital because we refused induction at 14 days 'over' (by their 'pregnancy is a machine-like process' measures). They had us there for hours trying to make sure we were making an 'informed decision' by filling us with their fears.
we said, 'well, can we go home after you give the pill to induce?' they said no, so we said no... In exasperation, the midwife asked why we were so averse to induction, and I simply replied 'because this...{gesturing around the hospital} is no place to welcome a new life into the world unless you have to'....the consultant then left us...
baby was born the next day, at home :)