Woman Giving Birth in a Bathtub

[goodsamaritan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4rkomSIB4c

Seems like the paleo way to give birth. 
I wonder who she is and the story behind this filming.


--------- new video added 14 March 2014, the old one was erased -------------

Natural birth encouragement - pain and joy

[eveheart]

In my part of the world, this is nothing new. My kids are in their thirties now, and underwater birthing was around when they were born. I think the modern trend was started in France.

[Techydude]

Yeah water birth is common and the best way.

[afroza]

I have tried both giving birth in water and not, and I preferred water, because the warm water reduced the pain of the contractions by half or so. In Europe it is quite common for homebirths. But the water needs to be really warm, to have a baby in a cold lake, or such, would be an incredible torture for both mother and child, I would imagine.

[goodsamaritan]

I have tried both giving birth in water and not, and I preferred water, because the warm water reduced the pain of the contractions by half or so. In Europe it is quite common for homebirths. But the water needs to be really warm, to have a baby in a cold lake, or such, would be an incredible torture for both mother and child, I would imagine.

Wow, thank you for sharing your experiences!

[Wolf]

It doesnt seem to me like paleo mothers would all go to find hot springs to give birth to their babies.. water births seem weird to me.

[goodsamaritan]

All the money I had with my wife but zero knowledge about health, diet, home births, mid-wives, made us victims of the medical profession.
Wife did 3 c-sections. Became afraid of more children, became unhealthy, afraid of sex.

Payback time.
Practice what I preach.
Preparing for my future grandchildren where I will personally deliver them with my own birthing team.

I'm getting into this water birthing and taking care of a poor pregnant girl.
My healing skills and my diet and shopping skills into practice.
She's due any time.
Had a false labor yesterday.
Entire team was there.
Any time again, the next labor will be real.

What I learned so far is that in these poor communities, they experience life as it should be.  Blessed are they they could not afford hospital births.  Lucky is this girl I have an axe to grind against the medical profession, I'm giving her a better pregnancy and birthing experience. 

I'm with Evelyn the midwife and water birth expert.  And with Sifu Jen Sam holistic Chinese medicine and acupuncturist and all his 6 children were water births. Her older sister has 3 small children all born in the same house.

I've learned lots of small details about pregnancy and birthing so far from these birthing experts:

- Pregnant woman is encouraged to do laborious work, say manually wash clothes and bed sheets and towels, exercise makes her strong, she must be strong., she must walk walk and walk... not for the lazy couch potatoes.
- The midwife is all for ginger tea daily to make sure pregnant woman has no gas pains.
- When the baby is delayed, intercourse and internal ejaculation helps a great deal to start the birthing process.
- indeed, 20-23 yrs old are prime time best times to give birth, our birthing star is 23 and this is her first child.
- young people should grow up seeing women give birth, for men, it teaches them to respect women, not treat them as sex objects, appreciate their motherhood.
- for young women, know what to expect, it's not frightening, it is life, it is nature.

With my feeding and shopping... food counts... a lot... actually most of the health of the pregnant lady.  When she was sick with GERD and UTI and Yeast infection, I had to be creative to give solutions that were not harmful to pregnant women. 

For GERD - dumped a lot of papaya and pineapples on her. (3 months)
For Yeast Infection - douche with steeped garlic (5 months)
For UTI - Hulda clark type Zapper (8 months already).

Each time she was sick, I was not the one feeding her.  Even one time I gave her money to buy her own food, she still chose to buy food that made her sick.

So the involvement in successful birthing is not just at the end, it should be from the very beginning.

Will report how it goes with the actual birth in a few days.

[jessica]

GoodSamaratin, thank you for being a hero to these women(and their children).  There is quite an interest in the united states on home birthing and many women I know, who are much more into holistic approaches to health and birthing, are becoming doulas.   Its so incredibly encouraging .

[goodsamaritan]

Finally, our months of efforts preparing and caring for our birthing star "L" was a success.

I learned so much hands on with this water birth home birth experience.

Blessed are the poor and provincial class for home birthing is what they know and can afford.
Blessed are these poor that water birthing is even superior to the home birthing they know.

Blessed is birthing star "L" for the entire supporting cast were a bunch of home birthers:
- Midwife Evelyn, some hundreds of births and a dozen water births... in her opinion thinks water birthing is superior, fast, no vaginal tear, best for mom and baby
- Sifu Sam, holistic healer, water birthed 5 of his own children
- Niki, birthing assistant and mother of 3 all home births
- Older sister Lhen, mother of 3 home births
- Neighbor and best friend Nancy, mother of 1 home birth
- Mother Loidi, mother of 4 home births

Other supporting cast members:
- boyfriend dyke / tomboy Rain, will be the nannie
- Me GS, financier, driver, diet marketer, healer, manager of other healer talents (Producer of this show)
- younger sister Mhai
- 3 very young nephews (children of Lhen) of mother "L" and cousins of newborn baby "J"
- Grandfather and husband of Loidi died more than 5 years ago, usually relies on the full moon for birth dates... he was right... this labor started on the full moon.
- biological father (unknown)

The entire home was organic in its assistance and focus on how to help our star give birth.
--------

Days prior, the midwife gave 2 capsules of Evening Primrose oil every day for the past 4 days to "L" to thin her cervix for easier delivery.

--------

We had to use duct tape to fix the kiddie pool malfunction as it was leaking at the seams.

The water heating took a long time, this is a poor house hold and they had no big resources for heating lots of water, we had to be creative and had to have patience... but we did warm the water eventually.  Which was very important for the pregnant woman to focus on delivery.

We waited the entire evening and early morning, only for me to be called by my wife at 5:30am that our 9 yr old daughter had a medical emergency, couldn't breath, so I yanked Sifu Sam with me to drive out more than an hour away back to my home treat my daughter and drive her to my wife's anthroposophic healer and then drove them back home.  Only then did we drive back to our home birthing star by 12:30pm.

By 12:18pm "L" was just put in the pool as she was dilated 6 cm. This is measured by inserting the pointer and tall man fingers and making a "V", that is what our midwife says is 6 cm.

Sifu Sam and I took over holding "L" in the pool from her mother and dyke boyfriend.  The midwife noted the surge in confidence in miss "L" with the male energy supporting her.  I'd say Sifu Sam as her long time healer and experienced water birthing husband was the bigger factor.  He knew where to massage her back and other places. Sifu barked out orders and encouragement in his Australian English accent... I had to be translator.

The midwife continued to scratch and stimulate the tummy and had more warm water flow.

Sifu sam and the birthing assistant were massaging the top of the tummy to encourage the baby to move down.

The midwife parted the cervix with her fingers to make sure the baby's head moved out easier and faster.

It was amazing for me to be the hands for holding and crushing of our birthing star, I felt each and every time a contraction was to come as she would hold tighter.  Felt the timing of her contractions as Sifu calmed everyone down to not rush the birthing process.  I would announce when the contractions were coming.  The experienced older sister and best friend would teach her how to breath and push, especially for the final push as the head was already engaged and the pushing had to be continuous to free both the head and the shoulder.

Her mom was the least encouraging and was saying her daughter was weakening.  I can tell you she was not weakening at any time, she got stronger and stronger as she came to the end of her pushing. Sifu said she just needed some rest in between.  The midwife with her experience knew when to change position and when to stop pushing so as not to tire out our birthing star.  Birthing star was like a boxer and we were her support crew, for water or food, or wiping her or letting her breath.

----

I learned first hand pushing mistakes that the midwife corrected.
- be quiet.  no grunting, no shouting.  If you had a big poop, you would keep your energy focused on pooping.  she gave a piece of cloth to bite on.
- do not put your head back, put head forward to focus on pushing.
- do not blow out your cheeks with air, concentrate on pushing.

From 6cm dilated in the water at 12:18pm, the baby was out of the vagina around 2:43pm... was a good time for a first born child the midwife said.  Dry births would usually take much longer, a few hours longer.

Baby "J" was 6.10 lbs. 

I observed how the cord was cut, how Sifu Sam stimulated the mother's nipples, how the baby first latched on which Sifu says stimulates the expulsion of the placenta.

How the cord was cut, then how the placenta was expelled... a little like giving birth... the placenta was pretty BIG... only after expelling that was there some blood...

And the midwife presented that the vagina was in perfect condition... no tears... no injuries... perfect.

And our birthing star was all lucid, not helpless, breast fed, was tired... but was fine all the way.

They talked about the birth certificate details and the new mother wrote the full name of the baby.

The birth certificate will show the baby was born in the clinic of the midwife in Q.C. easier for the paper work than to say it was a home birth.

------

I learned what I suspected... home water birthing was superior to hospital birthing... what we did was superior than what my wife experienced with her 3 c-sections... never again for my descendants... this is my start... and in a few more years maybe this team and more connections will be made... gain more experience, I will keep my promise to care for each pregnancy of my daughters and each girl my sons impregnate.

The home birthing tradition in this community and the house hold was an immense confidence booster.
And the neighbors will all now know that water birthing was much easier than dry home births.
The neighbors were egging us on while in labor singing in their loud videoke "Aray"... (Ouch)... yes there is really such a song... over and over again.

Why do the poor have more babies?  Probably because they have superior birthing technology.

The next scheduled water birth will be August 2014 with Sifu Sam's own baby... this is her 4th child and 3rd water birth... so more experienced... I will bring my children along for that show.

And of course, this report would not be complete without a picture.

[cherimoya_kid]

That's fascinating.

[goodsamaritan]

Me and my kids are on the way to my healer friend's wife to deliver the midwife and see her 3rd water birth.

unfortunately we are in the complete opposite end of the provinces as we decided to go to the zoo this morning,

wish us luck driving.

[van]

my daughter was born in the tub,, a deep one, which probably is much more suitable than the shallow one shown.   I think it was important for her to be able to free float in any position she wanted, i.e., squatting.   My daughter shot out like a torpedo with the mid wife literally catching her two feet down in the water.   I can't advocate it enough.