Controversial Subject!

Tanz, there is a hypnobirthng practitioner in Pretoria:

Troy Robins
Pretoria
0824195523
hypnosisworks@mweb.co.za
www.hypnosis-works.co.za

And Dr Trouw at Pta East supported me with my hypnobirth. Excellent dr and very pro natural!

So much of the fear comes from movies we have seen and the imprint it leaves!

Watch this video or watch some hypnobirths on youtube - then you see what birth can be
Women were doing it for millions of years before hospitals and medication existed!

Anje - Good that you can take your LO to work with you! I wish all women had that option! But to go back to work when she was just 7 weeks old mustve been crazy!

Nef - So there are no practitioners nearer to me? Thank you for the advice. I never knew that. I always kind of thought that when your body contracts, it is like that same movement your colon makes to cleanse itself. But maybe I have watched too many movies about how women go into labor and scream for hours until the baby is born! That is what scares me!

Forgive me for sounding ignorant, but are there other ways of minimizing the pain during vaginal births? And how exactly do you get yourself to that state of complete relaxation and realising that what your body is going through is normal without panicking?

haha @Tanasha! Good luck!

Also, if you try vaginal birth first and it doesnt work for you, then you can always do it a different way with a second child right?! I mean if you don't try it, you'll never know!

Just one last thing from my side, I am also exteremly "kleinserig"and also told DH numerous times that I dont know if I will be able to go through natural labour.

I have now done so much research and discovered that our bodies were made for this. I started to trust my own body abit more. Isnt it amazing that we are able to grow a tiny little human being inside us for months? Our bodies were created for this! And a way was also created to get the babies out.

I am also still very scared of labour as I really dont know what to expect! I might be screaming for a c-sec, who knows, but I am going to TRY to go natuaral and we will take it from there.

Either way the baby has to come out some way or other and i think once you are in labour you dont care anymore as long as it gets OUT!

I hadn't really thought about it a lot and just went along with what my gynae suggested which was natural with epidural. I ended up having to have an emergency caesar although I also experienced full blown labour.

I think if I had had the choice in retrospect it would have been nice to have pushed him out and gotten it over and done with. Take note however that I was one of those lucky ones who, if he had not been breech, would have popped him out within an hour.

THe caesar was ok I just didn't like that it took so long to recover properly and 18 months later I still have numbness above the scar. I plan to have a second which will also be a caesar as I don't want to risk the complications that can arise from a VBAC.

At the end of the day as everybody says it is a personal choice. It is also something to bear in mind that you may not necessarily have the birth you plan for.

Tanz,

There are pros and cons to both and I think it is more a personal choice.

I couldn't decide either, but my dr was pro natural, although she does elective c-sections if you want to. At the end I just loved being pregnant and wanted to keep baby inside for as long as possible and opted for natural with epidural.

I had Hemaroids at around 30 weeks, which went away and came back when I pushed her out, but no probs after that.

My only advice is, if you opt for natural and you work, work for as long as possible, because I started with maternity leave at 38 weeks and my little girl only came at 41.4 weeks. I only had 3 months maternity leave and she was 7 weeks old when I came back to work. Luckily I can take her to work with me.

Good luck !!

Nef - I am reading my hypno book as we are busy with this conversation, this time I do not want the pushing part, luckily I do not have a horrible experience with pushing, as W was out in 3 big pushes.