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My Wild Pregnancy and Free Birth Part 3: Planning the Birth
118 Plays3 months ago
Another week talking about my recent wild pregnancy and free birth. Today I’m sharing about how my husband and I prepared for the actual birth with no medical professionals present. Listen to hear all about how we protected our peace, delegated tasks, and prepared for emergencies. I share about how important it is to honor the sacred process of birth, even if a free birth is not right for you.
Book: Home Birth on Your Own Terms
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to the eat like a mother podcast where we take complicated topics surrounding hormones and metabolism and make them simple and applicable to your daily life as a woman. I'm your host castie well fell.
00:00:25
Speaker
My hope is that you walk away feeling empowered to start taking radical responsibility for your health and lean into this body God created for you. Are you ready to eat like a mother? This podcast is meant for educational purposes only and is not meant to be taken as medical advice.
00:00:43
Speaker
Please consult your physician before making any dietary or lifestyle changes. Welcome back to this week's episode of the podcast.
Series Context: Wild Pregnancy & Free Birth
00:00:50
Speaker
This is part three of a mini series that I am doing all on my wild pregnancy and free birth. So if you haven't been caught up on the last two episodes, go back to the two episodes prior to this, all about my wild pregnancy and managing my prenatal care before you listen to this episode.
Deciding on Free Birth: Intentions & Preparations
00:01:11
Speaker
This week, we're going to be chatting about the prep work for my free birth. Before you ask, yes, this was intentional. We didn't accidentally free birth our baby before our team got there.
00:01:23
Speaker
We intentionally planned and prepared to have our baby in the comfort of our own home with just me and my husband and our four-year-old. I know I've said this before already, but I cannot stress this enough.
00:01:37
Speaker
I do not think that free birth is for everybody, but my hope in telling you my story is to give you more confidence in knowing that birth is very normal and very natural, and it's possible to have a beautiful, beautiful pregnancy and birth without tons of medical intervention. You don't need everything that necessary.
00:01:59
Speaker
People say that you need that is the standard of care in America in order to have a great pregnancy and a great birth free of interventions.
00:02:10
Speaker
And I know I said this in a prior episode, but I would not have chosen this for my first two births. but it was exactly the right choice for us when it came to this last baby.
00:02:21
Speaker
I'm huge on following peace. And if I did not have complete peace with making this decision, I would not have done it. And that's that's my encouragement to everyone.
00:02:33
Speaker
This is radical responsibility to the nth degree. We didn't take this decision lightly and we didn't make it flippantly. We knew the risks of having a baby on our own without a medical team present.
00:02:46
Speaker
It's important to remember that no matter where or how you choose to birth, the outcomes are never 100% guaranteed. You are holding life and death in the balance when you decide to bring a new soul into the world.
00:03:01
Speaker
It is a delicate dance.
The Process of Free Birth: Respect & Communication
00:03:03
Speaker
This is true whether you get all the drugs and end up with an emergency C-section or go wild woman and birth in a stream in the woods, which TBH, that might be my next birth.
00:03:16
Speaker
But we knew this going in and approached birth with the utmost respect and awe, both me and my husband. In fact, I think this process of birthing ourselves allowed us to truly sit with and respect all that goes into bringing a human to the world.
00:03:33
Speaker
Yes, it was wonderful and life-changing with my first two babies, but we always had our midwives to fall back on. This time around, the true weight of the responsibility rested solely on us and we were solemn.
00:03:48
Speaker
When it came to preparing for a solo birth, the thing that was most beneficial to us was literally just talking a lot. I had complete faith in my body and complete peace that God created my body to grow and bring life into this world.
00:04:03
Speaker
I do not believe he makes mistakes and I do not believe that birth is a medical emergency. This is something I had to severely protect, which is why we didn't tell more than a handful of trusted people about the wild pregnancy and free birth, because so many people fear birth.
00:04:22
Speaker
I was careful not to tell anyone that I thought might have a fear-based reaction around birth. Not just for my own sake, but for the sake of my husband who, number one, has never given birth, number two, doesn't have as much of an understanding of human anatomy and physiology as I do, and number three, would be responsible for me and our other children in case of an emergency.
00:04:47
Speaker
Towards the end of the pregnancy, my husband accidentally told the wrong person and we were bombarded with dozens of calls and text messages from people who legitimately feared for their lives.
00:04:58
Speaker
At least that's what it felt like. We got some really bad advice like hold your breath when you push and don't make any noise during contractions or pushing along with endless stories of people's babies dying.
00:05:12
Speaker
Which like, can I just say whether or not someone is having a free birth, telling people stories of babies dying right before they're about to deliver a child, it's just not the move. Like that is just wrong on so many levels, you know?
00:05:29
Speaker
But, anyways, as we neared the end of pregnancy, i was totally in the zone mentally and simply would not make room for those comments. It is truly not helpful, like I said, you tell a mother who is about to give birth, and give birth on her own, mind you, all the horror stories you've heard.
00:05:48
Speaker
My husband, thankfully, was able to shield me from some of the fear-based reactions, However, i saw the fear start to creep up into his heart, which is why we talked a lot to prepare for any possible situation.
00:06:03
Speaker
We decided that I was in charge of checking baby and making sure everything was okay with her immediately, you know, during the labor and delivery and immediately after birth. I knew what to look for. That may be a cause of concern for baby. And I knew what to do in case I needed to offer life-saving care to my infant should something happen.
00:06:23
Speaker
Again, radical responsibility. And my husband was in charge of monitoring me and making sure I was getting along okay. He had a list of things to look for in me And prior to birth, I gave him a if you see this, call 911 immediately list with further instructions on how to care for me and the baby and until help arrived.
00:06:47
Speaker
We pretty much had the same conversation over and over again until he felt fully confident. We walked through who we would call first if something were to happen. we were in kind of a unique situation where we're in a new city, hadn't really made any friends and had no immediate family nearby.
00:07:06
Speaker
So we talked through who we would call, who we would trust with our other kids if needed and other things along those lines. It was also helpful for him for me to give him a list of things like, you know, here's my blood type. If I do end up needing a transfusion, i want unvaccinated blood if possible.
00:07:25
Speaker
This was actually the point that I was like really bummed that I wasn't near my siblings because i know me and my siblings all have the same blood type. I know that none of my siblings got the COVID vaccine. And so like I went through this whole scenario that was like, okay, I wonder if my siblings would give me blood. You know, how could we get them up here? It was this whole thing.
00:07:47
Speaker
But at the end of the day, because we're not in the same state as my family, and i was like, okay, if I do end up needing a transfusion, I want unvaccinated blood if possible. If not, I trust the Lord and you do what you need to do. That's basically what I told him.
00:08:02
Speaker
um Other things that were helpful for him were things like, here are the situations where I would warrant antibiotics being administered. Telling him things like, under no circumstances are me or the baby to be administered a vaccine.
00:08:17
Speaker
Just anything that we could think of that should I, God forbid, be incapacitated. He felt fully confident in knowing what my wishes were. you know We talk about these things all the time. like We're constantly talking about health and wellness. And i I felt confident that my husband would make decisions that I would want, you know, in my best interest or my kid's best interest in the case of emergency.
00:08:41
Speaker
But it was helpful for him to physically have the list to know, okay, if I'm in the middle of it, and, you know, things are happening, and my wife is incapacitated, i have the exact list of her desires,
00:08:54
Speaker
And I don't have to worry about sorting through my brain and emotions when I'm in the middle of an emergency situation. So we really tried to be as thorough and talk through as much as we possibly could, not out of fear again, but recognizing the responsibility we were taking on ourselves and being properly prepared.
00:09:15
Speaker
I also know I mentioned the book Home Birth on Your Own Terms in a previous podcast. That was a book my husband and I both read. And it gave him a lot more confidence on being my primary caregiver and support during the birth and immediately postpartum.
00:09:31
Speaker
If you haven't gathered by now, this process was extremely special and life-giving for our marriage. We had to be more in lockstep than we ever had in our entire time together.
00:09:44
Speaker
He had to radically trust me and knowing my body and how to birth. And I had to radically trust him to care for me and fully embody his role as protector and provider of our family. and I'm not being dramatic when I say it was transformative.
00:10:01
Speaker
Aside from all the preparation we made as a couple and a family, I took measures to make sure i would have the smoothest of births possible.
Physical Preparation for Birth
00:10:09
Speaker
The entire pregnancy, I was extremely aware of the way I moved in the world, my posture, the way I carried myself, how I chose to intentionally move my body.
00:10:20
Speaker
All of these things impact the outcomes of your birth, especially when it comes to baby's positioning. And like I said last week, while I was prepared to birth a baby in any position and have either been at or heard stories of births of healthy babies being born in varying positions that under normal prenatal care would be deemed emergency situations, i also recognize that birth is much easier and there's less likelihood for complications if the baby's in a certain position.
00:10:54
Speaker
So at the beginning of pregnancy, I worked with a beloved chiropractor in St. Pete, Florida, which is where we were living at the time. And if you need a recommendation, reach out to me and let me know. I'll connect you. She's amazing.
00:11:07
Speaker
But we moved to Tennessee in the middle of my pregnancy and I went without chiropractic care until I was about 35 weeks pregnant. Chiropractic care is pretty much the only care I want during pregnancy.
00:11:20
Speaker
And I was blessed to find another chiropractor in middle Tennessee where we now live. that we love and who helped me get and keep baby in a good position for birth.
00:11:32
Speaker
Alongside being aware of my own personal movement during pregnancy and working with a chiropractor, I also would do different spinning babies techniques. If you're familiar with that, you know, you can look it up online, but I would do different spinning babies techniques to help create more space for her inside of me.
00:11:49
Speaker
I tend to have a lot of tightness on my right side specifically for whatever reason and All of my kids make their home on my right side during pregnancy. So I'd have to work to help.
00:12:02
Speaker
baby move to the left side to have an easier exit for birth. Another thing that is important to recognize going into birth is the importance of your nourishment on your outcomes in birth and postpartum.
00:12:16
Speaker
It was literally my full-time job during pregnancy to nourish the heck out of my body, not only for my baby's sake, but because our nourishment and hydration directly affect our are fascia and musculature.
00:12:30
Speaker
If you're dehydrated and undernourished, birth is going to be hella painful. But if you're properly nourished, meaning you have ample energy stores, it makes things a lot easier and a lot more peace-filled, but moving into a very intense
Reflection & Teaser for Next Episode
00:12:49
Speaker
process. I'm not gonna sugarcoat Birth is really intense, but it can be beautiful and peace-filled.
00:12:56
Speaker
And that's that. Those were the biggest things that I did to prepare for my free birth. I felt like they were really simple, but this was such a wildly incredible experience. And next week, I'm going to be talking about the actual birth. This is just going to be like the story of my baby being born and what all that looked like. So stay tuned for next week as we conclude our mini series wild pregnancy and free birth.
00:13:29
Speaker
If you found this podcast helpful or encouraging, would you mind leaving us a rating or review? I love hearing from you. So be sure to shout us out on Instagram and tag me at Cassidy dot Welpbell.
00:13:40
Speaker
And we'll be sure to shout you right back out. Let's get this message to as many women as possible until next time, friend.