Learn something that will make you healthier every Thursday. Join 700+ health-minded women & get practical tips to improve your diet, detoxify your home, find healthier products, get better skin, and more.
The birth story I said I'd share✨
|
Here's my first newsletter since having a baby 7+ weeks ago! I'm frantically typing up this newsletter while baby Teja is still sleeping... I mentioned on my belly growing post on Instagram that I would share more details & photos from my birth on this more private platform... so ready or not, here it is. We were lucky to have a home birth - it's so interesting how everyone has their own preferences for where they feel safe. I knew that I would feel much safer at home than I would at a hospital. I knew I wanted unmedicated, and to have all my home comforts. Plus, I have the belief that childbirth is a very natural experience, and the hospital is there in case of a complication or emergency. I knew that millions of women had done it naturally at home before me - and I could do it too! NATURAL INDUCTION I went way past my due date, so we started some gentle natural induction methods a few days before the 42 week mark. Interesting fact: NM does not allow licensed midwives to attend home births past 42 weeks, so we needed to get baby going to avoid hospital transfer! Here are some natural induction methods we tried:
EARLY LABOR Early labor started a few days before baby actually arrived, which meant a LOT of patience. We're talking a 3-day labor. Our midwife has attended hundreds of births, and I am officially the longest labor for a homebirth! ACTIVE LABOR Once active started, our team showed up - our midwife and doula. I labored through every position we could think of... walking, the birth tub, back of the toilet, cuddling in bed, the rebozo scarf, a lot of leaning on my hubby. The tub was a game changer for pain relief, even if just for a little while. Our doula also used a TENS unit to help with contraction pain (see photo below). PUSHING I gotta say, pushing was NOT what I expected. All the birth books make it sound like the worst part, and for me it was the most satisfying part of the whole thing. Some deep guttural animal sounds came out of me….. We even asked our neighbor the next day if they heard anything and - shockingly - they slept through it. The pushing happened so fast that I didn't even make it back into the tub! Our baby girl was born at home in our bed on June 29th, healthy and strong. She latched right away, and by later that morning our family was coming by to meet her. I did have some recovery to do (a little tearing), but after 3 weeks I was able to take walks again, and am slowly getting back into an exercise routine. Every labor is different, and mine ended up being long and slow rather than fast and furious, but I WOULD do it again... just maybe hoping for a quicker round two someday. If you're pregnant or thinking about your future pregnancy and are weighing your options, know that there's no one "right" way to bring a baby into the world. Trust your gut on where you'll feel safest, build a team you trust, and let your body do the ancient, wild thing it already knows how to do! In health, -Daina P.S. I'll get back to regular weekly health newsletters soon! As always, let me know if there's anything you want to learn about or have questions about - I bet there's many people out there wondering the same thing... Would love to write about what is most beneficial for you! Forward this email to anyone who would benefit 💌 Forwarded this email? Sign up HERE to get future emails directly to your inbox. This email includes affiliate links. I may be compensated through these links. |
Holistic Nutrition & Gut Health
Learn something that will make you healthier every Thursday. Join 700+ health-minded women & get practical tips to improve your diet, detoxify your home, find healthier products, get better skin, and more.
Still pregnant as I write this... it's Tuesday 6/23 and baby is now over a week late, which feels like the universe giving me a lesson to surrender! Baby will come when baby is ready, and all I can do is let go and trust the timing... so we'll see when this little one decides to make an appearance! Last weekend we celebrated a small Blessingway. In case you've never heard of one, a Blessingway is a sacred ceremony traditionally practiced by the Navajo people to honor and support a woman as...
So this is what I've been doing to my drinking water every day... yup, setting it out in the sun. It sounds SO ridiculous and woo-woo, I know. But what the sun is actually doing is helping structure my water. Let’s talk about what the heck that means! What is structured water? The water inside your cells isn't the same as the water coming out of your tap. In your body, water exists in a gel-like state called structured water (you might also hear it called EZ, or exclusion zone water). The...
I had a client tell me recently that she eats tons of fiber every day... and then when I asked her to track her food journal, it was very eye-opening. The real number came out somewhere between 4 and 6 grams daily (she was shooting for at least 25 grams). Yikes. This happens all the time! Most of us assume that if we're having a salad most days, we're reaching our fiber goals (I used to think this, too!). But the reality is that something like a Caesar salad gets you to about 2 grams of...