The Beginning Of My Natural Birth Leanings

So, how did I stumble across the idea of having a natural birth?  It wasn't something I had ever really thought about, although I did know that I would rather avoid a cesarean and that I was scared sh*tless of getting a needle in my spine, so the epidural was something else I didn't see in my ideal birthplan.  ( I still feel reticent to admit that in company, as so many women are genuinely aghast at such an 'weird' statement.)

I was searching for pregnancy books on amazon and I came across a listing for Dr. Gowri Motha's book entitled Gentle Birth Method.  It only had a handful of reviews and they varied between glowing and mixed, but I liked the fact that this was a practising obstetrician who was going against the mainstream medical wisdom on pregnancy and labour - I like to look at all my options but to have some firm science to back them up!

A few things appealed to me about Dr. Motha's approach.  Firstly I liked the gentle and reassuring tone of the book.  I suffer with anxiety and a need to control EVERYTHING and with a process such as childbirth, I know there is no way in hell that my usual coping mechanism of planning and organising will have much influence on nature.  Dr. Motha speaks a lot of sense about the (obvious but often overlooked) fact that women have been giving birth without much trouble since time began.  She reminded me that my body was made specifically for this process and, the more I focus on this realisation, the more I find that I am increasingly wary of medical intervention in mine and my baby's birth.  It's actually like I always new this, but forgot, until I got pregnant and started to think about the nature of pregnancy and birth.

Another attractive thing about Gowri Motha's method is the inclusion of hypnotherapy in the preparation for childbirth and in the labour process itself.  As an anxiety sufferer, I have found hypnotherapy really useful during my pregnancy to date, although I am not actually using Dr. Motha's hypnosis CD.  (My interest in hypno-birthing took on a tangential life of its own and I am now following a program of hypnotherapy based on Mickey Mongan's HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method series. More about this in following posts.)

The final thing that I like about Dr. Motha's Book is the diet she advocates.  Well to be honest I would have preferred if she told me I could eat whatever I wanted in pregnancy and should focus on the tastiest, boldest foods I could think of.  But then I knew that the likelihood of any doctor telling me that was pretty slim.  What did appeal to me was the similarity of Dr. Motha's recommendations to the diet that I had been following shortly before I became pregnant.  Dr. Motha advocates cutting out sugar and wheat in the first part of pregnancy and eliminating all gluten foods as well as sugar in the last trimester.  I had previously followed similar regimes for short periods of time and felt great benefits.  Just before getting pregnant I had been avoiding sugar and yeast and I do credit this with my ease in conceiving.  (I am an only child and my mother had fertility issues so I never dreamed that I would be as lucky as I was.) 

There are problems with following such a restrictive regime when pregnant though, and I suppose I was a little naive when I set out on Gowri Motha's plan.  I haven't even started the gluten-free phase of the diet yet - this will happen in the next few weeks and is one of the reasons I want to record my experience here.  I want to document the problems I will inevitably have in excluding gluten, especially as a highly willful, heavily pregnant and hormonal lady!  I also want to share with you the outcome which I do not yet know - will the gluten-free diet make for a quick, easy and less painful labour as Dr. Motha suggests?  We will have to wait and see.  Wish me luck!