This is day number 227 and you're 32 weeks pregnant!
You have 53 days or 8 weeks left, and are 80.0% of the way there.
You have 53 days or 8 weeks left, and are 80.0% of the way there.
"Labour pains are d**n painful"
"You will definitely need the epidural"
"Aiyoh... Don't be mad. Just take the epidural"
I have heard it all. All sorts, variations and permutations.
Medical technology has improved so significantly over the years till it is almost possible to give birth without feeling much pain--by succumbing to the epidural. Granted, the epidural eliminates just about all the significant pain associated with labour, but isn't inserting a catheter into the spinal cord enough to send shivers down anyone's spine? What if the anesthetist botches up the job and leaves me paralysed for life? What about all the horror side effects stories that we hear? Don't people ever worry about those? What if I am one of them?
Why is it that our grandmas and great-grandmas were able to give birth to so many children, chances are, at home, and probably without any form of pain relief? How did they do it? What's so different about then and now? How is it that women in developing countries are still able to give birth seemingly effortlessly like our grandmas and great-grandmas at this day and age and women in affluent societies think that its the world's greatest curse of being born a woman? How are we different from them? Granted that our grammies were probably much tougher women that we are today, given the little pampered lives most of us are living, but are we really such weaklings and softies that we can't even do what God programmed us to do when the friendly stray cat down the road seems to pop out kittens like she's a factory?
G and I have decided to try an alternative to pain relief. We have opted to tap on my body's natural epidural, using techniques we learnt for Hypnobirthing. We did our Hypnobirthing course at Four Trimesters sometime in May this year and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It opened our eyes to the possibility and reality, which has since been forgotten by many with the advancement in technology, that severe pain does not have to be an accompaniment of labour and that it is possible to experience the joy and magic of birth - rather than the horrific ordeal that you see on TV all the time.
It takes a lot of patience and dedication to practise the techniques and exercises that we learnt during class, but G and I are committed to going all the way to make it happen.
Wish us luck.
Why is it that our grandmas and great-grandmas were able to give birth to so many children, chances are, at home, and probably without any form of pain relief? How did they do it? What's so different about then and now? How is it that women in developing countries are still able to give birth seemingly effortlessly like our grandmas and great-grandmas at this day and age and women in affluent societies think that its the world's greatest curse of being born a woman? How are we different from them? Granted that our grammies were probably much tougher women that we are today, given the little pampered lives most of us are living, but are we really such weaklings and softies that we can't even do what God programmed us to do when the friendly stray cat down the road seems to pop out kittens like she's a factory?
G and I have decided to try an alternative to pain relief. We have opted to tap on my body's natural epidural, using techniques we learnt for Hypnobirthing. We did our Hypnobirthing course at Four Trimesters sometime in May this year and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It opened our eyes to the possibility and reality, which has since been forgotten by many with the advancement in technology, that severe pain does not have to be an accompaniment of labour and that it is possible to experience the joy and magic of birth - rather than the horrific ordeal that you see on TV all the time.
It takes a lot of patience and dedication to practise the techniques and exercises that we learnt during class, but G and I are committed to going all the way to make it happen.
Wish us luck.
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