Healthy Birth Around the World: Chiapas, Mexico

Welcome to our first post in the series, "Healthy Birth Around the World." With this series, we will be posting stories of birth from all over the world to show how birth can be different, but in many ways, just the same. If you have a story to share, please e-mail it to cterreri@lamaze.org. When I knew that I was pregnant, I immediately began searching for prenatal care with midwives; I couldn't imagine any other way. There were several reasons that I considered midwifery care -- I have glaucoma (an eye disease) and I knew that midwives would treat me as a woman and not as a sick person. Second, I had heard that hospital births were treated as "unnatural" -- I was born vaginally and knew that I wanted to birth my own baby the same way. On the morning of the August 29, 2009 at 4 am, I started to feel hard contractions and I wondered if they were "true" contractions or if I should wait for harder ones. In the meantime, I did some yoga and movements to relax my pelvic floor and perineum. Contractions continued, but were irregular. I breathed, I crawled and I took a hot shower to relax. The contractions began to get harder. It was 6 am, so I tried to eat a little bit of fruit. At that moment, my water broke. I called my doula and midwife, and we traveled to the Luna Maya Birth Center.The intensity of contractions were continous and constant. The midwife wisely suggested that I get down on my knees and embrace my doula by her waist. I remember looking out the window and focusing on the beautiful plants and the very blue sky.My doula was focused on my breathing and she encouraged me with her words. The intensity of each contraction became harder -- it felt as if I was going up a montain running and then walking down into a field of flowers. Later we all started to chant sounds that helped me relax and open my cervix. I couldn't distinguish space and time; I could only concentrate on my breathing and sounds. After that I thought I felt with my fingers my baby's head. My doula confirmed that my baby was crowning. I was doing well -- everything was perfect. We continued chanting sounds that came out with a lot of intensity as the contractions continued. I thought of all the women, friends, sisters, mothers and daughers who had birthed before me. My baby's head came out. Although I felt very tired, I tried to continue with my breathing. Three breaths, one chant, and I screamed from my mouth down to my vagina and then my baby was born!I embraced and welcomed him, I kissed him and caressed him. I moved slowly to the bed with the help of the midwives. My baby was still crying, but I held him in my arms and give him his first meal. I pulled down the sheet a little bit and I saw... it was a surprise! He was a boy! His name would be Kayab (dance and rythm) in Mayan language. He then ate from my warm and loving breast.My body was very tired, but the placenta wasn't born yet. At that moment, I felt so many things at once -- tired, cold, excited, joyful, satisfied, happy... One of the midwives helped deliver the placenta, which was huge, and she took every precaution to make sure I didn't lose a lot of blood. Later I heard that my baby weighed 3.7 kg (8 lbs 2 oz) and measured 52 cm (20.4 in). I remembered that other women had said that our bodies make babies according to the size of the mother. It appears that nature can play tricks! I am a small mom with a big baby! Blanca SantizSan Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico

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