A Miracle

I have been very lucky in my life.

I did not grow up rich but I did have everything my mother could offer me. I did not attend the best schools but I did go to schools that cared. I was not the smartest kid in class but school was generally easy and fun for me. In high school I entered an after school program that really helped guide the direction of my life. I was introduce to a world outside of my community. I was given chances I otherwise would not have had. These opportunities led to other adventures. Those led me to the man I am married to and the father of my peeps. The choices we had to make led to the path we are on now.

I mention all this because until last week I did not realize how lucky I was in the birth I had with my peeps in particular with Oldest Peep, as she started the trend.

I had no choice but to pick the ob/gyn across the street from the hospital who had the best midwife in the region on staff. I did not know this at the time. I basically looked at a list and picked randomly. She was the only woman on the list but I had no idea what a nurse midwife was. When I went in to see her I liked her right away. She was very reassuring and comforting. She patiently answered all my scared, new-mom-to-be questions. I stuck with her. One day she handed me the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and challenged me to read it before my next appointment. I latched on to the idea after the first chapter! Later, she handed me a Dr. Sears book and I was fully attached.

I look back now and am just amazed at how lucky I was to find the right person.

What made me appreciate all this? Over the Thanksgiving Holiday, I was able to attend to my sister in law while she delivered her second baby naturally after having a csection with her first child. It took a lot of work on her part. She was very tense but even more she was dedicated to not enduring the horrors of her first birth. Doctor after doctor told her she could not do it. Friend after friend told her to just schedule the csection. But she would not. She did not!!! She read and she researched. She searched high and low until she found someone who would give it a try with her. She visited every OB/Gyn office in the State(or at least that is how it felt) until she found one person who understood her desire, her need for a vbac. Her determination showed me how strong a woman can be to endure. Her will taught me that the mind is a very powerful thing.

I was very lucky to have birthed my 3 peeps with no intervention, no drugs, no complications. Her experience showed me just how lucky I was and how sad that we are not all that lucky.

Attending to her during labor and the birth was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. I have always been on the other end of the birth process and honestly I think the mind tries to forget all the pain afterwards so you can just focus on the miracle of the baby. Every woman should attend a birth so that you can see exactly the power of our body, the strength of our gender! The miracle is more than the baby. The miracle is in what the body knows to do, what the mind endures, what the soul produces, what our strength performs. The prize for being a woman is that bundle of love we have birthed, that baby that is perfect in every way and that will love us forever.

I am still in awe when I think about it.

PS! My intention is not to make a different choice seem wrong in any way. I am simply amazed at what I experienced. That's all it is folks......