Teething. In this house, it is as bad as you can imagine. My daughter, Kyra, started teething at about 8 weeks and the first tooth popped out at 19 weeks followed shortly by the second three days later. Since then we’ve had two months of welcome relief from the teething monster, but this week it has descended on us like a misty fog all over again.
An important part in my series on natural childbirth is of course the actual birth. Perhaps it’s prudent to start by defining natural childbirth. To me, natural excludes any substance that will pass through the placenta and affect the baby or inhibit your experience of actually vaginally giving birth.
Pregnancy is a time of such huge change. Your emotions change, your body, your home. It all changes. And just as an athlete practices for an event, a dancer for a show, or a politician for a debate, so a woman needs to prepare for becoming a mother. She needs to prepare not only her mind, her heart and her soul, but her body too.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a big fan of the medicalised culture we live in. I avoid doctors and medicine as much as I can. You’ll find it funny then that in the last three weeks I have taken pain killers, been admitted to Accident and Emergency, had a root canal, four courses of antibiotics and minor surgery!
It all started with the pregnancy.
Today has truly tested my faith and beliefs. Watching my little girl throwing up clear slime, hearing her cough, listening to her raspy breathing and feeling completely helpless to fix what’s wrong, as I don’t really know what’s wrong. Unfortunately I have a rather iffy relationship with my GP and unless I really can’t do anything to improve the situation, would rather not go there.
