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Promoting Natural Child Birth
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Baby Nathan John was a much awaited baby to be born. And indeed, he was born on March 31, Feast of the Annunciation, also the National Day of the Unborn.
This was the third pregnancy of Elizabeth. Her second child, Liza, was born by Lamaze natural childbirth. She then became an active member of the Breastfeeding Support Group and it is this group headed b y Dr. Elvira Henarez-Esguerra and Mrs. Pam Magallon that motivated her to try the Le Boyer method, also called the Russian water birth, for her third delivery.
No hospital in the Philippines was willing to accommodate this method of delivery, even though some midwives had already successfully tried it in the homes of the women in their care. Since the aim of the group was to take videos of the delivery to be used for promotion and teaching purposes, they visited me at the Good Shepherd Convent to ask for a room in order to hold this exciting event.
Expected date of delivery of Elizabeth was last March 25. A children’s plastic pool was set up in the middle of the room, pails for heating water, lots and lots of pillows, mats and pads were within reach and the two midwives on hand prepared their instruments. Elizabeth did go into labor, but the pains stopped in a couple of hours and Bernadette, the head midwife, said it was false labor so they all decided to go back to their homes and wait for the real labor to begin. Several days passed and I wondered if Elizabeth decided to give birth in the hospital. Then at early dawn of March 31, we woke up to the ringing of the doorbell to let the whole troupe in – Elizabeth writhing in pain, the two midwives, Dra. Esguerra, Pam and a couple of helpers.
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We hurriedly set up the room again and filled the pool with warm water. Lights were dimmed and soft music played in the background. We were instructed to speak in a low voice especially when the baby was coming out. The whole idea was for the baby to come into the world without the trauma that babies experience in hospital deliveries – cold air-conditioned room, doctors and nurses shouting out instructions, turning the baby upside down and roughly suctioning his nose or mouth for discharges, and even spanking him if he doesn’t cry immediately. As a nurse, I have participated in such harsh deliveries, and recall how we were so lacking in compassion of how the mother must be feeling in her exposed position for hours on the delivery table and the baby losing the warmth and comfort of the womb into a cold, noisy world.
I had brought in the statue of Our Lady of La Leche, Patroness of Mothers and Mothers to be, also called the Breastfeeding Madonna, and I could see Elizabeth turning her head every now and then to the statue as we prayed the novena quietly for her intercession. Within the four hours of her labor, she did cry out that she wanted to give up in pain, but the support group gently encouraged her to hang on as they stroked her forehead damp with perspiration and rubbed her tummy to ease the pain.
And at 4:30 am, the baby quietly slipped into the warm water, he lustily cried as his skin turned into a healthy dark pink. The midwife laid him naked on the bare skin of his mom close to her breast. It did not take half an hour for the baby to turn his head searching for the nipple of his mom to suck. It was such a natural phenomena! His umbilical cord was cut only when the midwife could feel that the pulsating sensation had stopped. In a few minutes, the placenta was delivered. Elizabeth was then transferred to a mattress nearby where she went to sleep, holding on to her baby sucking at her breast. There was no need to give her anti-bleeding injection as the sucking reflex on her breast started the action of hormones to restore her uterus to its original condition.
We rejoiced at the thought that Baby Nathan chose to be born on March 31, the date chosen by the Church to celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation this year because March 25 was within Easter Week. I informed the group that pro-lifers had prevailed on President Gloria M. Arroyo to declare the Feast of the Annunciation as National Day of the Unborn in the Philippines. The Executive Order 586 was signed last March 24, 2004 and we have been celebrating the Day of the Unborn every year since then.
Later in the afternoon, we buried the placenta under a mango tree, following the tradition of Filipino families in the provinces. Elizabeth was strong enough to join us in this activity. I promised her that we would name the tree after her baby. I also suggested that she add John after the Baptist as her name was Elizabeth, and because the baby was literally baptized into the pool of water during his natural birth. So we have a special tree in the Good Shepherd compound now named Baby Nathan John.
The whole process was recorded on video. This will be edited and used for teaching purposes in order to promote the beauty of life and all that is natural – naturally planned, naturally born, naturally breastfed and naturally healed.
For more information on Natural Family Planning, Birthing and Breastfeeding, contact Pro-life Center at 911-2911.
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