callistra: Fuschia from Sinfest crying her heart out next to Hell's flames (Wickedness!)
Saw the obstetrician today. She was very chirpy, and despite the headcold being worse, we were pretty chirpy too. :-) I even got to throw my knickers around the office! Now that's not something you do every day!
:-)

Inducement day is Tuesday. If we haven't already started. Her comment was "Everything is still in top position, so basically I think you just need one or two good contractions, and you'll be well on your way." Cool. Things have progressed further since the last meeting (now dilated 2 cm, and everything else is softened up nicely.)



I'm feeling vulnerable right now. It's an odd feeling for me. Usually I start feeling vulnerable, figure out why, get over it/get angry/deal, but I don't think there's a lot to say right now. :-) Or get over. Or deal. Can't deal until afterwards really. Every one's so cynical and bitter sometimes.

I think one thing the discussions of inductions has made me aware of is that I really, really would like to avoid being induced. If i can make thing happen naturally, I would. Actually, it's not so much the inducement, it's the natural childbirth. (And no, not mean "drug free". Drugs are fine. I'll take 'em!) There's this big challenge ahead of me, and I want to face it head on and just... do ... it... but instead I'm sitting around waiting. And I really don't want a ceasarian. I guess not many people do. (I can't say no one does, there's entire lists of people on the baby forum who have been begging their Obs for ceasarians because they don't like the idea of natural childbirth. That's why they should have gone private I guess.)

My body is designed to carry and eventually give birth to children. I trust my body to work, and I trust my Ob to help, rather than interfere. I'm worried about a spiralling level of intervention may occur, but I doubt it. I have John to help put the checks on if need be, and Dr Anna is as relaxed about everything as I am, so I *really* don't think it's an issue. I spose a part of it is that I have worked for a long time to come in tune with my body in it's rhythms, and this is just another, huge rhythm, just that it's a rhythm I don't know. I'm hoping to avoid episiotomy, epidural, other tools like forceps and vacuums, cesars etc. I'm not enthused enough to try for a home birth, and I'm not worried about water much other than making sure there's a nice comfy shower nearby, but the idea of being flat on my back is alien to me, and the idea of an operation where the baby is plucked out is one I want to avoid if I can. I'm not stupid; if it's needed, it's needed. If I didn't trust Dr Anna to be able to make that sort of decision, then I would have found a different Ob.

Apparently PND is often directly related to the birth experience - we have expectations and ideas, and when things go wrong or don't turn out the way they expected or there's an emergency, the chances of PND are much, much higher. I can see why. Men get PND too, so don't think you guys get to get out of this. PND can also strike for up to two years after the baby is born, possibly even longer. I think I have a strong enough support group with my family and friends that PND doesn't frighten me. But I know how disappointed I will be if I can't have as natural a birth as possible. And having been through subdrop a few times, the abyss of PND is suddenly a realisation that might happen. I can see why the birth process is a major factor. And in our society where people don't think about the realitiies of life, the nitty gritty of life, death, birth, decay and destruction, where our meat comes in little packages and children have no idea what a chicken is or does, that this sudden return to the primaeval is a nasty, nasty shock. There's always going to be a part of us that is below words (or even the Black Gang as McMaster Bujold terms it) which lives under the layer of civilisation, and so many people don't even think to look there. That's where I'm hoping to draw my strength. That's where I think all women have their strength. We're two steps away from killing for our children at any point. We're so close to the dirt that civilisation can't understand. And I think that women who don't realise that they are connected to the dirt, whether they're maternal or not, are lying to themselves in some way. It's not necessarily a maternal thing. It's just that in current times, the only time women have to find the dirt is during childbirth. I'm going to be literally torn apart. And I have to find a way to survive. And it's something every other mother has done before me.

I don't think we need to live in the darkness. I do, however, think we need to be aware of it. Use it for our ambition. Use it to get what we want and what we need. Civilisation, to me, is control. It's a good thing. People should be civil. There should always be a codified structure of behaviour and social mores within which human beings interact. But sometimes, we need to acknowledge that at the base level, we're all just animals that can talk.

Date: 2005-08-05 07:21 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] wildilocks.livejournal.com
ext_74493: (Default)
that was a pretty awesome read. thankyou :)

Date: 2005-08-05 09:27 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] callistra.livejournal.com
Aww thanks!
:-)
I might have to think about it some more!

Date: 2005-08-05 07:48 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] nightmancyr.livejournal.com
I've heard having a bonk can bring on labour *wink*

Date: 2005-08-05 07:52 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] lucretiae.livejournal.com
I know I've said this before but spicy food and lots of sex!
Would you like Matt and I to come over on the weekend and provide the spicy food?
*giggle* I can just see you squeaking and putting your hands over your eyes (which surely has to be the reading equivalent of putting your hands over your ears and going "lalalalala") when you got past the "would you like Matt and I to come over" bit of the sentance but before you got to the end.

Think popping thoughts!

Date: 2005-08-05 08:07 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] meljane.livejournal.com
They had a segment on Brooke Sheilds on Oprah (even though I can't stand watching Oprah , that day I was compelled to watch it) and she was talking about her post natal depression .

It was really interesting and rather scary hearing what she went through from her giving birth to how she felt when she got home .

She had pnd so bad that she felt like harming herself and she suffered for quite a while until she tryed a drug therapy and while on the drug therapy she learnt to bond with her baby and feel better about herself(bloody Tom Cruise picked on her on tv cos she was using drugs to help with her pnd).

Don't worry so much about the birth and focus on the important thing of the baby coming out healthy and happy and you as well .

Your hormones messing with you is normal and I'm a nightmare around Ken alot of time.

Watch out for PSD after the birth and if you feel things getting on top of you , take a bit of time out and talk to people and your doctor . don't try and make out that every is ok , if really isn't(remember you're no superwoman).

If you need someone to hang with or talk to , right now i have too much time on my hands , feel free to vent , venting is better than holding things inside .

I think you'll be a great mum and remember you have friends and reletives to help you , when you need help*hugs*.

Date: 2005-08-05 09:17 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] callistra.livejournal.com
The thing that really scared me about that Oprah episode was when Brooke was talking about her Dr ringing her and saying her fetus was "not viable" and then she had tocontinue carrying a dead baby for two weeks because they wanted it to go naturally.... I'd be so totally devestated! As soon as we knew there was nothing we could do for our first pregnancy, I was offered a D and C or to allow it to miscarry naturally - I'd rather just get it over with thanks!

But two weeks before her body even started discharging. Scary american system, I tell you!

Date: 2005-08-05 10:44 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] anysia.livejournal.com
She had pnd so bad that she felt like harming herself and she suffered for quite a while until she tryed a drug therapy and while on the drug therapy she learnt to bond with her baby and feel better about herself(bloody Tom Cruise picked on her on tv cos she was using drugs to help with her pnd).

Well, as soon as he gets preggers and gives birth, and then had nary a problem with PND, he can say something. Until then, he is just a puny little wanker, in more ways than one!

Date: 2005-08-05 11:22 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] callistra.livejournal.com
I was thinking about that today too, and the relationship between knowing, and the experiential nature of religion and gender.

But I should espouse upon that at a later date I think!
:-)

Date: 2005-08-05 09:04 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] amarillion.livejournal.com
I don't think you'll have to worry too much about PND. If you do, by some rare and totally inconcievable chance do get it. I'm sure there are enough of us mouthy opinionated buggers around to talk your head straight :D
Tried jumping up and down?
*veg*

Date: 2005-08-05 09:27 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] callistra.livejournal.com
*hugs*
Jumping.... like... jumping???

LOL

Date: 2005-08-05 10:08 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] tiberius-n.livejournal.com
So do you think the vulnerability is about the lack of possible control you may have over the birth of your own baby. I know you pretty much spelt it out but sometimes it needs to be said.
I guess as you were saying childbirth is a primal force/act like no other. What your body performs is as all encompassingly focused on that event. I wonder if there is a correlation between how you bond with your baby and how the actual birth goes.?

Date: 2005-08-05 10:18 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] callistra.livejournal.com
Yes. Chesh and I have discussed how I expect to be basically unable to handle things around me, and how he will need to cover that slack for me. I'm also expecting to be taken so far out of myself in pain that I need him to bring me back!

Date: 2005-08-05 10:36 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] tiberius-n.livejournal.com
I think your comment about subdrop is a very interesting correlation. And something i had never really considered before hand as something that could be linked.

Date: 2005-08-05 10:53 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] callistra.livejournal.com
I'll have to think about it some more, but it's that whole build up and the hormonal cocktail and the internal mental changes and then suddenly the ordeal/challenge/experience is over... and you're just support to snap back into reality after something that powerful??

I see a relationship, but more like the difference in seeing a single duckling as representative of the whole world of birds.
:-)

I know, a terrible analogy. :-) But you can see the huge difference and yet the relationship.

Date: 2005-08-05 11:11 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] tiberius-n.livejournal.com
If we base the relationship exclusively on the context of pain then it has a very strong correlation. BTW i am also looking forwad to seeing you with bouncing baby. :)

Date: 2005-08-05 10:42 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] anysia.livejournal.com
Ohh boy..2cms already? Uhh, I hope you don't have any plans tomorrow. :) I have a funnnnnny feeling.

Date: 2005-08-05 10:51 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] callistra.livejournal.com
I'nm hoping
:-)

*crosses everything except legs*

Date: 2005-08-05 12:28 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] lilysea.livejournal.com
Good luck with it all!

*hugs*

Profile

callistra: Fuschia from Sinfest crying her heart out next to Hell's flames (Default)
callistra

October 2019

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789101112
131415 16 1718 19
2021222324 2526
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Feb. 5th, 2026 08:19 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios