Читать книгу The Gentle Birth Method: The Month-by-Month Jeyarani Way Programme - Karen MacLeod Swan - Страница 7

It was a Sunday morning when I awoke with the knowledge that Maya – my first daughter – was coming. It was a wonderful sensation of just knowing. I paced the house beaming ‘my baby is coming’. I called Gowri and she came over at 11am. She examined me – I was 3cm dilated and purring like a fat, happy cat. Gowri talked me through a relaxation process, helping me to access the knowledge that I was safe and well, that my body knew exactly what to do; that I would just be opening, slowly and gently, ready to give birth at the hospital that afternoon.

My husband went ahead and prepared the birthing pool at the hospital, and we followed him when I was about 6cm dilated. On arrival, the midwife asked me how dilated I thought I was. I told her 6cm or so, but she laughed and said she would be very surprised – that I looked far too relaxed to be that far dilated.

To her surprise I was 9cm and my daughter was born within eight hours of the first contraction. She was a very relaxed baby, only crying when hungry. Her first months were spent arms spread out, palms up, completely relaxed, open and trusting in everything. I feel sure this is because of her peaceful birth.

I came to the conclusion that the underlying problem for a lot of these women was the mechanical fit. If you had a smaller baby, and a fit mother with an uncongested pelvis, it would be easier for the baby to pass through the birth passages. I was aware that in China, for example, women working in the paddy fields commonly squatted down and delivered their babies within the hour. Why? The reasons are simple enough. By squatting and rising as they work all day, they naturally encourage their baby into the optimal foetal position, and this exercise also aids lymphatic drainage within the pelvis and increases their pelvic mobility. But crucially, they also eat a wholefood diet of rice and vegetables, so their bodies are clear of toxins and supple. The importance of diet in the equation is highlighted by the fact that in developing countries that have adopted western diets and lifestyles, the number of caesareans and medically-assisted births has risen. Diet is the deciding factor.

However, it was 15 years ago that I came to this conclusion and voiced my concern that we were over-feeding mothers here. Not surprisingly, everyone thought I was crazy at the time and I met with a lot of hostility. There was a huge fear that babies would be born small. However, such scepticism proved unfounded – over the years my mothers have delivered babies of very healthy weights, usually 7lb plus. My emphasis was, and is, simply on having babies in keeping with the mother’s frame. Today the ‘eating for two’ mindset is becoming redundant, as people are much more aware that a pregnant woman only needs an extra 200 calories per day – that’s only an extra bowl of cereal per day.

I remember very clearly one mother who was admitted to the delivery suite in labour. She was a Filipino lady who was naturally petite – she can’t have been any taller than 5ft – but she was grossly overweight. She had been in labour for 18 hours and was still only 3-4cm dilated. The baby’s head was high up, her whole uterus was like a mound and the labour was clearly not progressing any further. I enquired about her diet and learnt that, since coming to England, she had started eating food that was alien to her native diet – such as bread, sausages and pâté – and she’d been eating too much of it. The result? She had to have a caesarean to deliver an 11lb baby when, according to her frame, she should have had a 6-7lb baby.

Invariably, whenever I was presented with mothers with huge abdomens and cervixes that wouldn’t open and I asked about their diet, they would list their preference for comfort foods: ‘Oh I had nausea and couldn’t eat anything but toast’, or ‘I was addicted to chocolate’. This led me to think about dietary deficiencies, such as magnesium or chromium, which can lead to cravings. Soon I was beginning to think like a nutritionist.

What effects do certain foods have on our bodies? Wheat, for example, is known to create water retention. The first thing most nutritionists advise when presented with a patient complaining of neck tension and headaches, is to eliminate wheat from their diets. Eight times out of ten, the headaches disappear. Given that pelvic oedema is very often the underlying cause for inconsistent labours, I reasoned that wheat could be the culprit, congesting the vaginal tissues and restricting the cervix from gently opening and widening. I became even more convinced when I started asking about the birth experiences of women diagnosed with coeliac disease. These women simply cannot eat wheat or gluten and although there has been no formal study into this, my own interviews with some of these women revealed that they enjoy incredibly short labours.

Sugar is problematic too. Sugar is metabolized via the Krebs cycle – the name given to the biochemical process that releases energy from the molecules of sugar. Studies have shown that a large number of free radicals are released during this process. The body finds it hard to neutralize these and they attack connective tissues like muscles, tendons and ligaments. When you are pregnant, you need your pelvic ligaments to be extremely supple and flexible, so avoiding sugar and sugary foods can prevent toxins being deposited in your uterus, cervix and pelvic structures.

Since my eureka moment 15 years ago, I have refined my nutritional guidelines into simple rules that are neither aggressive nor dangerous. Of course, there are times when that cake has your name on it, or it’s difficult to resist the convenience of grabbing a sandwich for lunch. You’re absolutely right, it can be difficult resisting the ‘forbidden foods’ on any diet, let alone whilst pregnant when cravings are enhanced. And of course there will be days when you feel frustrated, angry, or resentful at being forbidden from eating what you want – especially if, as is likely, you’ve grown up with the received wisdom that pregnancy affords you a guilt-free opportunity to eat whatever you like.

But when the sugar’s calling, try to remember this. By buying this book you have already exercised your desire for a beautiful, blooming pregnancy and a gentle, controlled labour – and it is something you can achieve with focus, commitment and belief. Ultimately, no one else can do it for you and if you do cheat, you cheat only yourself.

So think positively. I like the old epithet: ‘Rob Peter to pay Paul’. Compromise now for reward later. You’ve got just 35 weeks to follow this diet and get your body into tip-top condition and pristine ‘birthfitness’. It’s not so long in the grand scheme of things and you’ll thank yourself afterwards. After the birth, my mothers always tell me how glad they are that they followed the eating plan.