Читать книгу Blooming Birth: How to get the pregnancy and birth you want - Lucy Atkins - Страница 72

This is your inner cavewoman speaking to you: you get a primal urge to make your ‘nest’ clean, safe and warm for the baby. This usually happens in the last weeks of the pregnancy, escalating just before you go into labour. It can take many forms but it usually involves you doing something domestic that is completely out of character. Before Izzie, my first baby, was born, I sewed curtains, something I’d now rather die than attempt. A friend of mine who can’t cook a boiled egg found herself trying to prepare elaborate meals involving tons of obscure ingredients. ‘I’m not into excessive cleaning,’ says midwife Jenny Smith, ‘but before Oliver, my first baby, was born, I decided to clean the outdoor step. This took all day and involved a multitude of cleansing preparations and an old type of scrubbing brush. I remember showing my husband the step at 10 p.m. I slept deeply to be woken at 6 a.m. with contractions.’ You may not nest at all. Or you may behave like a deranged Mrs Beeton. If you do, you’ll think it’s normal. Everyone who knows you will, of course, know you’re crazed.