How to have a healthy and natural pregnancy in spite of your gynaecologist . (Part 1)

By Christo Lues

What is a Natural pregnancy

Being pregnant and giving birth are natural life experiences for which a woman's body is well designed. In most of the world, women labor and give birth with midwives, as they have throughout history. No matter what anyone says: pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and mothering are natural processes.

Wouldn't you agree that they have worked pretty well so far (for the last few thousand years)? Without it, none of us would have been here!

Natural pregnancy is where, after conception, the mother lives a normal life as before. As the pregnancy progresses she has an ever increasing awareness that new life is being formed inside her body. She may experience a slight increase or decrease in appetite, thirst and may urinate more often. The mother starts experiencing movement inside her abdominal area and conversations with the little one may be spontaneous. 

At some point during the process, the mother may visit a midwife to discuss the birthing process. The midwife will listen to the baby’s heartbeat as well as measure the mother’s tummy growth, to confirm that the pregnancy is developing as expected. The midwife may recommend that the mother has one ultrasound scan to confirm that the placenta is implanted in the correct position. It may also be recommended that the mother see her GP or a gynaecologist that could step in should any emergency arise during the pregnancy or during labour. This, as we will learn later, is often where the mother is robbed of a natural pregnancy. 

As the pregnancy advances and depending on the mothers’ age and fitness she may experience a few uncomfortable pains in her sides, abdomen or back as her body stretches and the baby takes up more space. She may also experience some indigestion as baby grows bigger. As different hormonal changes happen in the mother’s body, so will her moods, skin, breast size, libido, blood sugar and even blood pressure fluctuate. 

Natural birth is a part of the normal human procreation cycle. It is in itself not a disease that poses any more threats than life itself. It is a process through which a mother carries a  baby in her womb until the baby signals the mother’s body to start the birthing process. The mother will then experience certain changes in her body that will enable her to deliver a baby via the birth canal. The process may take several hours and the mother may be assisted by a midwife or doctor. The midwife fulfills a supportive role to the mother and baby’s needs with absolute minimum intervention.

Once the baby is delivered, the mother’s body starts a process of returning to it’s original state. The natural birth may take place at home or in a birthing unit, and the mother may even choose to give birth in a birth pool. In this case the warm water serves to calm the mother and creates a safe environment for the baby and greatly reduces the birthing pains for the mother. (Read more on Linnie’s BLOG about water births) Baby latches to the mother’s breast and lives on her chest for several days as she is nurtured by the mother. The mother is able to get up and do normal household and motherly activities.

From here on the baby forms part of the natural order of things in the family, and new life is incorporated in the family routine.

The baby is not vaccinated to ‘sow seeds of disease’ into it’s little body. The parents, rather than living in fear of every imaginable disease on earth, focus on building the new little one’s immune system via breastfeeding and later high quality food and nutritional supplements.

Next time, in Part 2, I will talk about; “What is an un-natural pregnancy”