Haha that was a great listen. It's been 3 years since I've been pregnant, so I haven't listen to anything preggers-related in a while.
It's so true that it's like we have amnesia about our previous pregnancies/birthing experiences, when we decide to try for another haha.. Mind you, I was very fortunate to have pleasant pregnancies (no morning sickness, manly just back pains and fun hormones!!) and very pleasant water/home births, and even then, it's no easy task.
I do wish we all give a lot more respect to mothers after birth than we do now though, us mothers almost never get the time we need to fully heal, and are usually expected to just up and go right after childbirth.
In the Chinese culture, it is usually custom for the mother to be in bed rest for a month after giving birth, with the main task of feeding her baby, and the whole family helps with everything else (sounds dreamy, right?). I didn't have this myself, but can you imagine how much this would help a woman heal and better find her motherly groove? I imagine it would also significantly lower the rates of postnatal depression, and would set mothers up with a good foundation to raise their children in a more wholesome way.
Let's hope our future generations will learn to give motherhood the honour and respect it deserves :)
Thanks so much for reading and for your comment. In Indian culture it's similar as the new mum stays in the house for 40 days to recover and just establish breastfeeding etc. There are also special nutritious foods that are made for new mums. It's nice when you have family around that can come and stay and help. These days sometimes people live too far from their families or everyone is super busy so they have to be up and about before they've even recovered.
I was lucky that my mum came to stay for a while when I gave birth to each baby.
Also I had a water birth with my third baby and it was lovely!
Oh I didn't know the Indian culture also encourages that, that's great to hear! And how nice that your mom came to help you in the beginning with each baby, lots of respect to her for doing that. I didn't have that kind of help myself, but will definitely be doing this for my girls when it's their turn (hopefully not for another 25 years at least!)..
And nice to know you also had a water birth experience, wasn't it just so nice to be floating in water and not have to feel all the pregnancy heaviness? I also had gas and air for both water births, and I do have to say the combination was pretty heavenly, as far as birthing experiences go ;)
Water birth + gas and air is a great pain reliever. I got in to the warm water at the point when I couldn't take any more pain and it was so soothing!...definitely better than having an epidural and lying on a hospital bed which I did the previous two times!
I can imagine! That's why I always recommend water births to my pregnant friends :)