Giving Birth and 2-Year-Old

Dear pregnant mother,

If you decide to give birth in the hospital or a birthing center next to a hospital, it would be best to take you two-year-old with you and include her in the birth as much as possible. Being without you is more traumatic than anything she can see when you give birth. Make sure to talk to her about giving birth and show her videos and photos. At the birth, keep an atmosphere of joy and peace for your sake and hers. She will absorb the attitudes, not the events. She will feel what is projected by the adults around her.

You don’t say why you hemorrhaged with your first birth, and if you were at home or in a hospital. Postpartum hemorrhaging can be caused by medical intervention, messing with the chord to try to get the placenta out prematurely. I am not a midwife, but I suggest that you explore the reason for your former hemorrhage. It may not be an indication of a repeat hemorrhage. Even if it happened on its own it does not mean it would happen again, specially if you take good care to build up the quality of your blood.

To build up the health of you blood take (good quality) supplements. Take alfalfa capsules, red raspberry, eat lots of leafy greens vegetables, red meat, and drink cabbage juice. Not only will this help to prevent excess bleeding, but you will be in a better position to heal faster from a bleed if your emoglobin/hematocrit are adequate to begin with. 

A well informed midwife can guide you toward preventing hemorrhage. Talk to more than one midwife, making sure to explain how and why you hemorrhaged at your first birth and finding out how much she knows about preventing recurrence.

Regardless of where you decide to give birth, make sure to wait patiently for the placenta to emerge on its own with your own contractions. Mine came out after forty five minutes. Be patient. In a hospital you must have someone who protects you from any unwanted intervention, including pulling on the chord, or cutting it before it stops pulsating. Laying on your back, as they need you to do in the hospital, slows down the birthing process, including the ejection of the placenta, and can lead to variety of difficulties. Therefore, if you decide on hospital birth, bring in with you emotionally powerful midwife and relatives to stand up for your best interest and minimize intervention.

Warmly, http://authenticparent.com/index.html