Whats Good SteemIt Family!!

It's been awhile and I missed y'all, but I been away starting a family of my own. Say hello to Aja!

On December 21st (1st day of winter solstice), @denisetherealtor and I had our 1st child,

Aja Nazanin.

There was a lot I wanted to share along the way, but this being my first little one I always found myself caught in the moment and not posting much. And generally I'm a pretty private individual...it just felt like I should share this experience because it speaks to the natural lifestyle I promote and try to live on a daily basis.

Natural births are becoming more & more uncommon and are viewed as difficult or hard to manage nowadays. This is very unfortunate for generations to come. C-sections and epidurals are all but forced onto women when they go into labor.

Many aren't aware that these tactics are primarily used to rush labor and earn hospitals more money. I won't go too deep into this but there is plenty of info out there. Check out "The Business of Being Born" documentary if time permits...and soon, it gets harder and harder to find on the web...

Once we got the news we both made the commitment to do everything naturally. That means our diet, cleaning products, cosmetics, etc. were predominantly natural/organic. This also meant no prenatal vitamins, even though everyone had something to say about being vegetarian and not taking them.

I never took it any way though...most are confined in their way of thinking so I expected some negative input from family and friends, them not knowing the study, consultation and other preparedness measures we took. I know the criticism partly came from a genuine place so I just used those moments to inform the uninformed. The most important thing to me after the health of my child was letting other couples know this was very doable with some commitment to a natural lifestyle, even if just for the duration of the pregnancy.

A few things we did to ensure the pregnancy and birth were successful were :

* hire a Doula for duration of pregnancy

* consult and get supplementation from a Master Herbalist

This made the process very comforting knowing that we had experienced individuals to contact whenever we had questions or concerns. It also helped being part of a network where it was easy to find reputable individuals for the services I needed.

When it came time for Aja to arrive we were well prepared. We found a hospital that catered to natural births, water or regular. Also, any nurses and doctors had to consent to our "Birthing Plan" (do's and dont's) if they were to assist with the labor at all. We had already decided we wanted to do a water birth so that's the route we took.

The labor itself went great (easy for me to say lol) and she came out 7lbs 9oz. Denise was strong through it all and toughed it out for her family. She deserves the world for that. It was crazy I actually pulled her out and cut the umbilical cord myself. The baby was in great health and scored a 9/10 on the Apgar Scale (newborn health rating) which is well above average.

It was also very interesting to see that the more knowledgeable we showed ourselves to be, the less the doctors/nurses questioned our decisions. It kind of boils down to showing you are informed and responsible enough to handle your own affairs. We also didn't do ANY vaccinations. Surprisingly, these doctors were comfortable with that and even said they weren't worried about it BECAUSE of all the measures we were taking. With that being said, if you're not going out of your way to live a somewhat of a holistic lifestyle (no formula feeding, plant based diet, etc.), it might be a good idea to go through with vaccinations and other hospital recommended measures just to be on the safe side.

Like I said, I just want others to know natural births are the way to go if you're willing to make some sacrifices. Aja had her 1st doctor visit recently and everything still looks great.

Please let me know your opinions on vaccinations, C-sections, epidurals, and the like. And definitely feel free to ask any questions about the experience.