Lisa The Joyful Free Download

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LisaMangini (lisamangini.com; @lisaquarius) is a writer living in Central Pennsylvania with her husband, Anand, and their young son. She teaches English and creative writing at a university and is in the early stages of writing a book about becoming a parent.

Yes. And so, before getting pregnant, she recommended that I take five times the normal dose of folate for three months prior to trying to conceive, because the medication I was on puts me at a higher risk for birth defects, specifically neural tube defects, and yeah, go ahead.

So, when you were managing these different chronic conditions and then you get pregnant again, it sounds like you had some specialists lined up. How did that pregnancy go then? What was that experience like?

Yeah, she was really great. We enjoyed the class a lot. I want to say four different families, and just the range of different people in the class, where some people, it was their first child, some people, it was their second child. I obviously planned on having a pretty medicalized birth in a hospital setting. There was someone there who planned a home birth, so it was just a really great mix of people in the class as well.

I think in general, just the sort of additional commentary that Jen could offer on the stuff that was already in the course, and particularly how she saw some of these decisions play out with some of her own patients. And so, that was really great to have just sort of more stories to go along with what the course already talked about.

Yeah. I think another thing to mention too, is that a lot of the class talks about finding the right care team and the right providers, and pretty early on, I think it was maybe 12 weeks into the pregnancy, we are in a relatively rural area, and so, the next closest hospital with a labor and delivery unit is about a 50, 55 minute drive. And pretty quickly, we, for lack of a better word, fired the local facility, and you were dissatisfied with the care you were getting and the tone of the care, and chose to go to the next closest facility, to find the right team to take care of you.

Yeah, and another thing that stood out to us too after, while taking the class, is that the hospital we ended up delivering at had a shared practice model. So, every shift, there was a midwife and an OB on call on the floor, which was really [inaudible]. Yeah.

So, towards the end of your pregnancy, after having taken the Childbirth Class, you mentioned you were planning on having a hospital birth and that it would probably be medicalized, but what other aspects of your birth were you planning?

My hopes were that everyone was going to come out healthy and happy, right? I mean, you hear so much about folks talking about trauma and their birth experience, and particularly in hospitals, and I just wanted everyone to come out well in all aspects, and that was really critical to me. Another thing that was really crucial, I think that came out of the class, is we were kind of on the fence about having a doula initially, and the evidence there really cemented our desire to have a doula, and we connected with this amazing collective of-

So, it sounds like you had a full toolkit of a lot of different things you could use to stay comfortable, and you were at eight and a half centimeters, and it was kind of the middle of the night, it sounds like. So, what happened next?

At one point, we had a heart rate deceleration, and again, we wanted the heart rate monitor, just because we wanted more data to work with, and he had been really strong and super stable throughout the whole thing. And so, that one little blip really kind of spiked my panic. And so-

Yeah. No, it was really great, and I like to think too that she was doing that, because I saw her for most of my appointments, and so, she knew who I was and knew sort of my profile, and felt like she knew what would be safe for me as well, just through that familiarity with me and my background. And so, I was just really happy that she advocated for that for me.

Yeah. I mean, I fully expected to have one of those kinds of births that are very loud and very animated, and I think of course, that is absolutely a valid experience to have while having a baby. I think it just surprised me that I did have that kind of different experience, and it just kind of, I expressed it differently, and that really did surprise me about myself, so.

So, I love that you were able to share with our listeners how you can experience something like a high-risk pregnancy and high intervention birth, and still leave birth feeling empowered and strong. Do you want to share what your postpartum experience was like? Do you have any stories or info about that for our listeners?

Yeah, and I think for me, after that, we were surprised in your first go around with pregnancy, right? I think being prepared in every way we possibly could and seeking out, again, taking up space, what we needed to be as confident we could be in this process, was huge, seeking out the right specialists and the right practitioners, and having that ready, and the other thing that was huge was having a doula. Right?

It was, like you said earlier, right? It was this decision made kind of based on the evidence and on the rational scientific based outcomes, but it was such an important element of how this proceeded, and just having that experienced, centering, touchstone presence was just so huge for everybody.

Don't miss an episode! Subscribe to our podcast and leave a review! iTunes Spotify YouTube Dr. Rebecca Dekker's joined by Debra Pascali-Bonaro, host of the Orgasmic Birth podcast, to explore the connections between love, intimacy, and childbirth. A...

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