Birth Agni
This Podcast explores how indigenously Birth has always unfolded, among women - our tribe, where children could see how breastfeeding was done and how birth happened. This an attempt to fetch the stories of the past as well as bring out the new India’s Birth culture to expose the defining features in both. This shall join the dots to where the increasing problems of postpartum anxiety, rising rate of surgical births and poor breastfeeding outcomes are coming from.
Birth Agni - Agni meaning Fire, the Fire that brings us alive, transforms us and has the ability to burn. Birth is designed to affect a woman’s integrity. It is the fire of awakening that makes her life experience wholesome. Deep down her body knows what Birth is supposed to feel - a euphoria of bringing a new life on Earth. The cocktail of hormones are designed to give her a high.
However, birth today has quickly swayed away from a phase of joy to the one marked by Fear, the constant questioning of a woman’s capacity to Birth naturally and the ugly calculation of the odds of a healthy baby at the expense of the mother’s health. We forget that their health is interlinked and flourish as a dyad. In India, the urban rate of Cesarean Sections on an average until 2020 is a whopping 40% which is concerning.
Birth is linked to Patriarchy, Healthcare Politics and Women’s Rights. Respect in Birth is long due to women and it affects the core of who they are.
Join me Divya Kapoor, a Certified Birth and Lactation Counselor and aspiring Traditional Birth Attendant in the quest to shine light on what we can do as parents and a community to change the narrative.
Birth Agni
#90 - Part I - Aparna's Birth story | Choosing a Birth Center | Transitioning through Early Labor | Internal Exams | Midwifery Care
As a first time mother, Aparna knew that she wanted a Normal Delivery but did not know what decisions could maximize her chances.
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Instinctively, she knew she did not want to choose a fancy hospital , she was wary decisions would be made to increase the bills and it may not necessarily be based on her health. She even enquired at a government hospital knowing it has better rates of normal birth than the major private hospitals.
Fortunately, she was suggested a birth center in Kerala by a friend. She felt aligned but there began another battle to convince family. With the family convinced, came on the labor, the pre labor, she was sent home twice and the second time her labor stalled.
Listen to part I of this episode to learn about
1. How Aparna convinced the family with her decision of a birth center?
2. What midwifery care made her realise about birth?
3. Experience of early labor and what she learnt through it?
In part II we will listen to her experience of active labor and giving birth in detail.
About the guest: Aparna Ajayan, a former Architect, is a yoga practitioner turned yoga trainer. She has undergone several training programs to specialise in Pre and Postnatal Yoga and is a certified Prenatal & Postnatal Trainer under Yoga Alliance, USA (100 Hrs) and World Yoga Organization (50 Hrs). She is also a Childbirth Educator (Lamaze International), currently passionate about making Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga accessible to as many pregnant women and new moms as possible.
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