Aisha

​Our Baby's Birth Story

by Jose, Anastasia and baby Aisha.

​The beautiful thing about birth is that every mother has a unique story to tell. Mine was quite adventurous.  There were a few incredible things that happened along the way. For example, my girl already had her “favourites” before she was born. At the time of my pregnancy I was working with 3 and 4 year olds. You can imagine the  impression my belly had on these little people. Our girl received friendly pats every day from the children. She always responded most of the time to the same child by kicking back . The same child came to me one day and asked if I wanted to call my daughter Valentina. Little did he know that it is my Mum’s name. Go figure… During one of our scans, the moment we saw her on a screen, her little arm went up and gave us a wave. So, all of these little events made the pregnancy so much more special.

I was incredibly lucky and blessed to be accepted to the Birth Centre. They have an amazing philosophy. Women are encouraged to trust their bodies, trust that women have given birth naturally… well.. since life began, and if there are no obvious reasons for complications the birth could be a very natural and magical experience. The Midwife explained that giving birth is like running marathon – you have to train for it for many months. I was highly motivated to lead a very healthy lifestyle and closely watch what I ate. And I tried. I walked to work every day, which took 30 minutes, and I was very careful with what I ate. I ate tons of vegetables and fruit, tried to stay away from fast food, kept a positive frame of mind as much as possible, and prayed for our little girl every day.

However, when the due date came, our sweetheart was not in a hurry to enter this world. She was fashionably late – 11 days. One could say it was the longest 11 days of my life. During this time we tried everything – walking, then more walking and then some more, eating spicy food, going on a bumpy ride. My pre-labour stage started two days before she was born. I was having contractions every 15-20 minutes with occasional breaks for an hour or so. We went to the Birth Centre twice with contractions being 3 minutes apart, and twice we were asked to go back home. It was hard… I thank God for my wonderful husband for his amazing support and patience. Finally, after not having a proper sleep for two days, I called my anchor, my friend, my beautiful sister. Can you imagine what she said to me-“I wish I could do it for you.”

That still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it. She was there for me. It was getting very late but my sis promised that she is going to stay up and pray for me. That night we called the midwife to say we were coming in –  they can do whatever it takes but I wanted this baby now. By the amazing and loving hand of God, when we got to the hospital, my waters broke within 30 minutes and our girl was born in a water tub after 3 hours, at 3.59 am. Later, when I was having a chat to my sister, she said that night she finished her prayer at 3.58 am praising God for safe delivery of our girl long before she got a call from us!! We were home at 3.00 pm the next day. The rest is the history. If you ask me I would tell you that no matter what the pregnancy and delivery is like, what matters most, is that in the end you have your precious prize – your little bundle of joy. But I also very much believe in the right mind set, having a positive attitude,  making the right choices, healthy choices every day through pregnancy, trusting God and prayer, and in educating yourself.