Natural Childbirth, Water Birth

One of my younger sisters is the ultimate in natural from what she puts into her body, how she conceives, how she gives birth, and how she feeds her children after birth. As a result, she's had great pregnancies and good experiences in childbirth for herself, her husband, and their children.

She eats healthy. She doesn't diet. She doesn't need to. She eats organic whenever she can, eats well-balanced meals, doesn't eat processed foods, and cooks at home ensuring she knows what is going into the food (and into her body). She's a great cook. She is lean and healthy. That girl can put a lot of food away so you know to be lean, she's definitely doing something right to keep her metabolism going so well!

Her pregnancies are easy. I had morning sickness for nine months straight 24/7. Her pregnancies have little to no morning sickness. I just thought of something: Could my 24/7 morning sickness be my body's way of purging itself of toxins in my system to protect the baby I carried? It's something I never thought about until now. Makes me wonder.

She is a big believer in natural childbirth. Her second and third children were born at home naturally. She had at-home water births! How amazing would that be? They brought in a birthing tub. Her second child was born at home on Christmas morning. While their first child impatiently told his mom to hurry up so he could open Santa's presents, she gave birth at home naturally, taking the child from her body herself with dad, her son, and a midwife there. It was less painful and peaceful. She enjoyed the experience so much that she also had her third child naturally at home in the water. She did what women were designed to do - give birth - and nobody was going to intercede in that and turn it into a medical event. It was a great experience for the family.

One of these days I'll tell you about how unnatural my delivery for my last child was at the hospital. While it is a funny story now, it was scary then.