SO WE DECIDED

I always liked O’Henry’s story, ‘The last leaf’ as it tells you that ‘trust is truth’ and probably this is what I can say about my childbirth. When we decided to have Kadambari, we were not sure where, how and who will do the childbirth. The only thing we were sure was not to have here in a hospital; we wanted to follow something natural.

Choosing the Ayurvedic way was natural for us as we were following it for the past four years. We consulted our Vaidya and decided to follow the month-wise Ayurvedic regimen from the day the pregnancy was confirmed. This included ghee-based medicines, milk and a diet recommended during pregnancy. Whenever we told anyone about our Ayurvedic choice, everyone raised their eyebrows, including some of my Ayurvedic doctor friends. (They had their babies in an Allopathic hospital). Since it was the first time my vaidya was doing childbirth at her center, there was a lot of apprehension about the choice we made, in both our families.

Before my pregnancy we left Chennai and moved to Pune. As we were in Pune and the Vaidya in Chennai, it was all the more difficult. In the whole 7 full months that I was in Pune, I changed some four doctors because whenever I used to tell them that I would not take any Iron, folic acid, calcium or vitamin tablets, the doctors refused to check me.

I shifted to Chennai in my 8^th month of pregnancy. Dr.Girija, my vaidya had arranged two Dais (Maruthuvachi in Tamil) for me. They checked me and measured the womb with hands and did some calculations. They announced that the baby was going to be born in a particular week, which was much before the due date. And yes, their calculation was right.

In the 9^th month of pregnancy, a medicated oil enema (sneha vasti) was administered. Throughout the 9^th month, I was asked to apply Dhanvantara Thailam (a medicated oil) on the body especially hip, groin, thighs and sides of my chest. I also used a tampon soaked in medicated oil in my vaginal passage.

The labour was 18 hours long, but Dhanwantaram Thailam (medicated oil) was regularly applied on my whole body during this period. Oil was applied on the body, especially the sides of my chest, abdomen, back and thighs and I was given a hot bath, which was very soothing. After that, a gruel prepared from rice, milk and ghee was given for drinking.

I observed that whenever the Dai was checking the mouth of the uterus to measure the opening, she used to apply some oil and use her bare hands, without any gloves, but it made this process painless. I was walking all the time and the Dai assured me that the baby would come out only when it was unbearable for me to walk.

When it became difficult for me to walk, I was made to lie down on a bed, which was not so comfortable for me as my body was constantly urging me to sit up. So, when I decided to opt for half-sitting position on the floor with another woman supporting my back I felt more at ease. When the labour was intense and at its peak, there was a sudden drop in the frequency of contractions and pain and the labour did not progress. That is when my Vaidya asked me to inhale some medicinal powder (choornam), which helped me in getting back the frequency of contractions. Each time I inhaled the choornam, it was immediately followed by a major contraction. Now when I think of it, I was a good case for a C-section, but due to the inhalation and a lot of encouragement from some 11 women and one man (my husband), I gave birth to Kadambari. I was happy that the umbilical cord was not cut immediately after the birth; rather we waited for the placenta to come out. Then the cord was cut, and the placenta was buried in the soil as per custom. It was an inexpressible joy for me, as my Kadambari was healthy and fine and I escaped any kind of cut, whether Cesarean or episiotomy.

Later, I was given a medicinal powder (choornam) mixed with warm ghee. Dhanwantaram Thailam was applied around my abdomen, which was tied firmly with a cloth. I was made to lie down with Kadambari close to me. After the first day, I had no bleeding. Initially, I was on very light diet, consisting largely of Porridge (rice gruel). I was given Dasamoolarishtam, Jeerakadyarishtam and Sowbhagya Sunthi lehyam. I took these medicines for two months. I was back to my normal activities in two days, but I followed the Pathya (diet) for 60 days. I was on strict Ayurvedic diet (mostly milk) and various lehyams, and arishtas. All this has helped me to regain my strength and vitality very quickly.

We believe that trust is the most important thing in any process and especially in childbirth. Our struggle is not yet over as we opted for the Ayurvedic way and now we are trying to deal with our decision of not vaccinating Kadambari. We usually don’t tell people, as we find it very tiring to explain it and listen to all discouraging stories. We had full faith in ourselves and got a lot of encouragement from our Vaidya. Some of my friends still suggest that we can take Inactive Vaccination instead of a live one, as it is very common in Western countries, but then the whole point was not to introduce Kadambari to any active or inactive viruses.

We also decided that Kadambari would be exclusively on breast milk until we could postpone introducing supplement food. She was introduced Porridge (gruel) in the 10^th month and many relatives and friends also question this and say a lot about iron, proteins, vitamin deficiency etc. Now Kadambari is one year old and we are sure that time will tell that our decisions were honest and correct.