How I Manifested A Successful Home Waterbirth: My Spiritual & Physical Preparations

Birthing is a spiritual and life changing journey. When you embark on one, you must do your prep work beforehand. And luckily pregnancy lasts 9 months which gives you enough time to do what it is you need to do. Here is my pre-production work which granted me the birth I have always wanted, the birth of my dreams <3 

Spiritual Preps: 99 percent reality

I’ve been a student of Kabbalah for 2 years now. Kabbalah is spiritual technology. You can be a Christian, Muslim or a Yogi like me and practice Kabbalah tools to improve the quality of your life and bring light into our world. What I am drawn to is that Kabbalah uses explanations from Quantum Physics to make my rational mind comprehend spiritual concepts in an earthly manner. I particularly like the blog articles of Kabbalah student and mentor, Billy Phillips here.

Some of the Kabbalah students and mentors I study with

One of the teachings is that the world we know and perceive is only 1% of total reality. The remaining 99% reality is beyond our five senses. This means that in order for us to manifest something in our 1% world, we must work primarily in the 99% realm because that is where energy comes from. This is how all energies flow into the universe. Yes, it confirms all that we have known since childhood. Everything is from God or the Light.

After finding out I was pregnant, I was determined to have a natural birth because I was traumatized with the c-section I had years ago (I’m pretty sure my son was too). I started doing my spiritual work as taught to me by my Kabbalah mentor. Here are some of the many things I did:

• I kept mum about my pregnancy for 3 months, (ideally) keeping the pregnancy a secret between me and my husband only. I know that we tried keeping it a secret for as long as we could but Montri wanted to share the news with our family. It is said that the first trimester is very critical because the energy of the growing baby within you is so sensitive. It’s common for people to announce to the whole world once they find out they’re pregnant. What they do not know is that, other people’s consciousness may affect their baby in utero. We are all made up of energy, after all. Energy can pass through flesh and bones. So yes, negative or upsetting or jealous thoughts can affect what’s inside of you. My mentor once said, “Many miscarriages can be saved if they followed this practice”. And it’s an old tradition too. Many lolas follow this. They keep their early pregnancy a secret to protect their unborn child.

• As advised, I scheduled for a reading with Ruthie, the official astrologer of the Kabbalah community. I was in my first trimester then. Ruthie is gifted to see beyond our physical world. She told me about my past lives and despite us just having a chat over Skype, without any real introductions, she very personal knew things about me and my family. She knew that I was pregnant and that I had a son already. She knew about my parents and siblings. She told me that the birth of my baby will be a “healing birth”. And that I should work on forgiveness because I still had resentments from the past which kept myself ‘closed’ when I want to be ‘open’ for the birth.

• Sometime in my 3^rd-4^th month of pregnancy, I attended Rosh Hashanah in LA with my Kabbalah community in Manila. Rosh Hashanah is considered a ‘new year’ holiday for the Kabbalists because this is the time we plant seeds of consciousness to be reaped throughout the rest of the year. During the event, I was given the opportunity to meet Karen Berg, the current head of the international community. She gave my baby a blessing saying “your baby will be healthy and strong”. Since then, I had certainty that my pregnancy and birth will be well.

• Wearing the Red String is another practice of Kabbalists to protect us from 'evil eye' or negative energies brought about from people who stare and feel emotions that are not healthy for you or baby in utero.
  

• Another tool that we practice in Kabbalah is a cleansing tool called Mikveh. It’s submerging your whole body in water while scanning and meditating on texts like the 72 Names of God. They say that it pierces through your klipot or negative shells and washes you anew. It is good for pregnant women to do this daily. My mentor would always ask me each time I would meet her over Skype, “When was the last time you did Mikveh?” So I did mikveh weekly or monthly depending on my schedule. Although daily is ideal especially in the last month of pregnancy. It is written that this ensures a safe and fast labor and birth.

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  My friend's pool in L.A, one of the places I did mikveh in during my pregnancy

Signs or Premonitions

• Looking back, my birth was so surreal. I had dreamt about this event many many times during my pregnancy. Prophetic dreams they surely were! The first of which was that my natural birth was successful, fast & painless. That I had caught my own baby. Then another dream about feeling the crowning of baby’s head during birth. And in another dream, I had birthed with my waters fully intact, an auspicious sign. And true enough, during my actual birth, my water membranes only burst when she emerged. Irina (my doula) and Montri (my husband) both saw it happening.

They depicted it so beautifully…

”As her head came out, the waters turned pink and then a blue-ish membrane also burst to the sides as the body slid gracefully out”, Montri recalls.

“I remember I kept watching in the waters, but due to the dim lights and already red coloring I could not see much for several minutes.....Until I saw it! The little head was emerging slowly into the outer world now filled with water and motherly juices. Her membranes were gently flipping on both side announcing the arrival of the new soul into the world. And seconds later her entirely body slipped into the microcosms confined to the intimacy of the birthing pool”, Irina writes in her email dedication to Maya.

• Not only was I dreaming of my birth, my friends and relatives were also dreaming of my birth! Kaye dreamt that I had birthed successfully with my baby in arms. Noelle dreamt about birthing twice; that moment of crowning at birth and another successful one (although in one of her dreams, she dreamt that she was the one birthing). Jeri dreamt of the gender of my child, that baby would be a girl version of my son Santi. My cousin from the US dreamt that I gave birth so she checked on me through Facebook but that was days prior to the birth.

When I think about these dreams and how it relates to the what happened, I can’t help but confirm my personal (and Kabbalistic) beliefs that time and space are illusions. Did this incident already occur (as my dreams had shown?) Then time does bend for us to experience. If you’ve seen the movie, “What The Bleep Do We Know” then you’ll get my drift. 

• Like my friend Daniw, I was constantly seeing these numbers on the clock 1:11, 11:11. I read online that these numbers are signs that angels are communicating with you. I’d like to believe that I was given good graces early on by these celestial beings.

• Yes, that bird showing up on our roof pecking for food and hanging out as if waiting for dear little Maya to come out during my labor was a good omen. It is said that… “pigeons are determined creatures. They stay in an area as long as there is food despite attempts of humans and other birds to chase them away. A pigeon sighting can encourage you to be stubborn and hang in there, regardless of what challenges are thrown in your path.” Perfect message, although I didn’t know it then. But yeah, that’s exactly what happened. I stayed resilient and didn’t allow doubts to creep in my head. That’s how you become successful at any goal, “Just keep swimming”, says the fish in Finding Nemo, right?

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They say that when you are pregnant there is a thin veil between the spiritual and physical world because we are carrying an extra soul within us which makes our instincts stronger. Did you have any dreams or premonitions during your pregnancy? Aren’t preggies known to win the lottery? Hehe

Physical Preps: 1 percent reality

99 percent still doesn’t add up to 100 percent without the 1 percent so I also did my 1 percent preparations in the physical plane which is the world we live and perceive in.

The very first major preparation was to move houses. Since I wanted to birth at home, I had to leave Quezon City because my midwives informed me of the ordinance banning home births. My husband and I decided to move to San Juan, back to the compound where I grew up. Here it is (still and hopefully forever will be) legal to have the right to choose where to birth. Good thing that we planned it early enough that construction finished a few weeks before I was due.

My closest friends know that I’m BIG on research. I am a voracious reader of books and online sources when I get into a topic. Born in September, Virgos are super critical and I’ve found a good avenue to be very detailed. When I found out I was pregnant, I sought out books that would support my VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) decision. I wanted to read all the positive birthing stories so my mind can process these instead of fears. 

These are the titles I read throughout my pregnancy.

• Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
• Silent Knife: Ceasarian Prevention and Vaginal Birth After Cesarean by Cohen & Estner
• The VBAC Companion: The Expectant Mother’s Guide to Vaginal Birth After Cesearean by Diana Korte
• Active Birth by Janet Balaskas
• Cut, Stapled and Mended by Rosanna Rosewood
• Bountiful, Beautiful, Blissful: Experience the Natural Power of Pregnancy & birth with Kundalini Yoga and Meditation by Gurmukh
• Hypnobirthing: The Mongan Method: A Natural approach to an easier, more comfortable birthing by Marie Mongan

Thanks to Jenny Medina, Jenny Ong, Denise Bernardo and Irina Otmakhova for lending me these books. Knowledge is power!

I also watched videos: The Business of Being Born (an awakening documentary!), Microbirth (an ongoing project that tackles birth in a scientific manner- it will want you to pursue the most natural birth!), Orgasmic Birth videos on Youtube and Daniw’s unassisted waterbirth video was so peaceful and inspiring! Perhaps I was in such awe of her birth process that my mind manifested the same scenario with my birth as well! 

Food & Drinks: I drank Organic Red Raspberry Tea Leaf from Healthy Options all throughout my pregnancy. I read that this strengthens the uterus muscles and would keep my waters intact. The reason why I rushed to the hospital 7 years ago was because my waters broke early on even before any contractions started. The thing about this happening is that hospitals put you on a timeline once your waters break – they want your baby out of you in the next 12-24 hours. If there is no sign of progress, medical interventions start. I’m so happy that my waters stayed intact even if my labor went beyond 24 hours.

Moringana malunggay infused teas were also a staple during my pregnancy. Even now post partum I take this. These are available at 75php per box at flowsurfyogasamba@gmail.com

I ate Organic Medjool Dates throughout my pregnancy. Thanks to my thoughtful and generous friends from Dubai and Singapore for sending me packages of dates. There has been research to prove that eating dates all throughout the last month of pregnancy shortens time of labor and increases dilation for delivery. Apparently, this ancient wisdom is also written in the Quran. If you can, please buy organic medjool dates. Medjool dates don’t spike blood sugar which is good to know if you’re diabetic. Someone once told me that you can purchase dates from Santi’s deli. Might be good to check it out!

Banana Dates smoothie

The Blessingway: I knew that intentions are powerful so I had asked some of my FO (far out) friends (those that actually supported my birth choices) to organize a blessingway where they had wished me and baby well with good intentions for the upcoming birth. I feel this helped me tremendously because there is power in numbers. I was not alone in this feat, people who loved me were also with me in this journey. And that made the difference.

My Blessingway spread prepared by loving friends

Just a few days before the homebirth, I started wearing a Baltic Amber necklace from www.cutieverse.com. Baltic Amber has been used as a teething necklace to relieve pain. This site says it stimulates the thyroid glands for many health and healing benefits. It might have been useful, too!

And of course, I can’t deny the fact that Yoga has helped me stay active throughout my pregnancy, specifically Yin Yoga and Pre-Natal Yoga. I only stopped teaching Yoga a month before my due date (because I had to attend to moving houses). I keep telling people that all the yoga poses I teach during Pre-Natal Yoga are actually birthing poses. I did all of them during my labor to ease my baby down the canal. I remember one teacher telling me that when you are pregnant, you should practice Yin Yoga to soften and open the body. You cannot let your baby out if you are stiff in the muscles. After birth, you can focus on other yang styles of yoga to strengthen your body.  

Interested in Pre-Natal, Post Natal and Yin Yoga? Email me at monica@igobeyondyoga.com for private classes in your homes or join a class at Beyond Yoga www.igobeyondyoga.com

What spiritual and/or physical preparations did you do for the births of your children? Please do share! I’d love to hear them.

Posting my awesome birthing playlist in the next entry! Oh you know, music makes a whole lotta difference when you’re birthing a baby out of you ;)