A Blissful Mama's Retreat in Palawan

We have just wrapped up a wonderful gathering of birthkeepers (Mothers, Fathers, Women, Midwife and Doulas) in Bahay Kalipay, Puerto Princesa, Palawan. It was a beautiful weekend of sharing knowledge, age-old wisdom, latest evidence-based techniques and lots of tender love + care embracing womanhood! 

I admit that I'm a little bummed that we missed Ibu Robin Lim by a few days in this place! She came to Puerto Princesa to have a little vacation time and connect with kindred souls for a project in the works which I am hugely excited about!

She is definitely one of our main inspirations for the Gentle Birth Movement in the Philippines. I will never forget how much she helped manifest the dreamy birth of my daughter, Maya. Last year, I brought 3-month old Maya to Bumi Sehat, Bali as homage to a true light in the field of sacred birth!

My parents, Maya and I visit Ibu Robin Lim in her hOMe

Irina, my doula, thank you for your great motherly energy leading this batch of participants. Here she is explaining the Gentle Birth essentials in the breezy green space of BK.

teaching optimal fetal positioning

Teaching the Rebozo technique

Clarity, thank you for holding space and sharing your inuitive painting module with our participants. Another useful release-work tool for pregnancy and any stage in our lives!

 I shared pre-natal yoga asanas which women can use at any trimester during pregnancy. Here I am wearing my very favorite Birthing themed shirt which I bought from Bumi Sehat, Bali. "How do you stay human?" Ask yourself this question at the time of the birth of your child. Is it humane the conditions that we give for love and growth to happen? Ask yourself these questions as we raise our spiritual children.

Photo taken by Irina

Timing was absurdly perfect because a volunteer who came to Bahay Kalipay the same time we started the retreat was a midwife from Germany named Isabel. She shared her expertise with everyone with much lightness and humor that really gave the mothers much more confidence in their decision to birth differently.

Here is Isabel using a pinard horn after palpation for the exact location to check the baby's heartbeat. 

Daniw spoke about eating a wholistic diet is one of the ways that mirror our lifestyle which will greatgly impact the baby in utero. Here she is below demonstrating how to introduce superfoods and local green leafy vegetables into everyday food. El Kalinado, another healer and teacher brings to life amazing nutrient dense food for everyone. I am sad to have missed out on the Avocado Chocolate Cream because I was teaching a pre-natal yoga class! 

photo credits to Isa for the collage

For the Mother Blessing Ritual, we also had men and non-preggies join us and it was just a solid community of celebrating the goddesses within us.

Coming together as a tribe of positivity helped elevate our consciousness of what pregnancy and birth is. This time of 10 moon cycles is so sacred and we as a society should protect it from otherwise.

For those interested in future workshops, we will have a repeat for the Sacred Pregnancy & Conscious Birth on April 18 at Casa Natura, San Juan. 

We are also conducting SACRED POST-PARTUM: A Mother's Honoring Workshop this Saturday, March 7 in Casa Natura.

Please email me at monica.eleazar@gmail.com or Irina at consciousbirthmanila@gmail.com if you would like to register. Limited slots only.

Sarah Maya's Lotus Birth

Minutes after her birth, my midwives, Deborah and Lornie finally arrived congratulating us for the unassisted birth. Apparently, if no midwives or doctors were present at the time of birth, it is considered unassisted. Yay! This was totally unplanned but isn't LIFE in general?

They checked on me and the baby and then we waited for the placenta to come out. After 20-30 minutes waiting in the birthing pool I suggested that gravity might help placenta out so I transferred to the birthing stool they brought with them. We waited some more then eventually I pushed my placenta out. 

Unlike hospital procedure, there was no clamping or cutting of the umbilical cord. 2011 CNN hero of the year, Fil-Am midwife, director of Bumi Sehat Yayasan Birthing Homes in Bali and author, Ibu Robin Lim advocates against this. “When you clamp and cut umbilical cord right away, you lose one third of the baby’s blood supply”, she said in her book launch in Mt Cloud, Baguio.  I was glad to attend this and have met during my first trimester of pregnancy. She opened my eyes to what a gentle birth is. And I wanted exactly that for Maya.

I was doing a full lotus birth, the practice of non-severance of the placenta from my baby. We chose to wait until it naturally falls off.  Obviously, there are physical, emotional and spiritual benefits to this practice for both baby and I.

So, my doula, Irina brought a bowl of water where placenta was washed right next to baby. Deborah asked me if I wanted to try having some raw to eat and I agreed. She cut off a small piece which she blended into a banana yogurt smoothie for me to drink. I gulped it down at once, afraid of any foul tastes but there was none.

Most mammals eat their placenta raw after birth and regain their strength. Traditional Chinese have been using placenta for its medicinal value for thousands of years.  Some choose to preserve the placenta by drying and made into pills. This is called placenta encapsulation (which is what I eventually did using a dehydrator). Many doulas and midwives abroad do this as part of their service.

Irina proceeded to place some salt on placenta (I noticed that my baby cried a bit as she massaged salt onto placenta so maybe it was too harsh to do so at that point?) and poured drops of Lavender pure essential oil afterwards. Later on I added dried rosemary. I continued to add salt, Lavender and rosemary everyday on each side of the placenta.

At first I used an adult diaper to contain the placenta to absorb the excess blood but my sister in law pointed out that the lining of the diaper has chemicals so I moved it into a cotton blanket and placed it inside an open basket to help the air dry process. I also changed the cotton blanket daily.

Having the placenta attached to the baby is very tricky. We managed slowly. Everytime I breastfed, I had to skilfully move baby and placenta in basket to one side. The good side is I had lots of skin to skin time with baby since I couldn’t clothe her fully because of her umbilical cord. I read that other couples found a way to swaddle baby with placenta attached but I didn’t get to learn this. Another advantage is that people don’t normally want to see the placenta (which really looks like a huge chunk of meat) so that also kept visitors from coming too soon. This lessens my worries for germ-phobic Virgos like me.

Three days after Maya’s birth, just after having dinner with my family, she was crying inconsolably. I carried her, attempted to breastfeed, and tried burping. Maya was almost hysterical. Then one legged kicked off the almost completely dried out umbilical cord and she suddenly stopped crying. One helper barged in saying that she moved her wet clothes hanging outside indoors. She went on saying that babies usually cry when their clothes were left to dry outdoors when night falls.

I’ll never know if her version of why Maya was crying is true or perhaps she cried because she was saying her final goodbye to her companion in my belly for 41 weeks, her placenta. Maybe it’s a combination of both. We’ll never really know. But I like how the story of Maya’s lotus birth ends. It’s all a mystery.

To learn more about how to do a lotus birth, I highly recommend you read the book by Ibu Robin Lim, Placenta: The Forgotten Chakra.

More resources:

www.placentanetwork.com

Mama Natural's Youtube on Eating Placenta https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPd6k7F1ihQ

Beyond the Wound

For many months I have been silent in the other blog because I am slowly transitioning to yet another milestone in my life. In due time, we expect another addition to our family! I have been keeping this blessing under the radar because I wanted to protect the soul of the baby (a Kabbalistic belief and an old Filipino practice too, I was told).

It does not feel right to speak about these personal, controversial and radical matters in the other blog anymore so here is the birth of one blog specially created for an advocacy I currently feel so strongly about - Birthing.

To launch, I am posting a powerful masterpiece entitled "CESAREAN, beyond the Wound" by an exceptionally talented Argentinian artist I found online thanks to Jhoanna Parvati. 

"The series is comprised by more than thirty photographs of women that had cesarean sections and some brief and precise commentaries from the protagonists. The images show the physical and emotional scar. They invite the viewer to contemplate the wound and to go beyond, to reach some sort of understanding and commitment for a respectful birth care."

 -Ana Álvarez-Errecalde



The images and message resonate with me because 6 years ago, I underwent the knife (against my wishes) for the birth of my son, Santi. 

Of course I had a detailed birth plan, went to Lamaze class with my husband and was determined to do a natural vaginal birth. You know what they say, things never go as planned. On the month of my due date, my water broke and we rushed to the hospital because we were told to do so, for fear of a dry and painful labor? I don't recall the reason. 

As new vulnerable parents, we succumbed to all hospital protocols without a fight. My husband was not allowed in the room with me because we didn't get a Lamaze room (back then we were on a budget and reserved a spartan room ---no special treatment for those who cannot afford to pay for one) so I labored alone for 17 hours strapped down to a bed with an IV and fetal monitor attached to my body. I did not know then that by the positioning of my body, I would not open so I stayed only 4cm dilated until the very end. There was a stranger in there at one point, an intern who I was annoyed at because he was glued to his phone sending text messages while I was in pain. The least you can do is be compassionate, I thought/screamed to myself, but I suffered in silence instead. 

Now that I am pregnant with my second child and prepare myself for another (more humane) birth, I learn that all those horrific circumstances I experienced at the hospital prevented me from having a natural birth my body was designed for. Unnecessary interventions result to unnecessary c-sections. I cannot help but to think and feel that my husband, Santi and I was robbed of this natural body experience, a somewhat rite of passage for our family.

This is what I am faced with, a return to center as I heal from old wounds from the past. In Kabbalah, they believe that circumstances will repeat in order for you to learn the lesson. I am blessed to come face my demons once again- in birthing myself anew. This time, I will fight for what is rightfully ours. May this journey into my becoming inspire other mothers and women wanting to be mothers in choosing a more gentle path for their babies. As Ibu Robin says, "Peace Begins at Birth".