Twins! C, R&M’s birth Story Part 1.
Today we celebrated R & M’s first birthdays and if I look at the time, 10:20pm, it is exactly the time I was going to the operating table in the maternity exactly one year ago.
My labour had been induced due to degrading toxemia. I had been bed ridden for the last 10 days, forced to stay horizontal, and as the situation was getting worse, at 38 weeks, it was time to have my boys born.
After 3 hours of labour, hoping to have a natural birth, everyone involved decided it was time to take them out by cesarien. The father was able to accompagny us right into the operating block and saw his boys born and watched with joy, when they stopped crying as soon as they were shown to me and heard my voice.
It was really a magnificent moment to see their eyes open after so long in obscurity, looking right at me, at life.
I was moved when I saw the same lines of my mouth in theirs.
Next, I was left in a room, lying flat on my back. The epidural had been so strong I couldn’t even move my hands. I was happy, sad, and furious to see my babies lying in plastic warming boxes. Their entire bodies were seeking me, they were so obviously full of life. Their hands were reaching for me, in the air, reaching only emptiness, their feet were kicking, touching nothing. Their heads were turning from side to side, their mouths making sucking movements, for 2 hours before finaly falling asleep, alone in their boxes, obviously their needs unsatisfied.
Since then we all sleep in the same bed, the papa as well, all pell mell together.
M and R were born at 2.680k and 2.360k. The first time I could finally put them to my breasts was 3 or 4 hours after the birth. All night they had gone on and off the breast without really latching on or sucking properly. As soon as they got in one or two sucks they would promptly fall asleep again. Sometimes they would even suck the skin next to the nipple. All night they had been trying to get a bit more colostrom.
M really managed to suck and to swallow the next day at 4:30pm and his brother R about 2 hours later. It was exhausting work for my little R. During those first few days, he could never nurse for more than 5 minutes at a time. I had to tickle him under his chin to get him to take in a little bit more each time.
I will never forget the Saturday morning when I had finally got up from bed, and from a marathon 50 minutes nursing with R. I had slept only 2 hours in 2 days. When I saw that I actually had milk, for the first time, I was taken by a sudden surge of strength, energie I had no right to feel, I jumped from bed with joy.
I’ll get back to you for the next episode.
C.
Monday 7 April 2008
Welcome to the anglophone natural parenting community in France
Beyond Breastfeeding.
The ANPA was created in response to a growing demand for an alternative to parenting organisations and “experts” that encourage artificial feeding, artificial nipples, parent-child separation, vaccines and letting babies cry it out alone, commonly know as “sleep training” and other common trends in parenting practices. We have a forum that is for discerning parents. It is for parents whose babies and children’s and consequentially the family’s well being is priority. The parents on our forum believe that being in contact with like-minded parents is part of the network that promotes conscious, educated parenting.
Our parenting choices are based on the golden standard of real milk, the human kind, and our support extends to parents who share the same standards and want to go beyond. We welcome breastfeeding mothers or mothers who have breastfed until their children wean from the the breast naturally. We believe that offering our breasts as sexual objects is a personal choice, and every woman's right. (not to mention fun) but that feeding babies with breasts is not a question of choice, but of making a stand against the power of marketing over ignorance and isolation. If you think you "can't" breastfeed or "couldn't" please see www.allaitementpourtous.com or any qualified IBCLC or an LLL leader.
This website offers a very small selection of documents and testimonies that are available on the forum PLUS a photo gallerie offering a glimpse into our lives as active parents, free, independant of bottles, (except the champagne kind of course) push chairs, cots, painful front packs and lots more of the expensive equipment that we used to think we needed to be happy parents.
Lots of us have had serious breastfeeding problems, so some of us have a lot of experience with the breast pump kind of equipment, that sometimes is necessary to save a compromised breastfeeding process. (its a bit of a paradox, but we consider the breast pump equipment an investment towards future freedom)
On the forum you will find more documents, and testimonies that can be useful to many stages of parenting, from pregnancy and giving birth to child education.
In our forum you will find real support, with attachment parents, backed by research based information. We know we are definitely the minority in our parenting standards. We know that our parenting choices can trigger guilty feelings, hostility or even aggression from parents, organisations or “experts” that don’t have the same values or education so we recognise that support in our choices is vital to our strength and well being as individual parents and families.
Although there are no rules to natural parenting, there are concepts that we all agree on that are mentioned in the ANPA charter.
To be sure the ANPA is for you, you may ask for a downloadable copy of the charter/quesionnaire. If you do agree with our basic philosophie, please fill it in and send it to astharte@gmail.com
The 25€ annual membership is payable by cheque or paypal. A year's membership, gives you access to the forum, the lending library, the open house dates, meetings, brunch dates, and all the information and support that comes with it.
If you have any questions you can contact ANPAinFrance@gmail.com
All the best to you and your family, and welcome among us.
ANPA members
The ANPA was created in response to a growing demand for an alternative to parenting organisations and “experts” that encourage artificial feeding, artificial nipples, parent-child separation, vaccines and letting babies cry it out alone, commonly know as “sleep training” and other common trends in parenting practices. We have a forum that is for discerning parents. It is for parents whose babies and children’s and consequentially the family’s well being is priority. The parents on our forum believe that being in contact with like-minded parents is part of the network that promotes conscious, educated parenting.
Our parenting choices are based on the golden standard of real milk, the human kind, and our support extends to parents who share the same standards and want to go beyond. We welcome breastfeeding mothers or mothers who have breastfed until their children wean from the the breast naturally. We believe that offering our breasts as sexual objects is a personal choice, and every woman's right. (not to mention fun) but that feeding babies with breasts is not a question of choice, but of making a stand against the power of marketing over ignorance and isolation. If you think you "can't" breastfeed or "couldn't" please see www.allaitementpourtous.com or any qualified IBCLC or an LLL leader.
This website offers a very small selection of documents and testimonies that are available on the forum PLUS a photo gallerie offering a glimpse into our lives as active parents, free, independant of bottles, (except the champagne kind of course) push chairs, cots, painful front packs and lots more of the expensive equipment that we used to think we needed to be happy parents.
Lots of us have had serious breastfeeding problems, so some of us have a lot of experience with the breast pump kind of equipment, that sometimes is necessary to save a compromised breastfeeding process. (its a bit of a paradox, but we consider the breast pump equipment an investment towards future freedom)
On the forum you will find more documents, and testimonies that can be useful to many stages of parenting, from pregnancy and giving birth to child education.
In our forum you will find real support, with attachment parents, backed by research based information. We know we are definitely the minority in our parenting standards. We know that our parenting choices can trigger guilty feelings, hostility or even aggression from parents, organisations or “experts” that don’t have the same values or education so we recognise that support in our choices is vital to our strength and well being as individual parents and families.
Although there are no rules to natural parenting, there are concepts that we all agree on that are mentioned in the ANPA charter.
To be sure the ANPA is for you, you may ask for a downloadable copy of the charter/quesionnaire. If you do agree with our basic philosophie, please fill it in and send it to astharte@gmail.com
The 25€ annual membership is payable by cheque or paypal. A year's membership, gives you access to the forum, the lending library, the open house dates, meetings, brunch dates, and all the information and support that comes with it.
If you have any questions you can contact ANPAinFrance@gmail.com
All the best to you and your family, and welcome among us.
ANPA members