This is part two of my interview with my friend Fatim. Fatim is married to macrobiotic counselor Warren Kramer, who you’ve probably read about in my previous blogs.

Earlier, I shared the portion of my interview with Fatim about her pregnancy. This time, Fatim shares her experience having a natural childbirth with her adorable son Adam. Check it out:
Did you ever hesitate about having a natural, home birth? If so, what were your concerns and how did you decide?
Actually I didn’t. Warren and I talked about it, and we both agreed on having our baby at home. It felt very natural, and a continuum to our natural lifestyle.
Did anyone give you a hard time about having a natural birth? How did you cope with it?
I think that when you tell your family that you want to have a home birth with your first baby, they can be scared as they feel you don’t know how it will be. So, we had a back-up plan, just in case something would have gone wrong. So, they felt more comfortable knowing that.
Note from Alicia: I asked my midwives about back up plans, and here’s what they said:
“Midwifery is not legal in all states, so no, not every midwife has a back-up doctor. That being said, midwives are well trained in recognizing problems and would send the mother to the hospital if a problem arose. There are studies out there proving the safety of home birth. They basically show that morbidity and mortality is relatively equal to birthing in the hospital, just the types of risks are different. In addition, there are many countries (that have far better morbidity and mortality rates than the US) where home birth is the norm and that the only women who birth in hospitals are high risk.”
“According to my state regulations, through the Board of Registered Nursing, a nurse-midwife has to have a “supervising” physician. This doesn’t have to be direct supervision but I need to have identified a physician that I can contact to transfer a patient at anytime during the pregnancy, birth or postpartum. All of our clients have identified a back-up plan in case we need to transfer care to a hospital. These vary depending on the location of the client. If we need to transfer, we call, and then go to their physician’s hospital. In a true emergency we call 911 and the EMS takes us to the closest appropriate hospital.”
Did you ever during pregnancy wonder if you were doing the right thing? And did you seek advice from someone or somewhere?
Of course!! who doesn’t?! Especially with the first baby, right? Warren was there for me, to help me, guide me, nurture me and give me some very good advice regarding foods, cravings, exercise : I also talked to some experienced macrobiotic moms and wanted to know how it was for them, even if things are always different for every woman, and every baby.
How long were you in pain? You said no pain!
Pain? Actually there wasn’t any un-manageable pain; it was very smooth. I felt that the prenatal yoga was such a great tool to help me relax during the contractions. And I’m a belly dancer at heart too (that is one of my passions, with cooking), so my body felt like doing some hip circles and hip shimmies too! Knowing that my midwife was there, with me, I knew that I was in very good hands. Overall, I knew that my body was meant to give birth, and was very peaceful with the process and very confident too. I have to say this was the most powerful, spiritual, beautiful experience in my life as a woman.
What do you think about cords around neck? Were you concerned about that?
I didn’t think about it. Our midwife was very experienced and we knew that we had nothing to worry about.
Do you think your diet is what made your birth so easy?
I feel that my birth was so painless because of my macrobiotic diet.
Next, I’ll share Fatim’s discussion about raising a superhero baby!