Book Excerpt: A Lotus Birth by Jenny Hatch

During my fifth child’s pregnancy I wrote a journal that was published on the web site Birth Love.

During my fifth child’s pregnancy I wrote a journal that was published on the web site Birth Love. As the months clicked by and I added entries and shared my innermost thoughts and feelings regarding the realities of my life as an unassisted birther, a friend suggested I compile the journal into a book and publish it as an E Book.

 I did just that in 2003 and the book is now available on Amazon. You can also read it for FREE on my Archive blog.

Although not as popular as my other books, I received some powerful feedback from those who read it and now share one of my entries as an excerpt.

This entry was written late in my pregnancy with Benjamin (Who is now 21 years old!):

“Today I am 40 weeks plus five days.  I am waiting for my massage therapist to show up and thought I would write for a while.

My family is out running errands, and my ten year old who was told to stay with me “in case I go into labor” is out walking our dog.  She is so sweet, my little Allison.

 She made me breakfast in bed this morning.  Toast – with lots of butter and jam, fresh strawberries, Organic Yogurt, a bowl of cottage cheese and a large glass of milk.  

We just put together a beef stew for later in the day.  Onions, garlic, beef stew meat, four different kinds of potatoes, adzuki beans, carrots, and my own broth concoction made from Bragg’s liquid Aminos, oat straw tea, flax seeds, potato peels, and all the peels from the onions/garlic.

 I let the broth hard boil for twenty minutes, then poured it over the vegetables and meat into a large covered crockery dish and it will slow bake in the over all day until we are ready to chow.

It is cold today.

If I have the gumption I’ll make some bread, or maybe just some muffins or biscuits to eat with the stew and that is our food for the day!  

Saturdays are nice, we just eat and have no schedule and I will get a massage!

Jenny and Ben with our Post Partum Auryevedic Doula Amy and Massage Therapist Wendy!

My massage therapist, mentioned in another entry is pregnant!  

Wendy told me a few weeks ago that she is expecting and so we had our last session together and my post partum doula Amy has taken over the prenatals.  

Just for giggles I added up how much Wendy cost me for the nine months of her care.  

I had twelve sessions with her.  Most lasting 1 and 1/2 hours and all costing $70.00 – (because she came to my home and set up her table here) – $850.00.  

Since she has been my main prenatal care, this is quite a bargain compared to the money I could have spent on medical care.

We have a $2500.00 deductable with an 80/20 co-pay for our health insurance.

So if I had done prenatal care these past nine months, it would have cost at least $2500.00 dollars out of pocket, not to mention the additional co-pays for tests etc…

We haven’t used our health insurance in a few years for anything, and so had nothing paid on the deductable.  

In a fit of concern in my 7th month, I did go to my General Practitioner for a prenatal test.

 It was during a week of fear, when I wasn’t sure if we could handle a UC.  I had a complete blood workup, a urine and blood pressure check. Everything was normal.

No anemia, no infections, no high blood pressure (120/80) – no protein spills in my urine.  

Two hundred bucks out of pocket for all the tests!

I knew in my heart everything was fine, but I wanted to hear from my doctor that he would refuse care if we did it alone.  

He confirmed that if I refused to have prenatals with him, he would not be willing to “get out of bed” to come help with my birth as he knew the only reason we would be at the hospital would be if there were major complications and he didn’t feel this was fair to him.  

I agreed that it was a bit of a stretch for me to expect him to come help with any problems if he had not been tuned in ahead of time to any potential problems through “proper” prenatal care.

I just wasn’t willing to spend money for what I perceived to be a bunch of useless tests and procedures.

I’d rather get a massage.

I do think it is pathetic that if we should need help I will once again have to deal with the morons in the Emergency Room.  

Even my doctor agreed that it was a terrible backup plan as these people rarely see childbirth complications and really don’t know what they are doing.  

Ultimately I believe my most effective “backup” is my faith in the Savior, and I trust him to take care of me through any problems or complications that may arise.  

I really don’t know how it is going to go.  I have a feeling that it will be perfect, but I trust that should some unperceived problem arise, we will be guided to know what to do.

Allison and I went shopping the other night.  I know I had this great intention to stay home for the whole time before the birth, but on that day I was feeling so cooped up and needing to get out, I decided to go.  

I told Paul that morning that I felt the need to go somewhere, do something, yet I didn’t want to see anyone I knew, and I was concerned about giving birth out of my nest.  

Total cabin fever.

 I have been cooking these great nutritious meals, doing three major loads of dishes a day, laundry, nesting cleaning (you know, under the fridge, scrubbing the grout in the tub…stuff I never do), and taking lots of walks and naps…”

To read the whole book on your Kindle Device click HERE to purchase!

Here are a few videos I crafted explaining why we decided to have a Lotus Birth.

Jenny Hatch

PS Just a gentle reminder for my readers who get squemish with birth and breastfeeding nudity on my blog.

The main reason I moved into Family Birth is because I believe at some point society will fail at delivering birth services.

During that fail I predict societal infrastructures around the feeding of infants will probably also fail.

Within three days there will be a hue and cry across the land for one comodity…and that is BREASTMILK!

Breastfeeding photos are powerful visuals for our young people, and that is why I share.

Please click away if your sensibilities are so very offended.

I nursed Benjamin until he was 5 1/2, and he is one of the kindest souls I have ever met. Dr. Sears made the startling claim that he had never come across a child who was attachment parented who turned into a bully….think about that for a few minutes.