43: My waterbirth story with my youngest son

Welcome to Woman Leadership show. I'm Janet and in this episode, I will be sharing with you about my waterbirth story with my youngest son. 

My late mum has caseran when she gave birth to me and she would shared how painful it was post recovery as I was too big size. 
- When had my third and youngest son, I was very active throughout my pregnancy. I had to manage company events, staff forums and leadership retreat. I had to spend long hours completing my work and also went out to search for gifts for the events and retreat. I walked a lot during the pregnancy and there was a time where I was overwhelmed and had to take few days rest. Even during the rest, I was asked if I can go back to work. This pregnancy was different from my second child when I had the support of my ex male boss when he will helped me to conduct some programs and was understanding not to stretch myself as my pregnancy progresses at later stages. 
It got me thinking as I would think women boss will be more understanding as they are mother and went through pregnancy. I also noticed some women think about what they can do and have went rhough so can other women too but every woman pregnancy is different. I have female friends who has to be confine to bed in the first three months when I had smooth delivery without nauseous and ate as per normal other than feeling tired during first trimester. 

I asked my male gynae is it common that his clients feedback about male bosses vs women bosses in providing support to female staff who is pregnant. He told me yes it was true men bosses are more understanding pertaining to their female staff who is pregnant. This experience also reminded myself to be more understanding towards my staff who is pregnant as I would like to show support as much as I could. 

Being a manager, I have encountered a team member who whould take frequent medical leave and 2 days at a time. The consequence was another team member has to take over the work and may slow down in the results. It may cause resentment to some team members why they have to take on more responsibility during pre and post maternity leave. How I supported was to hire temp staff who can join before and after the maternity leave to alleviate the bad feelings from the colleagues. 

While I was busy with my third pregnancy, I felt that my baby in my womb has also learned from our meetings and from the programs that I attended to. 2 months before delivery, I decided to have waterbirth delivery and I went to look for doula and workshops to support my delivery. I wanted to adrug free delivery after having medical intervention of my previous 2 births. I heard that the child will feel more calm and relaxed baby. Well my son is very active opposite of what I expect but I am still glad of the waterbirth experience it was all natural and drugs and medical intervention. I was afraid not knowing what to expect especially is new to me and what if doubts will creep into my thinking. 

I started to plan carefully, got myself prepared and leave it the rest to God. The baby was in breech position once and my massage lady was able to slowly turn him back to position otherwise I mayd end up in caseran. Once I could not walk due to the baby sitting position and after my massage lady helped mt to reposition I was able to walk again with ease again. 

Takeaway
Do not be afraid to try something new . I may want to do something I was familiar and repeat what I have done. I chose to do something different in this case have waterbirth delivery. It opens up my mind about possibility and discover new things on this process and it can be done if I am willing to put in the time and effort to prepare myself. 

My youngest son is opposite of what I though about waterbaby. I can regret saying that no point having waterbirth baby since he is not as calm as I expected but he is smart and learn things fast. He loves water and swimming. There are good things that happen in every situation and decision we make. Some may think is wrong decision why go through the trouble instead should just do the normal delivery no need to pay extra for water tub and follow the usually route. 
I learned to be more creative and question the status quo on how we can do things better and differently. 

I hope that through my sharing, it draws inspiration and personal reflection for you. I believe every woman can be a leader in your own way. I look forward to seeing you in my next episode where I will be sharing with you tips and ways to realize your full potential as a leader on Woman Leadership.