I didn’t realize my first lesson in motherhood would come before my baby was born, but let the lessons begin!

I’ve always been very in touch with my body. It is a large reason why I’ve been able to carve out and build my physique the way I want it. I understand my body, listen to it and make adjustments depending on my strengths and limitations. I also have a grand vision for it. My pregnancy and vision for my own labor and delivery were no different.

I had a fantastic pregnancy! Sure, I had major food aversions the entire time making it extremely difficult (but possible!) to get in enough protein and experienced, at times, severe joint pain, but both of those issues were completely manageable and, other than that, I felt like a goddess the entire journey!

I had no doubt that my vision for a completely natural, normal and drug-free birth would be attainable. I spent my entire pregnancy preparing my mind and body with relaxation techniques to have a completely normal, natural birth with no pain medication (I took HypnoBirthing classes).

A Big Change Of Plans

What I didn’t plan for, though, was my baby having a different plan. At 37 weeks pregnant (Thanksgiving week), she decided to do a somersault to the breech position and refused to flip back the correct way (head down). When this happens a bit earlier in your pregnancy, the baby is still small with plenty of room to move and you have several weeks left for the baby to flip back to its original position. But, since I was already considered full term, she didn’t have a lot of space in the womb to flip around and my only option, if she wouldn’t flip, was to deliver her via cesarean section.\r\n\r\nI was intent on doing everything possible to flip her around. I tried acupuncture (including Moxibustion , chiropractic techniques, yoga, inversions, handstands in a pool, positive talk to the baby and everything suggested atspinningbabies.com.

So, at my final doctor’s appointment on December 10th at 39 weeks, we went in for an ultrasound to see if any of my anti-breech efforts had worked. None of them had, and she was still breech.

I was devastated.

I spent most of my 39th week of my pregnancy so disappointed in how the delivery of Samantha was going to be. But, as the days got closer to her arrival, I remembered how much I’ve always understood my body, listened to it and made adjustments depending on my strengths AND limitations in the gym. I needed to apply the same to her birth day.

Flipping My Thinking

I needed to flip around my way of thinking the same way she did in the womb—head up and ready for whatever life brings.\r\n\r\nOnce I did that and embraced the situation I was given, Samantha’s birth day turned out to be the most incredible day of my life.

I learned the biggest lesson in motherhood right from the beginning: I’m not going to be able to control every part of my child’s life and things will most definitely not always go the way I plan, but I should make the best of every moment no matter the situation.

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