Perinatal/Prenatal Development

Perinatal/Prenatal Development
On July 27th I gave birth to our dear son was born who we have been calling Otto. Although my husband and I were morally reluctant to accept genetic screening, we did pursue this option. Filled with anxiety, it was emancipating to hear that he had no genetic abnormalities detected.
Since I became pregnant I did commit to a healthier lifestyle: I included a must-have walk in the Arnold Arboretum in my daily routine, additionally I continued to do gardening and did a pre-natal yoga three times a week. Regarding the diet, I stayed with the vegetarian diet I have been pursuing for the last four years. I also kept low dairy intake and took vegan pre-natal vitamins. Since conception I became cautious regarding the source

Shortly after, my cervix slowly started to dilate. My husband and I arrived at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center when I was 4cm dilated, and experienced strong contractions with the interval of 4-5min. The full dilation of the cervix took some good six hours filled with painful contractions. At the hospital, I spend an hour in a hot shower wasting gallons of water to ease the pain. It was surprising to observe how the pupils of my eyes were wide dilated, probably from the spike of oxytocin to cope with immense amount of ache. The push phase (decent and emergence) followed and lasted for 40 min. The baby boy was born screaming and within the first minute received satisfying Apgar score. The Father, who was present throughout the delivery and served as a water-boy, cut the cord. I should note that no epidural was administrated upon my request. The two interventions that I had though were, first, breaking of the “waters”, as at full (10cm) dilation my waters were still intact, and, second—after delivery—a minor stitching. Otto was covered with a lanugo and was clearly showing a strong sucking reflex—one of the primitive reflexes. Otto’s placenta still hides in our freezer and someday we will burry it and plant a tree on top of

Still, until one year of age, breast milk is the main source of food for Otto as the breast-milk, in my opinion, is the ideal nutrition and, more importantly, I have time, and willingness, and ability to provide it. Afterwards, I hope to transit to three full meals a day and two healthy snacks, and still continue to breastfeed once a day to strengthen Otto’s immunity. When Otto will be between 18 and 24 month I intent to stop breastfeeding. Additionally, we supplement Otto with a liquid multivitamin, mostly to ensure he gets the crucial amount of Iron and Vitamin