Not sure if anybody read my OLD interview with Josie Maran, a supermodel, who naturally birthed her daughter at home?
{If you haven't, you should read it. She's the nicest, most down to earth, beautiful woman.}
Anyways, I was also recently surprised to hear that Brazilian super model, Gisele Bündchen ALSO birthed her baby in her Boston home.
Read about it on People.com:
Gisele Bündchen is beautiful, successful and famous. Now, women everywhere have another reason to be jealous. She says giving birth to her 8-week-old son Benjamin didn’t hurt at all!
It “wasn’t painful, not even a little bit,” the supermodel, 29, says in an interview with the Brazilian TV show Fantastico. “The whole time, my head was so focused — every contraction, the baby is closer, the baby is closer. So, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, what pain.’ It was, ‘With every contraction, he is getting closer to me.’”
Gisele – who had a water birth on Dec. 8 at the Boston condo she shares with her husband, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, 32 – also didn’t have an epidural. “I wanted to be conscious and present for what was happening,” she says. “I didn’t want to be anesthetized. I wanted to feel.”
Her recovery was also remarkably quick. “The second day, I was walking, I was washing dishes, I was making pancakes in the kitchen,” she says with a laugh.
The only thing that was difficult was choosing a name. She and Tom spent more than a week trying to pick something that would work well in English and Portuguese — the Brazilian-born Gisele’s native tongue.
“I adore David [pronounced Davi], but he didn’t like David,” Gisele says. “I liked Joaquim, but he thought it wouldn’t be good … We called him Benjamin. For me, there is no name. He is my benzinho (‘my beloved’).”
Asked if the boy will be raised to be bilingual, Gisele was unequivocal. “Certainly he won’t stop being Brazilian,” she said. “He’s also Bündchen, he’s not just Brady.”
Another reason this is interesting/cool is that it's a well-known fact that Brazil has the high C-section rate in the world. Rita Ruben, from About.com explains further:
Brazil's C-section delivery rate is the highest in the world, and the majority are scheduled without a pressing medical reason. Among women in the higher socioeconomic groups, at least, C-sections greatly outnumber vaginal deliveries. You might relate to at least some of the reasons for C-sections' popularity in Brazil, although you might not call them unjustified, as a Sao Paulo OB/GYN did in a letter a few years ago to BMJ, a British medical journal.
"Some unjustified fears cause this situation, including the fear of fetal distress during labor, the notion that labor lasting more than 6 hours is unbearable for the mother, the fear that a vaginal delivery will ruin the woman's sex life, and the idea that a cesarean section is better and more 'modern,' since it is the preferred form of delivery for rich women in our country. The patients also want to plan the day of the birth, choosing a relative's birthday or avoiding a holiday, for instance."
The Monkeys' Mama
Do you happen to know anything about VBACs? My son was breech and so I ended up having to have a C-section...I am due with my 2nd son in May and REALLY want to have him naturally.
Juli Novotny
@The Monkeys' Mama YES, you can have your second baby vaginally. But you will have to find a doctor that will support this. I know midwives are very open to this as well.
My sister is a doula and I asked her to leave a comment for you as well - with more info on this! So - stay tuned.
Best of luck to you.
Juli Novotny
@The Monkey's Mama - my sister, the doula, recommends ICAN...it's a great resource for women who want
VBACS.....www.ican-online.org/
Hope that helps.
The Monkeys' Mama
Thanks so much, can't wait to check it out!