By Kirsty Richards, Homeopath, DipHomNZ
When I became pregnant with my eldest child over 18 years ago, I instinctively knew that I wanted my pregnancy and his birth to be as natural as possible. I had been a support person during my nephew’s birth, who was induced and medically managed from about 30 weeks, due to my sister having pre-eclampsia.
I can’t deny that seeing the amount of intervention that took place, had a part to play in my determination to do everything I could to avoid that scenario. Pre-conception, I ate well, took my prenatal vitamins, and continued to look after myself as best I could throughout my pregnancy. I developed Irritable Bowel Syndrome and some other minor ailments during my pregnancy and having had a previous miscarriage at 12 weeks, I was extra vigilant in my health care.
I didn’t want to take anything that could have side effects or cause any harm to my unborn baby in any way. I was working as a customer services manager at an organic company at the time, and one of the products we sold a lot of was homeopathic remedies.
I had no idea about Homeopathy (I’d heard of arnica, but that was it), but I knew it was natural, had no side effects, and would do no harm to either myself or my precious cargo.
I read up about different remedies and experimented with taking them as various pregnancy-related issues would arise from time to time.
I found they worked beautifully – for everything from nausea, severe cramping from irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, sciatica, and more. As well as using Homeopathy, I filled my mind with positive home birth stories, and immediately told anyone who started telling me a birthing horror story that I didn’t want to hear it. I had family members anxious about me having my first child as a home birth – and to keep their negativity from affecting me, I lied and told them I was having a hospital birth. Cowardly maybe, or maybe self-preservation!
