A WHALE OF A BIRTH

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For the perfect birth you need your midwife with strong hands and gentle words, Lavender tea, soft classical music, dimmed lights and a pilates ball. Plus the concerned husband feeding you dates and supporting your numerous waddles to the bathroom! In the case of South Africa's Southern Right Whale and Humpback Whale they only have their midwife.

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My children are winter babies. Which means that I never had to suffer the extreme heat of our Karoo summer with a massive belly radiating heat. It also means that when we move to the coast for the couple weeks awaiting their birth, so do the pregnant whales! I always think it quite appropriate. If you ask most pregnant women - you truly feel whale-like. Perhaps this is part of the reason a water birth is so blissful. If I dare use that word for the hard labour of .... well .... labour.

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To assist labour brisk walks and squats are advised. Easier said than done. My waddles would always feel like a beached whale's fruitless efforts to return to her watery home. But I loved being able to sit in the warm beach sand and watch the gently crashing waves. Water has such a calming effect. One that is far more helpful than those waddles. The best part was waiting, baited breath for the numerous signs of whales in labour.

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Our South African whales birth from the end of winter through spring. Just when my babies were born. I found it encouraging to watch their watery labour. It seemed so effortless. Although based on personal birth experience this is far from the truth - it still united us in motherhood. While woman in labour use all sorts of tools and techniques (shall we say) to stay relaxed and progressing; a whale only has her midwives. They separate themselves from the pod to assist the birth, both protecting the labouring mother from attack and pushing the newborn baby whale to the surface immediately after birth.

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Newborns are quite helpless in their initial minutes of birth and will drown if not pushed to the surface. A whale's gentle dance of labour is magnificent to behold. It is so peaceful and rhythmic. The entire ocean appearing to move with her - encouraging and assisting her labour.

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Of course, for the perfect birth you also need to not have a million messages a million times a day asking if you are in labour yet? That's when I could do with a few aggressive and whale-like midwives to fend off concerned citizens with their panic stricken messages. As if they were the ones in labour

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Birth is not for the faint hearted. But it truly is as they say; no matter how difficult, no matter how it may not have been as you hoped or planned, once that perfect little one is there - that is all you see! Right now, along the Southern Coast of South Africa those magnificent whales are dancing their dance of birth. It is a beautiful sight to behold.

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