Pregnancy, Labor, and the Forty Days After Giving Birth Experience.

Xamdi Cali and baby Amira at the 40 days ceremony. 

Pregnancy is no different than any other project we work on, its a start of a new thing, and there come to the normal stages we face. There is the excitement stage, the beginning, everything is easy and seems nice and beautiful. On the second stage, you see a little bit of the real picture, nothing comes easy and simple, you must work for it hard, that's how life works. Now the third stage, you self doubt and wonder whose ideas were to have a baby in the middle of a pandemic? who has a kid in the middle of school? and questions go on and on. But then, this stage is where you decide to quit or not. If you made it to the next stage, you are likely to make it through all the way. 

You have no other option but to make it work no matter how hard. In the fourth stage, you are halfway to the other end, you have done most of the work, things seem to be more clear and you know what to do, where to go, who to ask for help when you can't tie your own shoelaces. No matter how strong and independent you were before. 

Basically, you have gained some experience and you can survive at this point. In the fifth stage, you learned how to manage a new wardrobe, and bigger size shoes, except the fact you are bigger than before, your body experienced a whole revolution which you are ok with. You are a pro and you are making it, you have done the hard work, you can do it again in a million other ways which are better than before. Congratulations mama to be!

Pain, pain, and more labor pain. You must go through the pain to have a baby. This is the traditional way, now that in some parts of the world, you don't necessarily have to feel a pain of giving birth, an epidural is a life and heaven. I had my baby and experienced the full pain of giving birth, the way my mother and grandmother did, well I had a little bit better environment where Anesthesia is available if you tear. 

Yes, the labor was long and painful, the most pain I experienced, I would do it again a million times to meet Amira. Now that she is here, the world is a better place. 

Every society has cultural practices and superstitions or taboos concerning pregnancy and childbirth. These can be restrictions governed by the family, for example, what women can eat or drink. Other limitations include women's mobility such as being prevented from going outside. Most of these cultural beliefs are positive and wouldn't hurt anyone to follow except that you really need some fresh air, take one bath at least during the day, drink a lot of water, and worry about brushing your teeth and feeding your little one.  

I managed to sneak out a couple of times to catch some fresh air, it helped a lot. 

Now that we celebrated the Afartan-bax, we are ready to conquer the world together. 

Xamdi Cali 'Jinow'