Karen MacLeod - The Gentle Birth Method - The Month-by-Month Jeyarani Way Programme

– It reduces the undesirable effects of nervous excitability within the pregnant mother

– Has a calming effect on the central nervous system

– Regulates blood pressure

– Regulates the hormones of pregnancy

– Controls blood sugars thereby helping you to eat healthily (eating healthily can modulate your baby’s weight)

– Very mild diuretic

– Stimulates regular bowel movements

– Softens the cervix and pelvic tissues

In addition to these herbal drinks, you should also take a tiny pill of herbs called the Dhanwantaram pill – I call them ‘baby pills’. These contain potentized digestive herbs that are good for your digestion and absorption of nutrients and, as such, they help to nourish you and your baby. (See Appendix C, page 312 for stockist details.)

Dose: 1 a day along with your herbs.

During pregnancy the baby requires certain salts, which it gets at the expense of the mother. This programme will help to make good any salt deficiencies and help the baby with its salt requirement. Some health food stores sell tissue salts alongside their homoeopathic remedies, or alternatively try companies that supply homoeopathic remedies via the internet (see Appendix C, page 312). Alternatively, the Homoeopathic Tissue Salt Programme is available from the Jeyarani clinic.

Remedies:

Calc. Fluor. – for bone development and elasticity of connective tissue (helps prevent stretch marks)

Mag. Phos. – for heartburn and nerve development

Ferr. Phos. – for blood oxygenation

Nat. Mur. – helps control salt and therefore fluid balance, and helps prevent

swollen ankles

Silica – for teeth, bones, hair and general strength

Dosage:

Take one tablet of each twice a day, morning and evening. The potency is 6c. If you are lucky enough to have a homoeopathic pharmacy nearby, they will combine the required tissue salts into one tablet for you – in which case take one twice a day.

Pregnant mothers may also like to take the following supplements:

Digestive enzymes. I recommend Biocare or Dr Udo’s digestive enzymes as a digestion support for mothers with abdominal distension and discomfort. Take one with breakfast and one with your main meal.

Ambrotose. In the late 1990s a Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery of 8 non-calorific sugars that make up cell membrane receptors for cell to cell communication. In nature all these 8 essential sugars should be available to us through the food that we eat; however, due to the storage of fresh produce and undesirable modern farming methods the food we eat is lacking in some of these nutrients. During pregnancy they are important for the development of the foetus and help the pancreas to normalize maternal insulin production and reduce the risk of gestational diabetes. Ambrotose can be obtained from Jeyarani (Appendix C, page 312).

On Sunday 12th September 1999, my contractions began at 5.00am. I visualized and meditated until they were 5 minutes apart, and decided to go to the hospital. My due date was the 20th September, so this was a week early.

We arrived at the hospital at 11.30am, where I was found to be 2cm dilated. We were told it could be early evening before the baby came, so we asked to be left alone so Mark could help me with breathing techniques and visualizations. He also massaged my back and big toes, especially during the longer contractions. Suddenly at 2pm, I had an almighty urge to push. Mark dashed off to find a midwife who was astonished to find that I was fully dilated. At 2.10pm, Logan Tyler Harris made his appearance, weighing 7lbs 15oz.

I’m proud to say that I took no drugs, had no tears, cuts or stitches and am recovering rapidly. I’m blessing my good fortune at having met Gowri, having heard many ‘horror stories’ about labour and the delivery.

Thanks to Gowri I could cope with labour and manage the whole procedure. I’m so grateful for the preparation that I learnt by attending her classes.

Ayurvedic remedies and philosophies feature strongly in The Gentle Birth Method. Ayurveda is an ancient system of medicine that has become fashionable in the West in recent years, but it is an automatic reference tool for me – something that I grew up with which complements my conventional medical training. Literally translated, Ayur means ‘life’ and Veda means ‘science’. In India, where this ‘life science’ has been practised for thousands of years, it is a deeply respected and credible medical authority but I am particularly drawn to its holistic approach, especially its emphasis on emotional – as well as physical – caring for the pregnant mother and her unborn child.

Ayurveda groups the study of gynaecology, obstetrics and paediatrics together in a section of text called Kumara Bhritya, meaning ‘how to take care of the child’ and it draws a clear link between the mother’s well-being and the health of the embryo, including its impact on the implantation process, early foetal development and the whole pregnancy.

Ayurveda expounds that the character, physical attributes and health of a child begins with the mother and her pre-conceptual status – in terms of how well nourished, rested and emotionally prepared she is for pregnancy and motherhood. It also emphasizes the great need for the mother to be surrounded by the love and care of her partner. These values all align very closely to my own instincts about how we should care for expectant mothers and it is for these reasons that I allude to Ayurvedic wisdom throughout the programme.

Yoga is also an intrinsic part of Ayurveda and forms an important part of birth preparation. The section on exercise (see pages 75-83) outlines the benefits of yoga in pregnancy.

Ayurveda isn’t just a support system for my own beliefs. It is also a great clinical guide and its teachings on constitution and body type are used in my programme in order to further eliminate pregnancy symptoms and rebalance the body for birth.

In fact, these guidelines are so detailed and accurate that whenever a new mother enrols at my clinic, I can tell within moments the problems she is likely to encounter during her pregnancy. There’s nothing magical about it. In fact, many of you will be familiar with the physiological names given to physical builds – mesomorph, ectomorph and endomorph. Ayurveda works on a similar model.

In Ayurveda your body constitution is called your ‘prakruti’. Each person’s prakruti is composed of three body humours, or doshas, called vata, pitta and kapha. These represent a combination of the elements – water, air, fire, earth and so on – that, according to Ayurveda, make up the human body. Each dosha is responsible for different functions and parts of the body (see box below) so we each have all three doshas, although one or maybe two usually dominate. The dosha that dominates gives rise to a person’s prakruti, which governs their physical and emotional characteristics.

If a person lives a healthy life according to their ‘baseline’ prakruti (at birth) then they can remain healthy and in balance – as long as they do other things to keep themselves healthy, such as exercise and avoid drugs and too much alcohol. However, many people do not live healthy lives and their normal levels of vata, pitta and kapha become unbalanced, which can lead to ill health. In pregnancy particularly, there are sets of symptoms that each prakruti will be susceptible to, hence, by identifying which body composition you are, you can further tailor your diet and lifestyle to prevent some of the related problems.