Our beautiful baby boy was born April 29th 2006 at 3:35 am via a beautiful water birth, and delivered by my amazing husband, wow what a man!! He is perfect and he weighed 8 pounds 9oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. My labor was 5 hours and hurt something serious, but with my king by my side and serious meditation including hypnobirthing I did it all natural with no meds. This was a major difference than my last child, who only weighed 5 pounds and was 17 inches. My labor with him was natural as well and lasted the same amount of time, but the pain was mild compared to this birth. I strongly promote hypnobirthing to all my sistas that are striving to have a natural birth. I learned that birthing does not have to be scary or full of tension, but a natural process that when we take control of our mind and bodies, eleveates pain, and allows our babies to come into the world peacefully and smoothly. It is somewhat like yoga with the yugia breathing and breathing your baby down thru the surges, (contractions) and breathing into the pressure instead of fighting or tensing up. I am a pretty high fire individual and sometimes it is hard for me to relax, but with deep breathing and focus I did it with ease.We are truly blessed to have one more beautiful child enter our world. I give thanks for all your blessings and well wishes. Our sunz name is Rahja (sandskrit for king) Amen ( the hidden GOD) Sundjata ( the benevolent) Sundjata was the great king of mali also spelled sundiata!! We love him and he is really strong for being 6 days old, and even though we are in the middle of a move and raising our other children we are happy beyond words.

I must say to all my sistas, that if you can have a water birth you must!! It was a truly uplifting and relaxing experiance. I had planned on having one with Serigne my oldest son, but because he was a month early my midwife was concerned about his lungs and vital organs not being fully prepared, so I just had a natural labor, but looking back I could of had him in water easily. I had done much research on water birthing before I ever had children and knew that our connection to water as women and childbeares was a perfect entry for my baby. I had read and understood while in the womb a baby is more connected to psycic and spiritual energies and that water being a conductor would help maintain that connection. I belive that the transition for a baby from water to water is a lot less stressful on their little bodies then coming into to world in a hospital full of bright lights and nurses and doctors pulling and tugging at them to come out the womb. Babies are natural swimmers and what better place for their first swimming lesson then the birthing experiance. And for us mothers the feeling of weightlessness is amazing and no hospital bed can make me feel that relaxed and able to focus only on my body and my baby.

Before I got into the tub I was in alot of pain, but once I was submerged in water so much pressure was taken of my body. I could float, turn move with such ease, that everytime I would feel a surge I could breath into it instead of trying to get comfortable on a bed and have all my body weight holding me down. And finally Rahja came so smoothly and peacfully he did not even cry and was one with the water, as if he never left the womb. I allowed him to float there and relax for a while instead of having him pulled away from me and cleaned and weighed and all that routine hospital crap they put mothers and babies through. Not to mention he got his first bath at the same time he was born with out disturbing him. We let him float till the umbilical cord stopped puslating and then my husband cut it and by then rahja was so relaxed he came out the water with ease and began to nurse with no problems. Sistas take control of your bodies and childbirth, consider water birth. I give thanks to the creator for such an amazing baby, husband and my other children who are my heart and cant get enough of their baby brother. This prince like all the new borns coming into this world will lead us into the future and bring us back to our rightful place!! Do in natural sistas, brothas promote natural childbirth and breastfeeding. This boy is greedy so I beta start taking the herbs for healthy milk supply. To my sistas and women of color who are pregnant or want to be pregnant or know someone that is pregnant!! It is no wonder to me why when my husband and I were awating the birth of our second son, and we were attending hypnobirthing classes and visiting with our midwife that 99 percent of the women and husbands that were in the class were European! Not to mention they were upper class white couples! I would say to my husband, why are we the only black couple in this class? We would get looks of amazement from the other couples when we spoke so intellegently about natural birth, the fact that we were having a water birth and that we belived in natural and holistic lifestyles for our family and children. It really made me sad to think about how many of my sistas, single mothers or married each day have western doctors and hospital births and walk away dissatisfied and upset about the way they were treated or the way their baby was taken from them as soon as it came out the womb. I had both my sons at a birthing center within a hospital, but I went in with a clear and direct stand on what I wanted for my child. Due to uncontrollable circumstances I could not have them at home, but the birthing center was my next best choice.

My point in all of this is that we women and men of color have strayed from our roots so far that europeans can look at us in this way when one or two of us show the slighest bit of conciousness when it comes to natrual child bearing and childraising. Knowing that natural childbirth started in the mother land the first midwifes were african, and that before African doulas and midwifes their were none, makes me mad to see so many of our women depart from natural childbirth and promote pain medication, c-sections, and hospital births that are so impersonal and European! My goal is that my sistas can spread the word about water birth, natural birth, breastfeeding and holistic childrearing. There are a few web sites that I would like to share on water birth. www.waterbirth.org www.waterbirthinfo.com This other link is for the sistas in the South California area that are looking for a midwife or a birthing center birth. I have heard from a few sistas that they could not find a midwife in LA that took medical, but there are some. this link shows a few resources as well as the link for my hypnobirthing teacher in Silverlake! http://www.socalbirth.org/providers/cnmhosp.htm

I would love to see the pages of these web sites filled with pictures of women of color and their beautiful princes and princesses soon. I am tired of us selling ourselves short for so called conveinance and conventional lifestyles. African midwifes were delivering slave masters babies for hundreds of years and giving birth to their own children natural before and after slavery, so why now are we becoming like Europeans and letting western medical doctors and nurses take control of our natural abilities. It upsets me when I tell other pregnant women that im having a water birth or natural birth and they look at me crazy like im the one that is putting my baby in danger!! I got that so many times with this last baby, and I had to really preach and teach the ignorant, but i can't blame them, its how we've been conditioned. Women would be like, "Waterbirth" I heard of that is that some hippy s*it? Or girl you ain't getting no epidural? You must be crazy, give me a shot! I don't wanna feel anything! I would look at them like how sad to be so unnatural, but I would have them amazed by the end of the conversation. So seriously my sistas, lets promote, teach and outreach to our sistas getting caught up in the western world ideology!! If yall have any questions or help seeking I can help, thats our duty as concious daughters of the creator and mothers of the revolution.