‘I HAD A BEAUTIFUL HOME BIRTH’

For her second pregnancy, Glenrose Nkosi, a 41-year-old entrepreneur from Pretoria North, knew she wanted a home birth with no medical intervention. The mom of a 13-year-old daughter who was delivered naturally in a hospital, said she wanted this baby “to have his umbilical cord attached until it stopped feeding him instead of it being cut while he was still dependent on it for oxygen and nutrients, and I also wanted to be fully awake when giving birth and not drugged by all the medicine pumped into my system to either speed up the birthing process or numb the pain.”

At 39 weeks and five days, Glenrose’s waters broke at 2am. “I wasn’t in pain, and 30 minutes later the contractions started.”

Glenrose woke her daughter and called her partner and the midwife. The women prepared the room, lighting candles and putting on music. By 4am the pain had set in, and the expectant mom got into a warm relaxing bath. “My back was on fire, and no position was comfortable, but I enjoyed every bit of it because I truly believe that’s what childbirth entails, and the benefits outweigh all the pain.” At 5.15am Glenrose’s baby arrived – a healthy boy. “He stared at me, and I at him, like we’d met before. We stayed like that, with his umbilical cord still attached to the placenta, until it had stopped pulsing. The experience was so amazing. Nature is such a beautiful thing.”