35 | Louise, Julia & Selma - Two Very Different Hospital Birth Experiences in Czech Republic
Description
In this episode we hear Louise, who is Danish and lives in the Czech Republic, sharing the births of her two little girls Julia and Selma. She shares her journey of making the decision to become a parent in her mid-30’s and what it looked like for her and her husband Pavel to navigate the system once they found out they were having their first baby. Louise shares the difference in the care from her home country and how hard it can be to navigate a system that is unfamiliar while trying to ask the right questions. She shares how she found her midwife and hospital and how she was induced at 41+3 and Julia was born 3 days later in Rakovnik Hospital after an episiotomy and great support from the people around her.
When Louise got pregnant with Selma, she was in her late 30’s and had the standard testing done which came out with positive markers for Trisomy21 or Down’s Syndrome. We hear how she managed to navigate the difficult questions that arise and further testing and the unknown surrounding her pregnancy. In week 21 she finally got some good news and we talk about how Ina May Gaskins Guide to Childbirth was a great book to read in preparation for her second birth. She went into labour at 41 weeks on her own and after a fast labour Selma was born into the water. Louise shares how different her two labours and births went and how both of them were empowering experiences in their own way.
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