130 | Birth Rooted Overseas - Rokhaya Ndiaye
A journey of many places and re-focus on perspective about her work and life, Rokhaya decided to see how life would be in Jamaica. With the help of a friend who happened to be a travel agent, Rokhaya made arrangements for her first visit there, one of those being set up with a tour driver. This tour driver would end up being her husband, and come March 2nd; they would be forced to make lasting roots in Jamaica due to the pandemic.
With a history of irregular menstrual cycles, Rokhaya decided to download an app to help her track them better. In early December, she was surprised to get a notification that her cycle was three days late. Ignoring it for a little bit, but with time passing and no change, Rokhaya and her husband found out they would be expecting on Christmas day. Restrictions from the pandemic would require a 14-day quarantine and needed to get the COVID vaccine if they decided to travel back to Canada. Wanting to wait out her options, Rokhaya paused on that decision. With her first trimester having some challenges, her doctors recommended she should not travel if possible. Moving into her second trimester, she focused on preparing for her birth, but by the time things began reopening, she was past the point of travel being safe, and Jamaica became the place their birth story would occur.
Rokhaya knew that birthing in Jamaica wouldn't necessarily have a "birth plan," midwives and doulas were not allowed, and the day of her birth, her husband would not be allowed to be present. Preparing for this, Rokhaya made sure her birth would include:
Essential oils.
Listening and watching positive birth stories.
Utilizing hypnobirthing to help her use breathing and meditation to focus on working through the pain of birth.
Five days past her estimated due date, Rokhaya began having light contractions about 7-9 minutes apart. With things progressing quickly, Rokhaya and her husband decided to head to the hospital. Upon being admitted, Rokhaya was 6cm, and her water broke shortly after. Reflecting on her birth, Rokhaya thought her son would have come earlier than he did. She had done so much work on focusing on coping with the pain; she couldn't listen to her body that her baby was ready to come earthside. It wasn't until the nurse told her her baby's head was out that she focused, and within three pushes, "prince" Ali was born.
In the immediate postpartum, Rokhaya felt comforted by the community of women she was surrounded by - as, in Jamaica, there aren't separate quarters, and the women all stay together. Ali was born unresponsive, and after having a couple of seizures, the doctors wanted to keep him for monitoring. For Rokhaya, she could not have her golden hour and was discharged without him for ten days. The first 6-7 weeks were hard for her, navigating her healing, Ali's recovery, and breastfeeding. She and her husband found that when they were able to listen to Ali, the better they did, being able to communicate and figure out what he needed allowing them to find their footing in parenthood.
Resources:
HypnoBirthing | classes for parents who strive for gentle, calm, and natural childbirth