What goes up must come down and what grows inside must come out. Yeah, I couldn’t think of a way to say that without it sounding weird but - Ebi chan had to make their way out eventually. I was well aware of what would happen but the physics of fitting a baby through *there* still eludes me. And doing it the Japanese way - meaning without any pain meds was daunting. But alas, as an athlete trains for the Olympics, I knew I too had to train my body and mind for such a monumental undertaking. This meant taking care of my diet, exercise, mental health and a bit of self indulgent self care. Here’s what I did:
DIET
Pregnancy was the excuse I’ve always needed to be as healthy as possible. Even now that I’m breast feeding I’ve been eating well and replacing junk food with a balanced diet consisting of all the food groups that are good for baby and I. I’ve always loved fruits and vegetables so those have been a consistent part of my diet along with plenty of protein by way of fish and tofu. Once I hit the second trimester and learned I was anemic something inside me changed - putting me in a real “anything for the baby” mindset so I began eating meat for the first time in over 25 years. I thought that would be a shock to my system - especially eating beef but surprisingly it wasn’t at all. And I made sure to go big or go home by eating the finest quality Kobe Beef for my foray into a diet consisting of meat. My tastebuds were thrilled and so my meals became a lot more diverse going forward.
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| (Image: https://devour.asia/lowdown-on-japanese-beef-wagyu-kobe-matsusaka-whats-the-difference) |
Between the iron supplements and my varied diet, I was pleased to learn at my third trimester check that I was no longer anemic! I didn’t follow any specific recipes or guidelines per say - I just ate what my body felt it needed (including the Coco Ichi Japanese curry I craved!) and tried to eat as many different but nutritious foods as possible.
EXERCISE
I had planned on being this super fit pregnant lady complete with all the pre natal yoga I could find on YouTube. That didn’t happen. But I did go out nearly every day and walk for at least 30 minutes. Sometimes that walk was to get my prized and craved curry, sometimes to do some shopping but regardless the reason, I did it consistently, right up until the day I went into labour. I also did the stretches and exercises recommended in the maternity and childcare guidebook I got from the hospital as well as from my seikotsuin (like an osteopath).
My osteopath?! All over Japan there are offices offering osteopathy (focusing on muscles, joints and the spine) that are covered under our health insurance. It’s like a cross between massage, chiropractic treatment (sort of) and physiotherapy. I’d been going weekly before my pregnancy to help me with neck and back pain and once I became pregnant the treatments focused on prenatal care. Following pregnancy I can do post natal care to help me realign my pelvis and rebuild strength there too. The clinic also offers moxibustion (which I did a few times) and acupuncture. Going there each week was an amazing way to keep my body feeling as good as possible, especially once I got to the more uncomfortable third trimester. I also indulged in acupuncture (despite my fear of needles) a few times from a local acupuncture sensei who is also a friend of mine. He’s brilliant at what he does and was willing to make house calls so I was able to really relax and enjoy his treatments. Acupuncture was the only thing that helped a stubborn sciatica flare up as well.
Finally, I did exercises every day that were mostly simple stretches as suggested by both my osteopath and also from the maternity guidebook I was given from the hospital. They included things like the “cat/cow pose”, pelvic tilts and a healthy amount of bouncing on my exercise ball. A lot of these stretches I could even do from bed so I would try them before I got up each day and before I went to bed. It didn’t take up a lot of time but would hopefully pay off so why not?
I also worked up to 37 weeks and DJ’ed up until my 38th week - I was not shy about dancing and turning my heartbeat up! Some may think I was out of my mind - but I had a blast and from what it felt like in my belly, Ebi chan did too.
MENTAL HEALTH
I knew I wanted to take some kind of breathing class to help me during the throes of labour and delivery. I looked into a few courses from Lamaze to hypnotherapy (yes, hypnosis) and decided Hypnobabies was the course I wanted to take. It was available online and was a six week long course studying how to make childbirth as easy and stress free as possible. What was really helpful from this course however was the accompanying MP3’s which included a daily affirmations track along with several hypnotherapy tracks to get myself in the right mindset to give birth. Complete with cues to switch my “hypno anesthesia” on and off at will - it did sound a little bit hokey. But I also figured that I had absolutely nothing to lose so I listened to the assigned tracks daily and found myself often drifting into hypnotic bliss.
You can read how things ended up going in my birth story, but one thing I’ll say is that this course reduced my anxiety by a LOT. Between the daily affirmations and the hypnosis tracks, I was convinced that I could handle childbirth - even without medication like an epidural. I felt confident in both my baby and in myself to know what to do and to be able to do what billions of people have done before me. At the very least - even if hypnosis didn’t end up working in the midst of giving birth I knew that reducing the fear beforehand would play a major role into how things would ultimately go. I know that if I go into something already convinced it will be horrible - it will be horrible. So being able to reassure myself that childbirth wouldn’t be that bad or at least it would be a fleeting moment bringing me closer to meeting my baby - I never felt the anxiety I’d anticipated going into this whole pregnancy thing. And that alone was worth every penny that this course cost.
SELF INDULGENCE
Finally - a little bit of self indulgence. It was a pretty mind blowing thing being pregnant and I was amazed at how much my body could do and change in a relatively short time. I also reaped all the benefits of pregnancy from the glowing skin, to the good hair days. To be honest - I’ve never liked my stomach and have never had a washboard or flat “perfect” belly so this was the first time in my life where I didn’t have any insecurities or hang ups over my body. I was pregnant; making a human and felt pretty darn cute in the process.
I decided to go all out with a maternity photo shoot and was lucky that my friend and brilliant photographer Ayana was willing to do it for me. We rented a studio and voila - took some photos that will be forever memorable.
I also took a lot of “me” time from indulgent bubble baths to delicious meals out with friends or by myself. I travelled to Tokyo and did some sightseeing in Kyoto. I walked around the city at night to take in the bright lights. I made sure to nap long and often. I cuddled my pets for hours at a time. Basically - I did heaps of things I knew I couldn’t do as easily or as often once a baby came.
So that was it! Maybe it sounds like I did a lot but it honestly didn’t feel like it - and compared to some mom’s I know who had full out meal plans and exercise regimes during pregnancy, I think I slacked off a fair bit. But these were the things that made sense and most importantly worked for me. I do think living in Japan made it easier to feel healthy in many ways - from having delicious and healthy food always available, to being able to use health care to majorly subsidize osteopathic treatments but a lot of it was having a positive mental attitude going into everything. Like I said - this baby was going to come out one way or another and being scared wasn’t going to change that. I figured trying to go into this as healthy and happy as I could be for me would be the best thing I could do for myself (and Ebi chan!). And guess what? It was.
*Cover image and all photos of pregnant me by Ayana Wyse (@yzimagery)
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