Mom's are super beings - travellers we are

I had watched countless movies and had listened in horror as woman described their experiences. In Zulu (my tribe) the woman described it as something sacred which if blessed with this opportunity you were seen and marked as a woman of honour yet it carried a different more complex manner than if such the sex was different.

I relentlessly made way to the bathroom awaiting bolts of fire like pains in my lower back as the old black women had said "Nana (my "African name") , you will feel your whole body change as what you are about to do is different its not like the other time with Uyanda as she is a girl, this time you will feel as if bolts of lightning are all over your body especially the womb area and when that happens my child take a stone and put it on your lower back the pain is more like as if you have Spondylitis (which is chronic back pain and stiffness due to severe inflammation of the spinal joints)." I dutifully awaited all these tall tales to begin. Breathing in and out did not help, so to to relieve myself in a conventional manner known to me and advised by Midwives as a reliever of pain to assist in calming not only myself but the most important person whom was to arrive soon I then took a bath at 2:00 am.

The culprit within me played as water splashed over my very robust tummy which looked like it could not expand any further if needed to. My cousin Zinhle thus awoke whilst I bathed she had never had any experience on child birth thus she freaked out,panicked at the sight of me bathing at such an hour.Upon this notion I was ushered out of the water into my bedroom but without any pre notice (as had been guided by the Zulu elderly mothers) , my water broke . Yes MY WATER GUSHED OUT AND THUS HAD BROKE and the head went straight into my vaginal opening. I knelt down calmly and went on all fours. "Zinhle call Gran the baby is coming now!" In my head I thought 'where are the bolts of lightning, where's the fire and heat contractions which will drive me crazy,where's the screams of pain I am to do because they had said boys are different when giving birth to them!' None of the warnings thus an unconventional -unplanned home birth without any midwives available begun.

The Zulu experts ran and were not to be seen as my grandmother whom had always said to me "Each birth experience differs God will determine how Zion shall be born". This was my experience of the first time I gave birth to a boy and thus at home on all four legs.