93: Are you Hesitant to Have a Second Child After a Rough First Birth? Real mama talk with guest Kelly De Chantal and listener responses
Episode Description
Alright mamas, so I posted last week about a topic that has come up on the show many times- our birth stories-how sacred, emotional and profound they are.
They can also be incredibly traumatic if we felt at all bullied, disempowered or dismissed. This particular episode is entitled “real mama talk” because it involves YOU. This is a new format I will be using monthly on the show, where I prompt you mamas to send me topics you would like to dialogue about and I include listener responses and questions throughout.
Today’s guest is Kelly De Chantal and she reached out to me to ask if we could cover the topic of being hesitant to have another child when your first birth story didn’t go as planned. She is going to share her traumatic first birth experience, long labor and emergency C section with us today, and I will be interweaving your responses as well.
Kelly was brave to reach out and jump on with us today and share her private story with us. I’d like to encourage you mamas to reach out as well for these real mama talk episodes in the future, so we can hear all of your unique perspectives and voices.
My intention is to create a space where we feel less alone, and relevant and sometimes sensitive topics are being brought up and spoken about honestly. Today’s adventure mama Kelly De Chantal lives in Kamloops British Columbia and works at Thompson Rivers university as an event coordinator who raises money for student scholarships. After high school she was recruited to play volleyball at TRU on a full scholarship and competed in the top conference in Canada.
She is currently a mommy to a one and a half year old mini version of her and she loves to get outside with her wee one. Her daughter is always in tow when she goes XC skiing, hanging in the village and her mountain bike tour.
Her and her husband run a beach volleyball league in town so she spends most weekends in the summer down at the beach. Kelly has a yurt they built in Mara lake where they spend most of their free time. They named their daughter after the lake.
Take-aways
Why our birth experiences need to be talked about
How traumatic births are more common than we expect
Why it's hard to let go of control when it comes to how we planned our birth experience
How we need to let go of mom guilt and the fear of failure when our births don't go as planned
C sections and the stigma around them
How vaginal births can also be traumatic
Modern medicine; and why Kelly feels it's important she had access to it when things went awry
As an athlete it was hard for Kelly to endure a C section for mental and physical reasons.
Recovering from a C section and an infection that ensued
Her hesitancy to have a second child because of this experience
Why she believes a mom community is so important
