38 | Mandalei & River - A Womb Healing Journey: From Fibroids & Freezing of Eggs to a Natural Conception & an Unplanned C-Section during COVID-19

In this episode we hear Mandalei share the birth of her son River in Dublin, Ireland. Mandalei tells us about her Womb Healing Journey and what she went through to both physically and emotionally heal herself to make space for a new partner and baby in her life. In her mid-30’s she found out that she had fibroids and she shares what she medically went through as well as emotionally to heal from that experience. She really wanted to become a mother, but as she didn’t have a partner in her life she decided to freeze her eggs and had even chosen her sperm donor when things took a different turn, and she ended up meeting her partner David.

They conceived very quickly naturally without trying and we talk about what it was like finding out that they were expecting so soon in their relationship. We talk about not being attached to the pregnancy in the beginning and how it grew stronger towards the end. We talk about the importance of having the right emotional support and making a birth wish and how we can get comfortable in it not being at all what we wished for.

River was born during the very first couple of months of the world being in lockdown for Covid-19 and we talk about how that impacted their choices for birth support were available. After going through many hours of on top of each other, very strong contractions but without dilating, Mandalei had a light epidural to help her get some rest. She had oxytocin and a few other inventions before they realised that River was in distress and in the end he was delivered via C-Section. They later found out that the reason the contractions were so strong without dilation was because River was presenting posterior, or OPF which means that there wasn’t enough pressure on the cervix to dilate properly and he got stuck.

We also talk about the 4th trimester, healing postpartum and a very interesting South/Central American ritual called Closing the Bones Ceremony.

Mandalei really recommends Christiane Northup’s Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom to anyone going through a similar journey of looking to heal themselves from the inside and out.

If you would like to reach out to Mandalei you can find her on Instagram @mandalei.medicine or you can send me an email at the9monthspodcast@gmail.com and I’ll forward everything to her from there.

Visit The 9 Months Podcast directory for more stories or if you'd like to share your story with me on the podcast, you can find all the details here.

Follow me on Instagram @9monthspodcast.

*The stories on this podcast are personal experiences and should never be interpreted as medical advice. Always seek out a birth professionals expertise before making any medical decisions. The 9 Months Podcast is in no way advocating for a specific kind of birth, but on the contrary, we believe that all births are beautiful, just as they are.