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When I told my doctors how I wanted to give birth, they laughed at me...

New mum Kirra Givanni enjoyed giving birth, but apparently that’s not allowed.

When first-time mum Kirra Givanni, 39, fell pregnant, she knew exactly how she was going to give birth. She was going to aim for a drug-free birth, in keeping with her philosophy.

She is a practicing Tibetan Buddhist, based in Vaucluse in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and avoids all drugs.

Her doctors laughed at her when told them what she was planning, but she did it, giving birth to daughter Tara naturally, and drug-free, in what she described as an “enjoyable” experience.

Kirra with daughter Tara.

Kirra didn't hesitate to share her story with her community of local mums. What happened next shocked her.

Comments on her mothers' group Facebook feed became so nasty that the page administrator ended up deleting the original post in order to put a stop to the negativity.

The new mum told Daily Mail, "Ladies became very upset with me and wrote that I was shaming them, I was bragging also that I should think before I post because I was being very insensitive."

What? Since when are we judging each other about our birthing choices? She made a choice, a choice about her body and her birth. She chose to give birth naturally and then talk about it. 

Ms Givanni said she wrote the post because she wanted to share something positive about birth. "Because there's so much negativity, no one ever writes anything happy about birth," she said. "People who have horrible experiences they're allowed to talk about theirs and no one gets upset."

She says she wanted to inspire other mums to enjoy their birthing experiences.

"I posted it because I wanted to write something positive and draw out ladies with similar experiences, I wanted to bond with them."

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Some users later said it wasn't what she wrote, but how she wrote it, that offended them. In the post, Kirra made a point about doctors not always being right because hers had told her that giving birth naturally at the age of 40 wouldn't be possible and advocated a drug-free birth as the ideal. That's when she got a lot of noses out of joint.

"Basically I wrote women have been having babies for a long time naturally without drugs, and at my age doctors told me that I couldn't do it, that it would almost be impossible," she said.

"Then I wrote 'I loved giving birth has anyone else experienced this?' People were angry. They said it was the way I wrote it."

Left reeling from the reaction, Kirra says she doesn't understand why we can't all just be happy for each other and to "rejoice for people having good experiences".

Are you surprised she got the reaction that she did? Would you be offended if someone boasted about enjoying a natural, drug-free birth?

Images provided.

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I felt relief, not love after childbirth.

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