Overdue Mom Goes Surfing at 40-Weeks Pregnant in Badass Attempt to Induce Labor
There’s nothing like being really, really, ridiculously pregnant. It’s just such a weird, uncomfortable phenomenon. When I got to my due date, I was grumbling at everything, refusing to walk up “hills” that non-pregnant people insisted were perfectly flat, and basically just sitting around thinking about ice cream. That’s just how I roll. That’s not how Kolby Fahlsing of Minneapolis, Minnesota, rolls, though, because when she hit that massively uncomfortable final phase of pregnancy, she put on her strapless bathing suit and went wakesurfing.
Fahlsing likes wakesurfing and finds it relaxing, and she was also hoping the activity would help induce labor. There are lot of folk remedies for inducing labor. Some people have sex. Some people eat spicy food. Not many people try surfing to shake a fetus loose, but that’s probably mostly because most of us can’t surf even when we’re not 40 weeks pregnant. But Fahlsing’s a pro, so she just hopped up there and got to it.
”My mom was in town and I was just waiting for baby to come and I thought, ”˜I might as well, I feel fine,’” Fahlsing said to ABC News. ”I wanted to see if I could do it and it’s a stress reliever for me. It gets my mind off things.”
Fahlsing’s video does make this all look as safe and comfortable as sitting in a bathtub, but that’s probably because she’s so good at it. Her core muscles must be amazing.
”People confuse wakesurfing with wakeboarding or water-skiing or tubing,” Fahlsing said. “With wakeboarding you’re going maybe going 25 miles an hour. And wakesurfing you’re going 9 or 10. And it’s behind a wakesurf boat. It’s specially designed to wakesurf. People might not understand that we’re being very safe and you’re going pretty slow and it’s low-impact. If I were to fall, it would be like jumping into the pool.”
Fahlsing had fun out there on her wakeboard at 40 weeks pregnant, but it didn’t really help induce labor at all. She was pregnant for another five days afterward, at which point doctors induced labor. Then she was in labor for another three days. (Ugh, babies, why don’t you ever want to get out!?) But he’s out now and everything’s great and Fahlsing has a super adorable baby, who probably really likes being rocked.
