Sometimes Life Throws Us Unexpected Surprises. Be Ready To Catch Them When They Come!

By Jennifer Kleinberg My story into RAW starts when I was 21 and I went out one night with some friends and someone at the club drugged me with homemade ecstasy which caused me to go into seizure. The seizures went on for months, several and often many times a day resulting in me having to move in with my parents and be under constant supervision. The neurologists told my parents that as far as they could tell the damage was permanent although they could not quite pinpoint the origin of the convulsions. I got under regular Chiropractic care as well weekly acupuncture and started to detox my highly animal protein based diet into a diet more focused on greens and fresh foods. Within 3 months I was able to get around on my own and started to care for myself a little more at a time. I found local government funding and eventually convinced them into funding my flight and part of my tuition to school. The day I left, my mother refused to come to the airport but I told her not to worry – I believed in the innate power of my body to heal itself.

After a few years in school and on / off a vegetarian diet I married my sweetheart – Adam, who cared for me while I was ill. He had been a vegetarian / vegan for 12 years and he coached me into living a more healthy, sustainable and balanced diet.

We were living in Holland when I became pregnant with our first daughter – Jana. It was in the first months of her pregnancy that I began to research the best possible diet for pregnancy which would be easy to assimilate, provide the most nutrients, and the most energy. That is when I stumbled onto the THE GARDEN DIET. A website by a family of raw foodists with remarkable health and 4 beautiful, vibrant children. (They now have 6 I believe). They inspired me and I’ll never forget my initial reaction to reading Jinjee’s story – I thought, “WOW. THIS IS ME. THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR.” I shared the testimonials with my husband and together we began down the path toward live food. I researched further and discovered the Living Light Institute – the worlds’ premier raw vegan chef school. I set it in my mind that I was going to attend the school and become a Raw Vegan Chef – SOME HOW, SOME WAY, SOME DAY. I kept the image in my mind and meditated on its’ fruition.

It was nearly 18 months later that my dream was realized and, 4 months pregnant with twins and with my 18 month old daughter in tow went to Fort Bragg, CA for the two month intensive Chef Training Program. Graduating was one of the happiest accomplishments in my life. You can imagine how taxing 7- 12 hours a day in the kitchen on your feet 6 or 7 days a week with no days off for 2 months is when your pregnant with twins – let alone with an 18 month old to care for when I went back to my room and no help. BUT WE DID IT! Many of my classmates frequently commented on how much energy I had and how enthusiastic I was. I told them that I attribute my energy to my highly Raw Vegan diet and found when I ate cooked food during this time I felt PREGNANT!

Shortly after I returned from Fort Bragg I was approached by a photographer for Pregnancy Magazine and asked to do a test shoot which resulted in me being on the cover of two magazines and getting representation by FORD (as the first pregnant model they have ever hired) and also by Expecting Models – the agency for the T.V. show RUNWAY MOMS.

At 34 weeks pregnant I went into labor. Our dates were off, and we were expecting one full term very large baby. We had plans to deliver the baby at a Birthing Center in San Francisco attended by a midwife. Although we did not know we were expecting twins I had my suspicions but was reassured by our midwife that I was too small to be pregnant with twins. I had gained 28 lbs with this pregnancy at the time. My labor was long, hard and I had several convulsions due to the tremendous physical stress as my body was not ready to give birth but as we learned later – little Ananda was in distress and had initiated labor to save her life. When our Naia was born we all stared at her in shock – SHE WAS SOOO TINY! THERE WAS NO WAY THAT WAS THE ONLY BABY IN THAT HUGE BELLY!

Our midwife, who was not licenced to deliver twins or preemies in her center, called out to the assistant for help shouting “This baby is Premature – very, premature! I need an ambulance and oxygen NOW!” I felt movement in my belly and said to the Doula “There’s another baby… I can feel it!” My midwife who was giving my daughter oxygen yelled back “THAT’S JUST YOUR PLACENTA” I said, “Placentas Don’t have elbows! AHHHHHHHH!!!!” And Ananda (Bliss) was born, breach, in the sac, with the cord wrapped twice around her little neck. She was blue. My midwife didn’t miss a beat – GOD BLESS HER. She handed Naia over to her attending and dropped to her knees, ripping open her sac and unraveling the cord and when I heard a yelp, I knew my little girl was okay.

We were rushed off to the hospital, two ambulances, a fire truck, our attending friends and 7 burly fire fighters in our entourage. My poor husband – spinning around and flipping back and forth from crying to laughter went with our daughters to be sure that they were properly cared for while a friend went with me. The Doctors informed us that the babies had a twin to twin blood transfusion where Naia had sent Ananda just enough blood to help her survive her journey into the world. AMAZING.

The Doctors said that it was also amazing was that the babies were breathing on there own and seemed to be just fine! They were taken aback (and even rechecked me several times) that I had no rips or tears, and left the hospital in good health the next day. My husband later asked the doctors what the chances were if we had known we were having twins, that one was breach with the cord around her neck and with me having convulsions -of us having a natural, drug and Cesarean free birth in the hospital? They all answered unanimously “ABSOLUTELY NONE.”

My husband and I know that although to the general public and medical minded our birth story is a MIRACLE we give the credit to our lifestyle choices and practices. Highly Raw Vegan Diet + Chiropractic + Meditation + Regular Exercise = Extraordinary Healthy and Functioning Nervous System which was responsible not only for my healing from seizures but for the Miraculous Healthy Birth of my undiagnosed, premature twins.

GO RAW! GET ADJUSTED! LOVE THE LIFE YOU LIVE!

Many Blessings,
The Kleinberg Family – Adam, Jennifer, Jana, Naia & Ananda