setting the TONE

KATRINA RAZON on her pathway to surrender that prepared her for motherhood and transformed the way she works.

- By NANA NADAL. Photographs by COLIN DANCEL. Beauty Editor JOYCE OREÑA. Fashion Editor DAVID MILAN

“IF I COULD BIRTH A BABY, I COULD DO ANYTHING I WANT,” Katrina Razon says. She considers bringing her son into this world the single most transformative experience of her life. “It did something to my self-esteem that was unshakeable at that point. I gained a huge confidence in myself afterward.”

The 33-year-old gave birth to her child, River, last September, inside a moving van on the Rama IX Expressway in Bangkok, Thailand. “There wasn’t any pain,” she relates her completely unmedicated, physiological delivery. “I didn’t even push, he just came right out just through exhaling and toning.” Trusting her body’s natural ability, instead of resisting the surges, she leaned into the intensity of each. “In that intensity is when the old version of you dies in order to rebirth yourself as a mother because it’s not just the child being born, it’s the mother being born in that same process,” she adds.

At no moment was she afraid and rightfully so, because this common fear of such a natural life process was the first thing she confronted as soon as she discovered she was pregnant. She delved into literature, studied the different stages of labor, signed up for various courses on breathing techniques, and sought guidance from highly regarded Bali-based Filipino midwife Ibu Robin Lim. “It’s all about reframing, rewiring, reprogramming your mind,” she says.