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When did you realize you were really in labor?
I woke up at about 3:30 in the morning with strong regular pains and knew this was it
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What was the most challenging thing about going natural?
Dealing with the family members and friends that were skeptical / uneducated about natural / home birth - many thought I was being wreckless with my and the baby's health
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What was the most helpful thing you did to prepare for childbirth?
Stop seeing the conventional OB that I had started with. Every time I saw her she had some kind of fear message. My midwife was the total opposite and very supportive
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What surprised you about your birth?
That the labor took so long! I have a very dramatic bicornuate uterus and basically have two separate uteri. I was pregnant in my right side and although I thought I had researched things really well there just isn't much info out there about a natural birth with parts like that. The conventional medical community just recommends a c-section and there was no way I was going to sign up for that without a fight. I knew I was different but my uterus didn't contract like a normal one even though the first part of my labor went typically. I started having contractions early in the morning and the midwife team and doula arrived a couple of hours later. Already I was a 5 or 6. By lunch I was complete but the contractions started to weaken and we were not progressing very much. My labor continued on for many more hours an I started falling asleep between the rushes so the midwife sent me to rest and contacted her backup doctor for advice. He suggested giving me a little more time and then transporting me so he could try forceps or the vacuum. When she told me this it woke me up and even though I was hardly having contractions at that point I pushed like crazy and birthed my daughter at 7:19 in the morning. I knew it would be hard but geez that was a little much!
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I was so relieved to have her out and alive. It was totally amazing
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What pain relief strategies worked best?
My partner squeezing my hips together and sitting in the shower
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What position did you end up delivering in?
On the toilet
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How did it feel to hold your baby for the first time?
I was so relieved to have her out and alive. It was totally amazing
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How did the Mama Natural Birth Class help you in your childbirth?
I was already pretty well educated on the material but didn't know much about the weeks after ward. The last episode was very educational and I had pretty much totally failed to learn about it otherwise!