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When did you realize you were really in labor?
When I woke up at 4am and the bed was wet. I stood up and kept leaking and it didn't feel like pee! I called my midwife and ate a banana and then went outside to listen to the birds. I didn't feel any contractions despite my water continuing to squirt out at regular intervals. When the midwife arrived she looked me in the eye and said "honey, you are in active labor, this baby is going to be born today, soon, and we won't be going to the birth center". Then it hit me....and I started to feel the contractions that we measured at 5 minutes apart.um
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What was the most challenging thing about going natural?
Um... I didn't really have too much time to think anything over. But it certainly would have been easier to not push if I had drugs. For about 45 minutes I was having the urge to push but only at a 9.5. I got into the bath and the student midwife talked me through every breath. She was a saint. I love that lady and will remember her forever.
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What was the most helpful thing you did to prepare for childbirth?
Change midwives till I found who I needed. Moved home with my mom to a different state so that I could have a low intervention birth for free. Read and reread positive birth stories. Planned for and felt comfortable with the option of a hospital transfer.
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What surprised you about your birth?
How quickly it went. How my body totally 'got' pushing. How there was no early labor!
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All I could think was " my life is changed forever ".
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What pain relief strategies worked best?
Music. Cold washcloths. Kind and calm words. But truly I don't ever remember pain being a problem until I was told I couldn't push. Then I was in agony.
Changing positions was terrible, I stayed on hands and knees the whole time- which truthfully wasn't that long. My daughter was born at 2pm. And I hated when my husband tried to do anything from our birth class- pressure points, massaging...
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What position did you end up delivering in?
I started on hands and knees but due to our combined anatomies it looked like I was going to tear too much in the anal direction. My midwife helped me onto my back for the final pushes. Once I settled back with my husband supporting my back the baby's head turned. We didn't know she was posterior until then, and after the flip she swam out in just two big pushes- the last one without a contraction as I was totally done. I did end up tearing but it was inside my vagina which I wasn't planning on using for a while anyways so it wasn't too bad :)
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How did it feel to hold your baby for the first time?
During the final pushes I went from feeling foggy and out of sorts to this beautiful sharp clarity. Time slowed and I stared up through a skylight and watched the leaves on the trees. All 5 people crowding around me disappeared. I knew they were giving me directions but I didn't care or need them. I vaguely remember the student midwife learning how to catch but I have no idea who actually was down there...I was looking out the skylight. Someone handed me the baby, warm and slippery. I remember how red she was and I hugged her tiny body to me. I had a hand supporting her bottom and so I already knew she was a girl. She weakly help up her head to look at me and then relaxed down on my chest and closed her eyes. All I could think was " my life is changed forever ".
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What advice can you give to other mamas who want to go natural?
Stay in the moment. Eat. Listen to your body. Choose a birth team that make you feel at home and comfortable. Tell yourself that the birth will go swiftly if you are relaxed and happy. Don't give in to fear. Stay at home if that's what you want. If you get along with your family, they may make the best doulas...but don't make your birth a party.
