I started to write down the birth story in great detail, but to be honest it was kind of blurry already, insofar as I don't remember exact times, or how much I was dilated when, or what order I went from bed to tub to toilet and back and forth. It was long, I was tired and in pain! :P So I will summarize.
Some background: It was my first birth and I am in my early 30s. I am fit and "low risk." I didn't have any complications during the pregnancy. I went unmedicated at a birth center. A midwife and LPN birth assistant along with my husband were my companions in this venture.
On Oct. 18th my water broke early in the am. I had a very prolonged prodromal labor phase, and things didn't really start kicking along until around 3 or 4 pm that afternoon. After that, I was in labor with increasingly intense and frequent contractions until I had the baby at 5:40 am the following morning, Oct. 19th. I labored a lot on the toilet, which felt extremely intense. In the beginning, I was able to breathe through the contractions and I kept things relatively calm. That fell apart maybe around 8 or 9 pm the night of the 18th, when things were just getting so intense and frequent that I was having to moan and yell through it. The LPN, who was very compassionate, directed me to keep the moans low and I tried as much as I could to do that, I think that it did help. In the end, at the pushing stage, I felt the urge to leave the toilet and go to the bed. After a little over 2 hours of very intense pushing (leaning forward with legs bent up, pushing very hard through the bottom) our little girl finally decided to come out. I knew that I was going to tear with the pushing but at that point I was so ready to get her out I just made up my mind to push through it and just get it over with so we could have our prize. It was so worth it!
I did have enough bleeding after the birth that I was given medication for the bleeding and I had to stay down for a bit. I also had to get some stitching for 2 1st degree (mild) tears. But at 9:40 that morning (4 hrs later) I was wheel-chaired to the car and allowed to go home with our healthy and alert baby. I was not expecting my labor to be that long or quite that painful. To be honest, there were points during the night were I was thinking in
my head, "why didn't I just get an epidural in a regular hospital!? WTF is wrong with me!?" but
now that I have lived through it and we have our baby I am glad that we
went the natural route. It was obviously doable because she is here.
Re: Birth Story (Birth Center) PIP
Engaged 10/2/1202
BFP (a lil quicker than expected) 12/7/2012
Married to my best friend 12/24/2012
Beautiful baby girl arrived 8/15/2013
BFP #2 3/13/2016
Dumb question. When you were on the toilet were you sitting on the lid or open?
2010: Infertility
October 2015: missed miscarriage #2 at 11 weeks (trisomy 22)
www.painfreelabour.blogspot.co.uk
Way to go mama! Love birth center birth stories!