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Lucia Marie is Here - Natural Birth Story (Long)

melzminimelzmini member
in Birth Stories

I wanted to share my natural birth story. For those of you thinking about going unmedicated, the things that helped me the most were hiring a doula, laboring at home, being educated in different pain coping techniques, and staying focused on one contraction at a time. Pre-natal yoga was also really helpful.

 

Lucia Marie was born on August 23rd weighing 6lbs. 15ozs. My due date was August 22nd and I expected her to be late because I was only 50% effaced and a finger tip dilated at my 39 week appointment. However, I woke up on Saturday morning, the day before my due date, with pain in my lower back and pelvis. It was hard to believe I was having real contractions because they were coming sporadically and the pain was tolerable.

 

By Saturday night, my contractions became more frequent and intense. This continued into Sunday. By late Sunday afternoon, the contractions were 8 to 14 minutes a part. I soon figured out the meaning of ?back labor.? I tried everything to cope with the pain?relaxed breathing, sitting on my pilates ball, lower back massages and pelvic squeezes from my husband, different sitting/laying positions on the couch, etc. Everything helped to a certain degree.

 

At 1:30am on Monday, I called the doula to let her know I was in labor. She suggested that since my contractions were still 8 minutes apart that I take a bath to relax. The bath felt great, except that it caused my contractions to become closer together. By 7am, they were 5 minutes a part, so I called my doctor who recommended that I come to the hospital to be checked.

 

We arrived at the hospital around 9:30am. I figured I would be one of those women that labored without dilating, but to my surprise, I was already at 4cms. By the time the doctor checked me at 11:30am, I was at 5cms and my contractions were coming every 3 and 5 mins. My doula arrived around the same time.

 

The doctor came back to check me at 2:30pm and determined that I hadn?t made any progress. She gave me two options, either she would break my water, which she wanted to do when she first checked me at 11:30am, or put me on pitocin. I asked her if I could have another hour to continue laboring and she agreed.

 

The doctor checked me again around 4pm. Still no progress. The doula and I discussed that breaking my water was the better option, especially since I was trying for an unmedicated birth.The doctor broke my water at 4:18pm and said she would check me again in two hours. The contractions immediately became more intense/painful. I told my husband and the doula that I wasn?t sure I could do it without an epidural and they both reminded me to focus on one contraction at a time.

 

Around 6:30pm, the doctor checked me again and fortunately I had dilated to 7cms. At this point, my contractions were coming every 30 seconds to a minute. Transition was definitely the shortest, most painful partof labor. Within an hour my body started pushing on its own. My doula knew I was close, so she asked the nurse to check me. I was 9.5 cms with my cervix partially covering the baby?s head on one side. My doula suggested that I turn on that side, and within 30 mins, I was completely dilated and ready to push.

 

After pushing for an hour and half, Lucia Marie was born at 9:47pm. I had a second degree tear and managed to break blood vessels in both my eyes from pushing, but I was so happy to finally hold my baby. My recovery has been easy.

 

On a side note, the doctors planned to induce me 9 days after my due date. I wanted to go into labor naturally so I tried sex and walking. I also received an amazing pedicure/foot massage the day before my contractions started. The pedicurist swore it would get my labor started by using acupressure points on my ankles. I?m not sure if this is what did it, but the foot massage felt great! I will definitely get another one near the due date of my next pregnancy :-)

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