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Natural Birth
A birth story (kind of long)
Yeah, my goal was to give birth without pain medication. I wanted to go into labor naturally too, but had medical complications that made my doctor and I both decide to induce my labor. I had high blood pressure and also a 2-vessel umbilical cord.
I wanted to use techniques like breathing, walking, massage, jacuzzi baths and using a birthing ball to cope with labor pain. But I wasn't allowed to do most of that..
Well, my doctor decided to induce labor very slowly. So they started me on 2 mL of pitocin an hour at 6:30 on Tuesday evening. I had only been dilated 1 cm for 4 weeks and effaced 50%. I slept a lot of the night, and would have slept more if it weren't for the blood pressure checks every hour and IV making me have to use the bathroom every couple hours.
They started upping the dosage of pitocin at 5 am and continued to up the dosage every couple of hours from there. At 11 am I was at 18 mL/hour.
By 1 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon I was getting 22 mL/hour but was only dilated to 3 cm, so my doctor broke my water at 1:18...
Things picked up from there!
Before that, I was just having contractions that felt like long, more intense Braxton Hicks. They didn't even compare to some menstrual cramps I've had. But then, I started to feel some contractions that were a lot like the most painful cramps I've had on my period...Because of my high blood pressure I wasn't allowed to do most of the techniques I had planned on to cope with labor. So I went to the bathroom to pee and had a couple of contractions in there, leaning over the sink (it felt so nice to stand). Amazing nurse Ashley suggested sitting on a birth ball, but I stood up immediately after sitting down. It could have been the tube they had put up my vagina to deliver the pitocin more directly that made sitting on the birth ball so uncomfortable, but who knows!
With 4 of the intense cramp-like contractions I vomited (I've experienced menstrual cramps that caused me to vomit) some of the breakfast I had eaten earlier, but that actually seemed to help with the pain. One of the nurses gave me something to stop the nausea/vomiting through my IV. It took longer than the 5 minutes it was supposed to take effect, but that was fine with me.
After that I only had 7 or maybe 8 EXTREME contractions. I managed to breath through most of them, but 3 of them I couldn't help but moan! But by the last 2, I felt like I needed to have a bowel movement and was trying not to push, but my body made me push just a little...I told nurse Ashley this (I loved this nurse so much) and she checked my cervix and sure enough I was ready! She stayed with me and helped me push once while laying on my side (because I could NOT move onto my back at the moment) and then paged my doctor.
My doctor was on call and came over within 5 minutes and got the bed ready for my son's delivery. When she got there I HAD to move to my back (laying on my side was just not working for me anymore!). They put my feet in stirrups which felt awkward, so I held my knees and brought my chin into my chest (my doctor told me to) and pushed that way. I only pushed 11 more times, 3 pushes per 3 contractions I had and then twice was all I could manage for one contraction.
I watched in a mirror as my son was born and as my doctor massaged my perineum (which hurt like hell). But in the long run I was glad she did because I didn't need an episiotomy or tear, so luckily I have NO STITCHES!!! 
BAM! My baby boy was in my arms after 18 minutes of pushing and pushing a total of 14 times! 
Odysseus Allen Sweet (Oz, Ozzy, Odis or Odie for short) weight 8 pounds and 12 ounces and was 21 1/2 inches long. Such a big little guy (:
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Re: A birth story (kind of long)
Only 18 minutes of pushing, wow!
Thanks for sharing!