My unmedicated birth story

schirinos · March 2011

Nicolas was born a week ago and I'm still totally amazed that he's here. I can't stop kissing him, looking at him and being in awe. I'm doing well. The labor was exactly that...labor! 36hrs of it! No meds except for at the end when they had to give me a dose of pitocin to help my contractions get stronger for the final push.

I'm still amazed that I got through it with no more than my strength and my amazing birthing team. It took a long time but was all worth it in the end. DH is truly amazed at what I did as were all the doctors and nurses at my side.

I started on Monday, last week, actually when my parents arrived from the US. I had cramps all day. Tuesday the cramps got a bit stronger and that evening I was really feeling it. My doula came over at 7:30pm and began giving me massage to help me through the contractions. They got more and more into a pattern. By 2am we called the midwife and they came over and checked me. I was 1cm dilated. By 7am we called the midwife again and then I was 5cm. We decided to move to the birthing center at the hospital. Got there at 8am.

By, this is what DH tells me, 1pm they checked me again and accidentally broke my water and saw that Nico had pooped in it a little. The decision was made to transfer me to the medical delivery unit. I was 8cm dilated then. After that it all moved fairly quick but a lot was done. They had to put an internal monitor on Nico and gave me a catheter which was no fun as they kept messing it up and tried 3 times to get them in. With the strong contractions I was having I began to beg for pain meds but got through it with the help of my doula who kept reminding me to breathe and concentrate on her calm serene face.

At 9cm they gave me a shot of pitocin because by then my body was so exhausted that it was not producing strong enough contractions to push Nico out. At 4:02pm, after about 2hrs of strong pushing (which I'm still not sure where i got the strength from) he finally came out. It was a marathon!

I tore a little and had to be given 4 stitches. Nico was born at a healthy 9.5 lbs! They don't measure in Holland so I'm still not sure how long he is but he is healthy and amazing!