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Natural Birth
My fast, natural, birth center birth
This past Thursday, I was 38 weeks and 4 days pregnant. I woke up at 3:30 AM with contractions and noticed that they were some of the strongest that I had experienced so far. After 2 or 3 of them, I got up to time them. They were approximately 4 minutes apart and exactly 1 minute long. Earlier in the week I had experienced painful contractions that were 3 minutes apart for a few hours and then went away, so I decided not to wake up my husband yet. I figured either they would go away or if not, he would need the sleep.
Because I couldn't really walk through them and they were so regular, I called the midwife answering service. One of the midwives, Katie, who I know well, called back and I told her what was going on. She suggested that I try to sleep for an hour or so and call her back if they get stronger. Since they were already so close together, we agreed that I should pay close attention to the intensity. At that point, I was easily talking to her without a pause during the contractions.
I tried to lie down and listen to a Hypnobabies track but was full of excitement. I had a feeling that this was it and I also had a feeling that it would go very quickly, because I had experienced so many pre-labor contractions in the previous weeks (mostly BH but some crampy). After maybe 20 minutes, I got up and decided to clean the kitchen. I felt great and was just pausing briefly during the contractions. I was debating whether to call my mother in law, because she is a teacher and would need to get a sub early in the morning so that she could babysit my son.
At 5:30 AM, I woke up my husband and asked his opinion about calling his mom. At first, he was asking a lot of questions about the pain and I could tell he was worried that this was just another false start. I assured him that these were more intense than what I was used to. At this point I was using my Hypnobabies techniques to shut my body off during the contractions. My husband called his mom and asked her to come over right away. I called the midwife back and told her that I could no longer talk through the contractions and we agreed to meet at the birth center in about an hour.
At about 5:50 AM, I started vocalizing through some of the contractions and asked my husband when he thought his mom would arrive. He called her and she hadn't left yet so she told him that we were in a rush and would meet her at the birth center with our son. We started rushing around at that point. As I was headed out to the car, I had to stop and lean against the house for one of the contractions and I yelled at my husband to hurry. My husband had to grab our poor little guy out of his crib, no diaper change, no shoes, and rush him out to the car.
It was a half hour ride to the birth center. My son kept saying "choo choo train" to describe the moans that I was making during contractions. I told my husband that some of the peaks were overwhelming me, and he kept touching my shoulder and saying "peace" and "release" during each contraction (Hypnobabies cues), and that really helped me deal with the car ride.
We got to the birth center at 6:30. I was still chatting and even laughing in between the contractions and then entering hypnosis with each one. One thing that was a bit of a problem for me was that Hypnobabies had taught me to go completely limp during contractions, but actually I noticed that it was better if I could move/sway a little bit so that's what I did.
I told the midwife that I felt like I wished the breaks were longer and also that I was worried that I would not be dilated more than 5 (although I had been refusing cervical checks I actually had a hunch that I was 4/5 prior to the beginning of active labor). At 6:45, my in laws finally arrived, I kissed my son goodbye, and my husband took him out to the car.
I went to the bathroom to pee and while I was in there I joked to my midwife that I had the "tiniest amount of bloody show ever". This turned out to be the only blood I ever saw, never saw a mucus plug. While trying to wash my hands I had a strong contraction and the midwife later told me that she had noticed that it sounded "pushy". I walked over to the bed so she could check my cervix and while I was standing there, my water suddenly broke. I screamed at the top of my lungs, because suddenly my body took over in this incredibly intense way with contractions right on top of each other. My husband ran inside because he had heard me from the parking lot and the floor was covered with amniotic fluid. I heard the midwife say, "you're going to have a baby in a few minutes." My husband ran back outside to strap my son in because his parents don't know how to work the carseat.
When he came back in, I was still standing at the edge of the bed but had already started to push. In the 5 seconds between contractions I was saying, "I need just a little break" and "I want to get in the tub" (The tub hadn't been filled yet.) The midwife asked if I wanted to get up on the bed or have the baby standing up. I never really made a decision but at some point I was up on the bed on my hands and knees and feeling the baby's head descend. It was so powerful and while it was a little scary how fast it was going, it did feel good to push because it was a way of directing the crazy energy. It was very different from the pushing of my first natural birth when I was really exhausted and had to be coached a little bit to get the baby out. Believe me, no one had to direct me with this birth. It was just happening.
I felt the head start to come out and then told them that I felt it go back in a little bit. My husband reminded me to push in between the contractions to minimize tearing (something we had read in the Hypnobabies book) and my midwife suggested that I just keep giving small grunty pushes if I wanted to keep the head down low. I followed their advice and also lowered my voice tone the way the nurse had taught me during my first birth. I pushed the head out and after a short break, the shoulders. When she came out, I kept saying, "I did it!" and "we did it!" and I felt amazing. I had only been pushing for 8 minutes. She arrived at 6:58, only 15 minutes after I had calmly kissed my son goodbye.
The entire experience was only 3.5 hours and while I wished that I could have had time for a waterbirth, I really am in love with the experience that I had. I am so proud of all the preparation that my husband and I had done with the Hypnobabies home study course and am so blessed that we live near the amazing birth center in Wilmington.
Jaya was 7 pounds, 4 ounces at birth. She is a gorgeous little thing and doing really well with breastfeeding.
Blessings to all of you!
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Re: My fast, natural, birth center birth
Congrats on the wonderful birth of your daughter. I live in Delaware and am glad to hear you had a good experience at The Birth Center. I wish I could deliver there, but due to health issues I'll be at Christiana...maybe next time around.
Congrats again!
Rated "L" For Life Blog
Oscar born October 2011
Miscarriage at 8 weeks (August 2013)
DD due September 1, 2014
Congratulations!! So you feel like the home study really did help? What did you like the best? And how much did you practice?
Yes, I found the home study course helpful. I would describe it as a very easy birth compared to my first natural birth (which truly was not that difficult). The first 2.5 hours were very easy because of the hypnosis.
During the last hour, I would say I was completely relaxed and feeling in control during about 60-70% of the contrax. (sorry the c-word just works for me) They were very close together and I didn't realize how far along I was so there were times when I had some negative thoughts in my head and the feeling that I wanted to escape, especially at the peaks. This is where my husband really helped with the peace and release cues. I never thought "I can't do this" or "I want an epidural". Self-doubt was a big part of my first birth, and I was much more confident this time.
I played Birthing Day Affirmations during the car ride and Easy First Stage when we got to the Birth Center, but didn't concentrate on them that much. (Obviously no time to play Pushing Baby Out.) Rather, I "played" many of the helpful scripts that I had memorized over and over again in my head. Directing my anesthesia was helpful. Going to my special place was somewhat helpful. I remember thinking "at the end of each pressure wave, I smile and feel very happy" a lot and also "open, open, open."
After my water broke, it really wasn't about relaxation anymore. It was about working with the power rather than against it. One thing that was really important to me was relaxing my bottom. This was so important during the last hour and during pushing. I had to concentrate in order to keep myself from tensing up and fighting that pressure in my bottom. Ina May talks about this in her book.
Some things that I did not expect: I really needed to sway or rock during the late contractions, rather than stay limp. Not sure if that was "correct". Some of the scripts seemed a little ridiculous once things really got going, like the one about "looking forward to each pressure wave." Um, no, I looked forward to my breaks.
Another positive: I don't really know when transformation/transition happened. I do know I felt a wave of nausea for like one second and also felt very hot at that moment, but I don't remember when that occurred.