My 0 intervention water birth story

On Friday, January 27th, I started having some mild contractions around 7:00 p.m. They were coming every 10-15 minutes throughout the evening. This had happened several times before, so I wasn't really expecting anything. I figure they would fizzle out once I went to bed that night, like they had every other time.

I was able to fall asleep at about 10:00 and at 11:00 woke up to a super painful contraction. The pain I was feeling was super low down in my pelvis. I continued to have contractions ranging anywhere from 10-20 minutes apart throughout the night. Every time I started to doze off, I would have another contraction, so I didn't get much sleep that night.

At 4:30 I got up to go to the bathroom and refill my water. When I wiped I had bloody show. Could this actually be it? My husband was just about to leave for work, so I quick stopped him and we decided he should probably stay home. If he went to work, we would be at least 60-90 minutes out from the hospital. I went back to bed and tried to rest as much as I could. I continued having really low pain with my contractions coming about every 10-15 minutes at this point.

The boys woke up at about 7:30, so I got up and made scrambled eggs and ego waffles (sue me, I didn't feel like trying) for breakfast. As we ate, I had to stand up a few times to breathe through a contraction. Sitting was not an option at this point, as I had so much low down pressure.

After breakfast, my mom came over and we went walking for about an hour. It was pretty nice out, but windy, so we kept walking the same path from my house to a culda-sac near my house to avoid the wind. While we were walking I continued to have contractions every 10 minutes, lasting about 1 minute each. I had to stop during each contraction.

Once we got done walking, my plan was to take a shower and let the water hit my front to get some nipple stimulation and hopefully get the contractions to pick up. Success! I started having wicked bad contractions every 6-7 minutes that continued even as I got out of the shower. The pain I was having was so low, it was crazy.

At this point it was about 11:15 and I thought it was probably time to check in with my MW. I let her know what was going on and since we have about a 30 minute drive to the hospital and we had to finalize our child care. She asked me if I thought this was it, and I told her I thought so, but still wasn't totally sure since contractions weren't too close yet. We decided I could just go in and get checked out.

The drive to the hospital was HELL ON EARTH! I started having contractions every 3-4 minutes and they were so low. I was crawling out of my skin as sitting was the absolute worst thing ever in the moment.

We got to the hospital at about 12:30 and started making our way through the tunnel up to the maternity ward. I could barely make it 20 feet without having to stop to have another contraction. They were coming fast and they were really painful at this point. As I was crouched over a railing in tears from the contraction I was having, a security guard walked by and asked us if we were out for a walk. We told her we were headed up to the maternity ward and she offered to get us a wheel chair. I graciously accepted.

We got up to my room at about 12:45 and the nurse had me leave a urine sample, had me undress and checked me. I was 6 cm, 100% effaced and he was at a +2 station. Before the nurse told me where I was at she said, "wow that is one evil baby, he is LOW." No wonder my contractions felt so low....

I had to sit on the monitors for a bit before getting into the tub to make sure his heart was reactive. I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes and I wanted to die lying in a bed. I needed to get up!!! My MW got there and checked my strip. She said it looked good and let me get up.

I crouched over the bed and my MW rubbed my back for me through contractions while they finished filling the birthing tub. At some point, I had lost track of time at this point, we walked down to the tub. I got in and it was instant heavenly relief.

My MW let me labor in the tub and just told me to let her know when I was ready to push. Each time I had a contraction, I would lay back, letting my ears go below the surface of the water and try to totally relax my body. They checked his heart rate every few contractions and they had to put the doppler down under my pubic bone to find him, he was so low down.

Things kept getting more intense and I started shaking. I was having tons of pressure and told her I thought it was time to push. My MW checked me and I just had a lip left and he was right there.

My water had not ruptured, but the membranes were tight against his head, so there was nothing we could do, which really isn't a huge deal.

The next contraction, I pulled myself forward and started to push. The first set of pushes, my water broke. There wasn't much fluid that expelled, since he was corking it up. The second set of pushes, he started to crown, but I didn't have enough contraction to get him out. The third set of pushes, I was able to get him out. I almost lost it and was yelling, "I can't do this!" But I did it, I got him out on that push. He entered the world at 2:36, less than 2 hours after getting to the hospital.

The coolest thing happened... He came out with his membranes intact. He was all wrapped up in his membranes. My MW had never seen that happen before! It was really, really neat.

He was totally wrapped up in his cord. It was around his neck once and then went down under his leg, wrapped around his belly and around an arm. It didn't bother him a bit though. He started screaming as soon as we pulled him up from the water.

Once they got him untangled, they laid him on my chest while we waited for the cord to stop pulsing. When he was laying there, he kept lifting up his head and trying to push his legs under his body. (We are in trouble!) R was wide awake for almost 2 hours after being born. I did skin to skin and nursed him for that whole time. It was wonderful.

R's birth was my favorite birth yet!!! It was so cool to have 0 interventions. My MW told me the next day that it was one of her favorite births she has ever attended and that she couldn't believe what a calm, cool laborer I was. It was truly an amazing experience.