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Natural Birth
LJ's Fast and Furious Natural Birth
Sweet Louisa June arrived a week before her due date, at 10:35 pm the night of a blue moon.
My labor with Louisa began very suddenly, and accelerated very quickly. Our plan was to stay at home for a while, laboring there as long as possible, with our doula present. This definitely did not happen! My water broke at 3:30 pm while I was at work. Luckily, I happened to be going to the bathroom at the time. I felt that ?popping? feeling that I?d read others describing. It was just a small gush so I stayed at work about another half hour, wrapping a few things up, knowing I wouldn?t be back for three months. I even had the presence of mind to grab my office plant to bring home. Contractions pretty much started right away after my water broke. Before I left work to make the 25 minute drive home, I sat in the car and downloaded a contraction timer app. Then, before getting on the highway I stopped at the bank! I remember standing in line thinking, I should tell them I?m in labor so they let me to the top of the line! On my drive home I timed the contractions. They were already 30-40 seconds long, about 2-3 minutes apart. I called our doula and let her know what was up. She said to keep timing, as it was possible I was still in early labor, but if they got to be close to a minute in length, then it was time to get to the hospital.
I had called my husband and he was already at home when I arrived, around 4:30 pm. At that point, only an hour or so after my water broke, I was already having to stop talking to focus on getting through the contractions. I had planned on packing my hospital bag that coming weekend, so nothing was ready. There was a period of about a half hour that I spent wandering aimlessly throughout the house, trying to remember what to pack, and stopping to have contractions. By the time things were packed, I told my husband - this is getting real, time to go to the hospital. Contractions were about 50-60 seconds long at that point.
The drive to the hospital took about 20 minutes. I called the hospital to tell them we were coming and called our doula to tell her to meet us there. I remember Hank Williams III was in the CD player and I told my husband to turn it up, then immediately told him to turn it back off again. I had made a playlist of music for labor, but music was the last thing I wanted! All I needed to do was focus. I couldn?t believe this was happening and we were going to meet our baby!
When I got to the hospital around 6 pm the person hanging out at the valet took one look at me and grabbed a wheelchair and started fast walking me up to the labor and delivery floor. At this point, I was already in and out. I could focus on the very immediate circle of people around me, but that was it. The hospital where we were delivering has several labor tubs, which I was hoping to labor in, but the hospital was so full that they had to put us in the triage room for 2 hours while they waited for a room, any room, to open up. Things started getting very intense. I was only 3 cm dilated and I remember thinking, holy crap, if this is only 3 cm I am seriously in trouble. But my doula said that sometimes when labor starts and intensifies so quickly, it can take the cervix a while to ?catch up? and she estimated I would be dilating pretty quickly. At that point, lying on my left side felt the best. The contractions were coming on so strong with hardly any time to rest in between, maybe 20-30 seconds was all. I threw up several times. The room was dim, my husband and doula were there with me, and the only thing I focused on was getting through each individual contraction. I was being very vocal, making a loud ?ah? sound at the start of each contraction and trying to hold it throughout, decreasing in volume until my voice kind of petered out at the end. I didn?t plan on this, but it just came natural to me and it was working. Finally they said a room was opening up, would I like to walk or use a wheelchair? Even though labor was pretty tough at that point, I decided to make the walk, as I felt that moving and gravity would only help in moving the baby down. I had about 3 or 4 contractions on the way. I vaguely remember the nurse walking behind me to hold the hospital gown closed so I wasn?t hanging out in the breeze!
When I got into the labor tub? it felt so warm and comforting. It helped me to relax between contractions, whereas before I was kind of staying tense in between. I relaxed so much in between that I remember at one point I actually dozed off for 30 seconds or so! My husband and doula kept giving me drinks of water and cranberry juice. At first I was sitting, kind of lounging in the tub, but towards the end I was on my hands and knees. My arms started to get tired but it felt the best to rock back and forth like that. The hospital staff was awesome, everyone was so supportive and telling me how great I was doing. The anesthesiologist poked her head in and asked about an epidural. At that point, I felt that I was so close that I could just keep going without, so I shook my head. Out she went. Eventually, around 9:45 or so, I started to feel my body pushing during each contraction. It was such a strange feeling not to be actively pushing, but to feel your uterus pushing for you! I kept going with it, rocking back and forth, trying to keep my vocalizations sustained and low. Each time the pushing feeling came though, I grunted ? I couldn?t help it! The midwife came in, reached down and said, your baby?s head is right there, you can start pushing!
So let me just say ? pushing my baby out was quick (only 2 or 3 pushes) but it was the MOST INTENSE feeling I have ever, ever experienced. I am not going to sugar coat it ? it effing HURT. The ?ring of fire? they talk about? I had envisioned that as being a quick, flash of a feeling. No. I felt that burning sensation for what felt like a minute, I swear. I had been keeping it together before that, but I screamed like a banshee when I was pushing. I remember that I kept yelling ?Am I done?? Am I done??? and they kept saying no, keep pushing! Finally, the midwife said that the baby was right below me in the water! I reached down, and grabbed up my little baby and brought her to my chest. We were Team Green, and it was so dim and her little genitals were so swollen we couldn?t tell right away if she was a boy or girl! She came out screaming at the top of her lungs (just like her mom!). Then she quieted down and I just held her for several minutes in absolute wonder and RELIEF that it was all over.
The hospital where I delivered was awesome. I held her for an hour in the hospital bed (she nursed the whole time!) before they started newborn procedures and even then, took care of everything while I was still holding her. It was perfect.
Turns out she had her left hand by her head on the way out! I ended up with a partial third degree tear, which took about a bajillion residents and midwives to come in and assess and stitch. But even through all of that, I didn?t even care ? I was holding my little Louisa and all was well.
I?m so grateful that Louisa?s birth went so well ? although I definitely said when it was over, I am never doing that again!!! If her labor had been much longer and still that intense, I don?t know that I could have gone without some kind of medicated pain relief. Side note, I have no clue if red raspberry leaf tea really can make your uterus work more efficiently during contractions, but I did drink a TON during my second and third trimesters, so maybe?
One last thing I will say is this. I spent SO much time during my pregnancy preparing for childbirth, which was good, but hardly any time at all on learning about breastfeeding. I struggled with breastfeeding Louisa and I wish I had taken a class and just generally been more prepared. I took a SEVEN WEEK class on childbirth, an event which lasted all of 7 hours! All I did to prepare for breastfeeding was rent a DVD on Netflix. I don?t know what I was thinking. So that would be my recommendation to anyone who has made it this far in my post. If you are planning on breastfeeding and have not done it before, definitely look into taking a class or at least prepare more than I did! Thanks for reading J
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Re: LJ's Fast and Furious Natural Birth
Congratulations! Sounds like you were awesome, and your support team was really supportive.
As to this, I felt this way too after my fast, intense labor (#2) and in some ways actually prefer my longer labor (#1). After about 8 hours of that labor my brain got the message and started pumping out endorphins, and things were super chill after that and didn't really hurt, nothing like the intensity of birth #2.
So if there's a next time for you, remember that every birth is different, a longer labor might not be as intense, and could come with its own "pain relief" of a different kind!
Haha, my username should read "3Girlsand1BoyMama"...with #5 on the way! (and then we're done.)
Me, 33, DH, 32 DDs 9, 7, 4 and DS 2. EDD #5 4-29-15
Haha I said the same thing! I was so proud of myself for doing it sans epi, but I immediately was like ahh I think I'll get some drugs next time. Now 6 months later the memory of the pain isn't so fresh in my mind and I'm more optimistic about the next time.
And I also felt like the ring of fire was there the entire time I was pushing. It was excrutiating and pushing was not a relief at all.
Just wanted to say congrats! You did well mama and, as strange as it sounds, soon all the pain will be forgotten and you'll be ready again. ; )
Sometimes, I'm hilarious.
Congrats!
I also had a fast and natural hospital birth. I did take a class on breastfeeding, but you really don't know until you do it. Luckily I'm not a shy person, and I was very dedicated to starting our breastfeeding relationship off correctly, so I asked every nurse to check my latch. I saw both of the hospitals' LCs even though we checked out after a day. I'm still happily breastfeeding my 19 month old son!