Natural Hospital Birth Story (long)

erb82 · August 2013

I always enjoy reading positive natural birth stories, so I'm happy to be able to share mine with you all!

I had had two previous unmedicated hospital births, and was due with #3 on July 24. The evening of July 18th, as I was getting ready for bed, I noticed that I was having some bloody show. In my earlier births, this hadn't happened until active labor, so I was cautiously hopeful that I would be going into labor very soon. I woke up several hours later at 3:40 am with a very strong contraction. It lasted well over a minute, and I needed to get out of bed and walk through it. I got back in bed and promptly fell asleep again, and woke up again at 4:05 with an even stronger contraction. My most recent birth (only 14 months ago) had been only 3 hours total and I was GBS+, so my OB had told me to call in as soon as I was sure I was really in labor. Those two contractions were enough for me- I knew it was the real deal, so I woke up DH and called the doctors' office. It was a good thing I did, because my contractions immediately dropped to 2 minutes apart! We woke up my mom, who was visiting and told her we were headed to the hospital, and called the in-laws, so that they could stay with the kids and my mom could join us at the hospital. We also called my sister, who was planning on attending the birth, since she is considering pursing a nursing degree.

We got to the hospital a little before 5 am, and got admitted. The nurse checked me and I was at 6cms, and they hooked up my heplock. I told them that I was GBS+ but for some reason it wasn't on my chart, and they had to confirm it with my doctor before administering the antibiotics. Throughout my labor, I was never once offered pain relief drugs of any kind and an epidural was never mentioned. I didn't have a birth plan, and neither DH or I ever mentioned that we were hoping for a natural birth. I guess the nurses figured we would say something if I wanted one- I really appreciated that! Eventually, the nurses got the okay to give me the antibiotics and got that set up. I sat in a rocking chair, and it only took about 5-10 minutes. While I was hooked up to the IV, both my mom and my sister came in the room. They both were amazing- they really didn't say anything at all, but just knowing they were there was very comforting to me.

After being unhooked from the IV, I asked DH to fill up the whirlpool tub so that I could labor in that for awhile. I got in the tub and within 5 mintues I felt like I needed to push. I told the nurse and she checked me and said I was only at 8, and needed to wait. That was when things got really hard. My whole body wanted to push, but everyone was telling me to wait. A little bit later the doctor came in and said I was nearly at 10, and that I could start pushing. After only 5 minutes of pushing his head was out- but I was still feeling a lot of pain and pressure. I remembered from my first two being born that once the head was out, everything felt so much easier, so I couldn't understand why I was still in pain. Turns out he had big shoulders and they were stuck- it was the only time during any of my births that I actually felt tearing happen- OUCH! Anthony John was born July 19th at 6:33, less than 3 hours after I went into labor. He was 8lb 12oz, 21.5 inches, and absolutely beautiful. It's been so much fun getting to know this little guy and introducing him to his big sisters!