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Natural Birth
dsmedly
member
Teddy's Birth/ Word of advice
dsmedly
member
Hi! I'm posting this from the hospital, and I'm a TB lurker so this is my story as some helpful hints for those considering natural birth.
Yesterday 2-19 I was 40+1 and trying to go all natural. I had my birth plan and my goals were to be all meds and pitocin and intervention free. Well, I was having contractions and I went to a talk at my school and then the grocery store and then to my OB appointment at 1:45. My midwife saw me at around 2:30 and said she was pretty sure I was in labor and sent me for an NST at the hospital. I went for monitoring from 3-5:30 and was strapped up and made to walk the halls, all of which annoyed me greatly because I wanted my happy, hippie birth to be a freeing experience. At 5pm they said I was 3-4 and I was having contractions about 5 minutes apart but I insisted that I wanted to go home to labor because I "knew" it would take a long time. My midwife, being sympathetic and supportive of my birth plan, allowed me to drive myself home.
I went home, now severely in labor, in incredible pain, but still imagining that I had many more hours to go. I probably got home at around 6, and proceeded to take out all my trash and clean and generally make my labor much more intense from moving around so much. My mom (my birth partner) got to my house about 6:30 and sat around because I was too prideful to realize that I was literally dying of pain, and wouldn't admit to just how awful I was feeling. At 7:00 I wandered about the house, wondering how I got myself into this mess and felt my water break just as I sat down on my fancy new water proof pad on my bed (thanks sister-in-law) and saw meconium in the fluid. I freaked out and started moaning about how the baby was going to be sick and we called the hospital and got there at about 7:30.
I could not walk, my contractions were 2 minutes apart and the most severe, unimaginable pain ever. I got wheelchaired up to L&D and begged for any medication they could give me. The nurses initially brushed off my screams, and after checking me said I was dilated to a 6. My on-call midwife rolls in at 8:00 as they are finally calling the anesthesia and checks me and says I'm a 9 and no pain meds for me it's time to push. I'm screaming and crying and doubting every bit of information I ever heard or read about natural birth and wishing I had NEVER seen the movie "The Business of Bring Born!!!" I had the baby at 8:15, almost exactly 45 minutes after getting to the hospital.
His name is James Theodore, he was 7'10" and 21". He's in the NICU, because of meconium aspiration.
Very cute.
Needless to say, be careful. The midwife said my labor may have been traumatic, and could've led to the meconium in the water bag, because he wasn't really overdue.
Listen to your body!!! I should've never left the hospital, I should've listened to my body and not pushed myself to do all these crazy things because I thought I knew everything.
It was all too fast, I got terribly torn because the relief of pushing, after the intense pain, felt so great I pushed him out in two contractions and I needed God knows how many LAYERS of stitches. I'm ok, and the baby's about to get discharged from the NICU now, but don't let you natural childbirth dream sweep you away from reality.
Thanks!!!
Yesterday 2-19 I was 40+1 and trying to go all natural. I had my birth plan and my goals were to be all meds and pitocin and intervention free. Well, I was having contractions and I went to a talk at my school and then the grocery store and then to my OB appointment at 1:45. My midwife saw me at around 2:30 and said she was pretty sure I was in labor and sent me for an NST at the hospital. I went for monitoring from 3-5:30 and was strapped up and made to walk the halls, all of which annoyed me greatly because I wanted my happy, hippie birth to be a freeing experience. At 5pm they said I was 3-4 and I was having contractions about 5 minutes apart but I insisted that I wanted to go home to labor because I "knew" it would take a long time. My midwife, being sympathetic and supportive of my birth plan, allowed me to drive myself home.
I went home, now severely in labor, in incredible pain, but still imagining that I had many more hours to go. I probably got home at around 6, and proceeded to take out all my trash and clean and generally make my labor much more intense from moving around so much. My mom (my birth partner) got to my house about 6:30 and sat around because I was too prideful to realize that I was literally dying of pain, and wouldn't admit to just how awful I was feeling. At 7:00 I wandered about the house, wondering how I got myself into this mess and felt my water break just as I sat down on my fancy new water proof pad on my bed (thanks sister-in-law) and saw meconium in the fluid. I freaked out and started moaning about how the baby was going to be sick and we called the hospital and got there at about 7:30.
I could not walk, my contractions were 2 minutes apart and the most severe, unimaginable pain ever. I got wheelchaired up to L&D and begged for any medication they could give me. The nurses initially brushed off my screams, and after checking me said I was dilated to a 6. My on-call midwife rolls in at 8:00 as they are finally calling the anesthesia and checks me and says I'm a 9 and no pain meds for me it's time to push. I'm screaming and crying and doubting every bit of information I ever heard or read about natural birth and wishing I had NEVER seen the movie "The Business of Bring Born!!!" I had the baby at 8:15, almost exactly 45 minutes after getting to the hospital.
His name is James Theodore, he was 7'10" and 21". He's in the NICU, because of meconium aspiration.
Very cute.
Needless to say, be careful. The midwife said my labor may have been traumatic, and could've led to the meconium in the water bag, because he wasn't really overdue.
Listen to your body!!! I should've never left the hospital, I should've listened to my body and not pushed myself to do all these crazy things because I thought I knew everything.
It was all too fast, I got terribly torn because the relief of pushing, after the intense pain, felt so great I pushed him out in two contractions and I needed God knows how many LAYERS of stitches. I'm ok, and the baby's about to get discharged from the NICU now, but don't let you natural childbirth dream sweep you away from reality.
Thanks!!!
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Re: Teddy's Birth/ Word of advice