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Birth Stories
gatorhap
member
Med-Free Birth Story
gatorhap
member
The night of Dec 3rd (my due date), we went for a walk to try to get
things going. Nothing. I woke up around 6:30 am Dec 4th to go to the
bathroom and had my first "real" contraction. Meaning it hurt as
opposed to the million non-painful ones I had been having for weeks. I
had a few about 30 minutes apart and then they stopped. We went for a
walk to try to get them started again and I had a few during the walk
about 15 minutes apart. By then it was about 10:30ish. Once we stopped
walking, the contractions stopped again, so I pretty much just decided
that I was going to wait it out and let it happen on its own.
Throughout the day I had contractions sporadically. They would be
timeable for an hour or so and then stop for an hour. We went to pick
up S around 5:30 and I rode in the passenger seat because I figured I
didn't need to be driving if they started up again. Right as we pulled
into the school parking lot, I had another one and that was pretty much
the start of "real" labor. We came back home and all snuggled up on the
couch to watch Madagascar and I started contracting about every 10
minutes, then every 7, then every 5. By this point, I was really having
to concentrate during the contrax and of course, S wanted to sit in my
lap and climb all over me and that wasn't working anymore. I tried
sitting on the labor ball during this period, too, and that did not
work for me. They seemed more painful while on the ball, so that was
the end of that coping technique. I went upstairs and got in the
bathtub while we waited for SIL to come over to watch S. I stayed in
there for about 30 minutes I think, having contrax about every 4-5
minutes. I was alone during this time, because B had to take S
downstairs and distract her so that she wasn't trying to get in the tub
with me. I heard SIL arrive and got out of the tub. Wow, the contrax
really hurt after standing up and getting out of the water. From this
point on, I had to grab a counter and bend over at the waist and really
breathe through the contrax while swaying my hips back and forth in
rhythm with my breathing. I got dressed and B called the dr's office to
let them know we were ready to come in. I was starving b/c by now it
was around 8:00 and I hadn't eaten anything since lunch at 1, so I had
half a plain bagel. It was great, b/c I wasn't hungry anymore, but I
think I was too far into labor at that point to eat. That bagel felt
like it sat right in my throat the rest of my labor. I won't do that
again next time.
We got in the car to head to the hospital. I had B take the headrest off of the back seat and I knelt on the seat and leaned over the back all the way to the hospital (about 10 mins) because I really didn't want to sit down. Not the safest thing, but it worked for me. We got to the hospital around 9 I think, went up to triage, and B had to go down to get me registered. They put the monitors on and I was contracting every 3 minutes and was at 6-7 cm dilated. I told the nurse I needed to stand up for the contrax and by now my rhythmic breathing and swaying went "breathe in for 2 sways of the hips, then moan out for 2 sways". The nurse saw me get through one contraction like this and asked if I was going natural. When I told her yes, she said, "I thought so, you've got that down girl!" I think I said something like, "well, that's good to hear!" They moved me to my LDR room and the midwife arrived and said I could do anything I wanted after 15 solid minutes on the monitor so they could get a reading on the baby. I sat in the rocker for those 15 minutes, continued my breathing and moaning, and squeezed B's hand during contrax. By now it was around 10.
Then I moved into the labor tub. The temp on that thing was locked at lukewarm, which nobody liked. The midwife and the nurse both tried to make it hotter, but I didn't really care. I still got in. Even though it wasn't very hot, I was hot so I didn't feel cold. I stayed in there for about 45 minutes I think while I went through transition. That was interesting b/c I had read that transition was the most intense part of labor and with S I got my epidural around 6 cm so I never experienced it. What it seemed like to me was that the contrax never really ended during this period, but they hurt less. I was still breathing through it almost nonstop, but I wasn't moaning anymore. Also, when they did stop in between, I kept falling asleep. I wouldn't even realize the contraction had stopped until I woke up suddenly and realized I had fallen asleep. I also shook quite a bit. B kept saying, "you're shaking like a leaf" but I didn't fell cold at all.
When I got out of the tub, I had a really strong contraction almost immediately. I thought I wanted to sit down on the edge of the tub but that hurt more than anything had so far, so I jumped back up and threw myself at my midwife and she hugged me through that contraction and told me to "breathe into it" which changed my mindset a little. I started breathing in deeper each time and it seemed to offset the contraction really well. They got me back into the LDR room and she checked me and I was at 9.5cm and fully effaced. There was basically just a little lip of cervix. She convinced me to let her break my water by asking me if I wanted a 12/4 or 12/5 birth, which I didn't even feel until the warm fluid was running out. She said my bag was very full and bulging, so that probably helped. I stayed in the bed through 3 or 4 VERY hard contrax and she checked again since I wasn't feeling the urge to push and that lip was still there. So she had me get up and stand through a few contrax to let gravity help me out. I stood hugging B through one and didn't like that position, so I leaned over on the bed for the next two. During that last one, I felt like I was going to have diarrhea (which I had had earlier in the evening), so I started getting a little bit upset. When I told the midwife that, she insisted it was probably the baby's head I was feeling. I was still worried about it, but I resigned myself to going during delivery if it was going to happen. She convinced me to just let her check me and I got up on the bed for her to do that. She turned around to get some gloves and another contrax hit and I just pushed through it. By the time she turned back around, she started yelling, "stop pushing, stop pushing!" I yelled back, "I can't!" She started freaking out trying to get her gloves out of the package and trying to get the nurse to help her. She was telling me, "I need to catch your baby!" I felt a little "pop" feeling and a split second of burning and I felt the head come out. Then I was able to stop pushing. By now the midwife had her gloves on and told me she needed me to push. Then I was telling her I couldn't push. I wasn't having a contraction anymore. She said I had to get the baby's shoulders out, so I pushed two times. Those were really hard, I yelled during those, not in pain, but in effort, and out came my "surprise" daughter at 11:34 pm. B was supposed to look and tell us the sex but the umbilical cord was between her legs and he couldn't see. I actually saw first and said it was a girl.
The first thing I said when I held her was that she was smaller than her sister and she was. She was 7lb, 10oz and 19.75 inches. After I held her for a few minutes, they cleaned her up and did the weight, etc, then I nursed her for a while before they bathed and dressed her. I had a small tear, she said it was a stretch to even call it 1st degree. I think it was 2-3 stitches. The only med I had was an injection in my thigh of something like pitocin after delivery to help my uterus contract down since this was my second baby. I had an IV port that the triage nurse had put in but it turned out it was never really in. I never got anything through the IV. I drank ice water throughout labor. The mw and nurses were all saying how they wished more women would go natural, that they love it. So I am very extremely excited about our experience and will absolutely do it the same way again next time. It was very intense, but very manageable. I never cried, never screamed other than that last effort to get her shoulders out, and never felt like I was going to lose control.
We got in the car to head to the hospital. I had B take the headrest off of the back seat and I knelt on the seat and leaned over the back all the way to the hospital (about 10 mins) because I really didn't want to sit down. Not the safest thing, but it worked for me. We got to the hospital around 9 I think, went up to triage, and B had to go down to get me registered. They put the monitors on and I was contracting every 3 minutes and was at 6-7 cm dilated. I told the nurse I needed to stand up for the contrax and by now my rhythmic breathing and swaying went "breathe in for 2 sways of the hips, then moan out for 2 sways". The nurse saw me get through one contraction like this and asked if I was going natural. When I told her yes, she said, "I thought so, you've got that down girl!" I think I said something like, "well, that's good to hear!" They moved me to my LDR room and the midwife arrived and said I could do anything I wanted after 15 solid minutes on the monitor so they could get a reading on the baby. I sat in the rocker for those 15 minutes, continued my breathing and moaning, and squeezed B's hand during contrax. By now it was around 10.
Then I moved into the labor tub. The temp on that thing was locked at lukewarm, which nobody liked. The midwife and the nurse both tried to make it hotter, but I didn't really care. I still got in. Even though it wasn't very hot, I was hot so I didn't feel cold. I stayed in there for about 45 minutes I think while I went through transition. That was interesting b/c I had read that transition was the most intense part of labor and with S I got my epidural around 6 cm so I never experienced it. What it seemed like to me was that the contrax never really ended during this period, but they hurt less. I was still breathing through it almost nonstop, but I wasn't moaning anymore. Also, when they did stop in between, I kept falling asleep. I wouldn't even realize the contraction had stopped until I woke up suddenly and realized I had fallen asleep. I also shook quite a bit. B kept saying, "you're shaking like a leaf" but I didn't fell cold at all.
When I got out of the tub, I had a really strong contraction almost immediately. I thought I wanted to sit down on the edge of the tub but that hurt more than anything had so far, so I jumped back up and threw myself at my midwife and she hugged me through that contraction and told me to "breathe into it" which changed my mindset a little. I started breathing in deeper each time and it seemed to offset the contraction really well. They got me back into the LDR room and she checked me and I was at 9.5cm and fully effaced. There was basically just a little lip of cervix. She convinced me to let her break my water by asking me if I wanted a 12/4 or 12/5 birth, which I didn't even feel until the warm fluid was running out. She said my bag was very full and bulging, so that probably helped. I stayed in the bed through 3 or 4 VERY hard contrax and she checked again since I wasn't feeling the urge to push and that lip was still there. So she had me get up and stand through a few contrax to let gravity help me out. I stood hugging B through one and didn't like that position, so I leaned over on the bed for the next two. During that last one, I felt like I was going to have diarrhea (which I had had earlier in the evening), so I started getting a little bit upset. When I told the midwife that, she insisted it was probably the baby's head I was feeling. I was still worried about it, but I resigned myself to going during delivery if it was going to happen. She convinced me to just let her check me and I got up on the bed for her to do that. She turned around to get some gloves and another contrax hit and I just pushed through it. By the time she turned back around, she started yelling, "stop pushing, stop pushing!" I yelled back, "I can't!" She started freaking out trying to get her gloves out of the package and trying to get the nurse to help her. She was telling me, "I need to catch your baby!" I felt a little "pop" feeling and a split second of burning and I felt the head come out. Then I was able to stop pushing. By now the midwife had her gloves on and told me she needed me to push. Then I was telling her I couldn't push. I wasn't having a contraction anymore. She said I had to get the baby's shoulders out, so I pushed two times. Those were really hard, I yelled during those, not in pain, but in effort, and out came my "surprise" daughter at 11:34 pm. B was supposed to look and tell us the sex but the umbilical cord was between her legs and he couldn't see. I actually saw first and said it was a girl.
The first thing I said when I held her was that she was smaller than her sister and she was. She was 7lb, 10oz and 19.75 inches. After I held her for a few minutes, they cleaned her up and did the weight, etc, then I nursed her for a while before they bathed and dressed her. I had a small tear, she said it was a stretch to even call it 1st degree. I think it was 2-3 stitches. The only med I had was an injection in my thigh of something like pitocin after delivery to help my uterus contract down since this was my second baby. I had an IV port that the triage nurse had put in but it turned out it was never really in. I never got anything through the IV. I drank ice water throughout labor. The mw and nurses were all saying how they wished more women would go natural, that they love it. So I am very extremely excited about our experience and will absolutely do it the same way again next time. It was very intense, but very manageable. I never cried, never screamed other than that last effort to get her shoulders out, and never felt like I was going to lose control.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Med-Free Birth Story
Um, yeah they would. Without it they're pretty much out of a job. At least they were honest about that.
I'm going to be quoting you next time someone tells me midwives have no vested interest in denying women pain relief in labour. Thanks!?