How can 9 months, that seem to drag on and on into what feels like 9 years, be followed by the fastest 3 weeks of your life!?
But yes world, I have 2 children and our little family of 4 is still alive and dare I say it thriving!
(all thanks to my incredible mom---post to follow)
So let's get down to the nitty gritty, and talk Natural Childbirth.
I had what I would call a very common labor experience with my first son Finn. It was full of lots of drugs and unneeded interventions. I walked into the hospital without doing any research or having much of an idea at all about what the whole labor experience entailed. I was excited to not feel any pain, and come out with a baby. Well I definitely got a healthy baby, but the journey getting there was far from what I had expected. The epidural worked like a dream for the first 6 hours, but I was being maxed out on pitocin *(a synthetic version of oxytocin) so after 6 hours I started to feel intense contractions. After trying to just manually give me a higher dose of pain medication (but it still not holding up) they decided to re-administer the epidural. This worked just in time for me to get Finn out. But after the trauma of the intense contractions created by the pitocin, I had a fever and that made them nervous that Finn might have gotten an infection. He was quickly whisked away to be tested and given antibiotics. I spent the next 2 hours alone in my hospital room while Daniel stayed by Finn's side waiting for answers. Turns out, aside from the trauma of birth, he was just fine and after 4 very long hours I was finally able to hold my baby for the first time.
*Pitocin can be very hard on your body and your baby, while it does the trick at speeding up labor, it isn't quite as good as the real thing.
Oxytocin says to your body "Hey, I think it's time to start moving this baby towards the exit"
while Pitocin would shout "Get this baby the hell out of here!"
With all the anxiety and stress that surrounded me, I felt like I missed out on the promised excitement and joy of the whole experience. In the end I did come out of it with a beautiful healthy boy and I was so grateful, but I knew that there had to be a better way for me to get the same result.
With this second pregnancy I hit the books, determined to find a method that was much more rewarding for the both of us. As I began doing research I became very passionate about the idea of natural childbirth. I was not into the idea of giving birth at home in my bathtub, but I loved the concept of complete control over the decisions that need to be made during labor. Daniel wanted all the security of a hospital, and I wanted the option of pain medication just in case I lost my nerve.
We found the perfect happy medium! A group of midwives here in Houston that came with amazing recommendations. With them I would deliver at Texas Children's Hospital, but would get all the support and one on one care that I was hoping for.
fast forward 9 long months
My Mom gets into town on May 12, I am due on the 21st and I'm just
sure I will go into labor early.... at my appointment on the 20th I'm dilated to a 4 and 50% effaced but no promising contractions. I was determined to go into labor on my own. That week was full of walking, castor oil, nipple stim, spicy food, acupressure, jumping jacks--anything ever rumored to induce labor, I was doing it.
Almost a week goes by and I'm still uncomfortably massive, sleep deprived, swollen, and very grumpy.
Finally Sunday night the 26th (5 days overdue!) I began to feel painful contractions, I laid in bed trying to fall asleep, scared that if I got too excited or told anyone I would jinx it and everything would stop. But by 3am they are too intense for me to stay in bed,
I would say on the pain scale I was a 5. I get up quietly (careful not to wake my sleeping husband, because if this is really labor than he has a big day a head of him.......?) and wake up my mom in the next room. She and I decided to take a walk around the block and by the time we got back the contractions were about 3 minutes apart and hurting like a mug. I was really in labor, YAY! So I call the midwives and they tell me to start heading to the hospital. I wake Sleeping Beauty, and D and I check in at 6am.
I am now 100% efaced and dilated to a 6. They didn't give me an IV because I didn't want one. I loved that. They also whipped out an exercise ball and let me turn on my own music, so if it wasn't for the damn painful contractions coming every 2-3 minutes I would have been really enjoying myself! I was pretty exhausted in between contractions which apparently happens on purpose--your brain releases hormones that make you sleepy so that your body can relax, which allows that baby to move further down into your pelvis. I got in a hot bath to take some of the sting out of my lower back and it was then that I began to really understand why women on TV start to yell during labor. My mother in law describes contractions as someone taking barbed wire and wrapping it around your stomach and then pulling it as hard as they can, oh and also they're sliding a bowling ball through your pelvis..... she nailed it.
Now I was back in bed, only dilated to a 7, and my water still hadn't broken. I was so grateful that I was with my sweet midwife Theodorah because she was a genius! She could tell that my water was buoying the baby above my cervix, keeping me from dilating all the way, and suggested that we brake my water. After she did that, she could tell by feeling the top of the baby's head that she was facing the wrong direction. To flip Betsy she had me turn all the way over onto my left side. After this, things moved much quicker. I have heard that OBGYNs are skilled at getting the baby out--they are trained surgeons and when it comes to emergency situations they are absolute wizards at saving lives. Midwives are skilled in
childbirth. Through their experience they know the ins and outs of how a baby should be delivered vaginally and rock at making that happen in the smoothest way possible.
My water was broken at 8:08 and by 8:30 we had our sweet baby girl. Those 20 minutes, however quick, were stinkin' rugged! The contractions were off the pain scale and seemed to never go away. Luckily it was soon time for me to push, and after 3 or 4 she was out HALLELUJAH!
Now as terrible and painful as these last 5 and a half hours were, it was nothing compared to the happiness and absolute bliss of the hour that followed. They placed her up on my chest and as they rubbed her down I was in
complete awe of the entire experience. In that moment I would have done
it all over again if I had to. She was absolutely perfect and precious. The hospital calls this the "Golden Hour," you aren't supposed to text, call, or facebook for that first hour so that you can spend it bonding with your baby. The midwives practice delayed cord cutting which meant they waited a few minutes after Betsy was born to cut the cord. Aside from the health benefits that this is rumored to have for the baby I loved that this required us to stay close. I was instantly able to breastfeed her and spend a few moments gazing into her brand new eyes. This was a calming peace after such a whirlwind. She was strait from heaven and all ours, I was overcome with love and amazement. In that moment I was so grateful that I would not only get to raise this precious spirit, but that she would be a part of our family for eternity. That made all the aches/pains/emotional roller coasters of pregnancy, and all the pain that natural childbirth could throw at me, completely worth it. We had created life, what a blessing it was.
I was so lucky to have gotten to experience natural childbirth. The gratitude I feel to have had a smooth labor without any complications is immeasurable. Two healthy babies and two very different experiences later, I am excited to someday face another labor and delivery room empowered and ready to take control so that I have another rewarding experience.
