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When did you realize you were really in labor?
Since I have Type 1 diabetes I was being monitored weekly. They checked the baby's heartbeat as well as the level of amniotic fluid. The week before my due date, my water was low enough for the doctor to want to induce labor. I convinced her to let me wait at least one more day. When I didn't start labor on my own, I convinced her to just strip my membranes to try to induce without medications. When that still didn't start it, they wanted to start me on Pitocin to get the labor going. This wasn't in my natural birth plan but I wanted a healthy baby and I told them that I would do it. I had done previous research and heard how the Pitocin makes labor goes so fast and makes it so painful that woman opt for the epidural. Again, because I wanted as natural birth as possible, I told them that I wanted to start with the smallest dose possible and that I would control how much and when. They agreed. About ten hours later as the surges I felt got stronger and lasted longer, I realized I was in the middle of full labor. My hypnobirthing teacher told me that at the point that I feel I really can not take the pain any longer, that is the point when I am at "the top of the mountain" and will be ready to push. It was true. At around the twelfth hour when the pain was so strong that I was going to cry out for relief, I could feel my body ready to push.
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What was the most challenging thing about going natural?
The most challenging thing about going natural was that I have Type 1 Diabetes. For most of my life I didn't think that I would be able to have a child. Then once I knew that people with diabetes were finding ways to control their diabetes enough to have children, I was told that the babies would be oversized and delivered via cesarean. In order to avoid either of those and have chance at a natural birth with a healthy baby, I did every thing in my power to control by diabetes. That included convincing my doctor that I wanted to go full term, no cesarean, no drugs, no IVs.
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AddieMommy
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What was the most helpful thing you did to prepare for childbirth?
Before getting pregnant I knew the horror stories that everyone told. It was like woman wanted a prize for having the longest most painful labor and birth. I knew that birth would be painful and I wasn't tricking myself into thinking that it wouldn't be that way. But I wanted to hear the joy of it as well. I knew that God created a woman's body to be able to have a baby and I wanted to experience that miracle in full. So my husband came home one day and told me about a friend who had taken hypnobirthing classes and he knew immediately that it was for us. Hypnobirthing turned out to be the positive encouragement and education that I needed. I learned about the history of woman giving birth and how our society got to where it is today.
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What surprised you about your birth?
I was surprised that in a big hospital, the doctor and nurse, whom I'd never met before, sat with me and my husband before it all began and read my birth plan line by line. Together, they were able to make sure the room was quite, the lights were dimmed, and that no one asked me about my pain level and no one checked my cervix until I was ready to push.
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Please listen to as many positive stories as possible. Understand that right now you have all that you need to naturally deliver a healthy baby. Your body was designed to be able to do it!
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What pain relief strategies worked best?
Since my amniotic fluid was low to begin with, the doctor required the baby's heartbeat to monitored constantly. This meant that I wasn't able to move around as freely as I was expecting. The nurse offered my a rocking chair and said that it had helped her through a natural birth. I didn't plan on using a rocking chair but it actually helped a lot. I was able to lull myself through the surges by closing my eyes and slowly rocking.
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What position did you end up delivering in?
I delivered my daughter by initial squatting on the bed and hanging on to a pole they set up over the bed that I held on to as I pushed.
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How did it feel to hold your baby for the first time?
When I held Addie for the first time, I was in shock, the good kind. I couldn't believe that I had just delivered her naturally and that she was actually in my arms. That she was a creation of mine and my husband's. That God had allowed me to carry her for nine months and then birth her and she is finally here!
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What advice can you give to other mamas who want to go natural?
Please listen to as many positive stories as possible. Understand that right now you have all that you need to naturally deliver a healthy baby. Your body was designed to be able to do it! It will hurt but it doesn't last forever and your child's health and well being is worth the pain. My daughter is almost two years old now and that is just the first of many teachable moments in a lifetime of raising her.
