-
When did you realize you were really in labor?
I think I knew at 4:30 am, but because I knew the contractions would get more intense, I tried to tell myself they were just cramps. When 4:30 pm hit, I told my husband I'M IN ACTIVE LABOR.
-
What was the most challenging thing about going natural?
The intense pain. Nothing can prepare you for it. It's really quite unfathomable.
-
birth-4
-
What was the most helpful thing you did to prepare for childbirth?
Read birth stories and watch live birth videos.
-
What surprised you about your birth?
30 minutes after I gave birth (labor was 30 hours and I pushed for 5 1/2) and took a shower, I felt SO GOOD. SO ALERT. SO JOYFUL. SO ENERGIZED. SO HUNGRY. haha. It was such an amazing feeling even though I just did the hardest thing in my life. My birth team was so tired and almost falling asleep and here I was little energy joyful lady so happy to have my babe!
-
It was SO helpful! We were going to do a hospital birth, but 5 weeks from the due date we switched to home birth and I'm forever grateful! I felt empowered and prepared from the Mama Natural Birth Class - SAME for my husband too!
-
What pain relief strategies worked best?
The hip squeeze by my husband, and him modeling breathing for me. Both so helpful!!!!!
-
How did it feel to hold your baby for the first time?
UNREAL. After such a long labor and pushing, to finally SEE my son.... I couldn't take it all in fast enough, it was like a beautiful dream! SO tender. So special. So much love!!!!!
-
What did you name your baby, and why?
When I got pregnant, and before we knew the gender, my husband and I weren’t super serious about discussing names yet since it was so early on in my pregnancy. I was talking about names with my brother one day, and he said, “You should ask God about what name to give your baby.” DUH. I ask God about so many things, and if He is the one creating this child inside me, He surely has a name already for my sweet baby. So as my husband and I started to pray about it, and the name Judah kept coming to me. Every time I’d read my Bible, somehow there was a reference to Judah. Every sermon I was hearing, there was mention of Judah. And every time I heard the name Judah, it was like my baby jumped within me. I felt a rush of excitement. Every. Time. It was wild. Anyway, a couple of weeks pass and life gets busy, I feel sick and insomnia kicks in like crazy, I forget about names. Then we have our ultrasound, and we find out the gender and its a BOY! So happy! And my husband says: “but we already knew that since God gave you the name Judah”. I completely forgot. Yes, yes He did, and yes, yes it’s a boy. So throughout the rest of my pregnancy, we kept praying if Judah was the right name, and we kept sensing it was. So the big day comes, I end up switching to a home birth 5 weeks before delivering (had this really strong sense that I should) and it turns out I had a 35 hours of early & active labor, and pushed for over 5 hours. There are so many details, like an extremely short chord, plus it was wrapped around our boys neck, plus he was posterior, when he came out he was turning blue because of cord, so my midwife had to reach in and pull his shoulders out, which because the cord was so short ended up ripping part of my placenta, which caused bleeding….etc…etc…etc… so many things but in the end our boy was GREAT! A great APGAR score test, and I am good, and wow… (If we would have had the original planned hospital birth, I’m pretty sure it would have been an emergency c-section). So many things we praise God for! And that is exactly what Judah means – PRAISE! (not to mention it took us a long time to get pregnant, so we definitely PRAISE GOD for JUDAH!)
-
How did the Mama Natural Birth Class help you in your childbirth?
It was SO helpful! We were going to do a hospital birth, but 5 weeks from the due date we switched to home birth and I'm forever grateful! I felt empowered and prepared from the Mama Natural Birth Class- SAME for my husband too!
