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When did you realize you were really in labor?
Too late.... My water had broken at 3:30 that morning, but I had no contractions until later in the afternoon, and then they were only one or two an hour. I went out for a late lunch with best friend, and they completely stopped! At 4 I followed my midwife's suggestion and took some castor oil to hopefully get things really started. I'd say around 7 they got fairly regular and weren't going away, by 9 they were like 5 min apart lasting 45 seconds, at 9:30 my best friend called the midwife to say she probably needed to head over (we were planning a home birth), and if things had gone according to plan she would most definitely would have been born before the midwife arrived at 10! Oops....
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What was the most challenging thing about going natural?
The back labor, ugh! I was prepared for "waves" of pain that would come and go with a break in between, that was not so with my back!! In the beginning I only felt the contractions in my lower back. Towards the end, I felt the tightening in my back constantly and the tightening in my front would come and go, so I never got those breaks. But my husband and best friend rubbed tennis balls and applied a heat pad to the spot and that helped a lot. As did my friend reading my childbirth affirmations out loud as a contraction would come. It was bad enough towards the end I kept asking why did I not go to a hospital and get an epidural like everyone else! Haha little did I know I was actually just super close to having my baby, and in reality it's totally worth it to go natural ?
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What was the most helpful thing you did to prepare for childbirth?
Creating a positive mental atmosphere and adding to it every single day. Building a birth care team (my midwifes and husband and best friend) that had the same views as me. I ran into a LOT of people who didn't get why I was choosing a natural birth (even if I said nothing about planning a home birth) and told me it would be so awful and painful and unbearable and I wasn't going to be able to do it without pain medication. I ignored all those people and every time I heard something negative, I went to find a positive about birth. I read a lot of positive birth stories to remind myself that are so many women who have gone down the same path I was and they wouldn't change a thing about doing it naturally!
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What surprised you about your birth?
The fact that my baby who had been head down since week 28 of the pregnancy and still head down earlier that afternoon had flipped into a breech position DURING LABOR. Combined with the fact that labor progressed much, much quicker than I had anticipated, by the time the midwife got to my home, I was already 10 cm dilated, feeling the urge to push, but the baby was breech so we had to call 911 and take an ambulance to the hospital. I was somehow very calm throughout all of this, I think it must have been the hormones and the fact that I didn't realize how far along I was. They were concerned I was going to have the baby in the ambulance (that the midwife wasn't allowed to come in) with EMTs who had no idea what to do. Luckily, I made it to the hospital where I assumed I was getting an emergency c-section. But another surprise! There was one doctor who was trained in delivering breech babies (that should really be a more common skill -_- ) and since I was already so far along, they let me have a vaginal birth. There were two doctors that delivered my baby and I remember when I got to the hospital one said "now, you know you're going to have to do this without pain medication?" Haha, yes, yes I am all too aware. I ended up pushing on my back with the nurses counting down, the exact opposite of what I had imagined all pregnancy, but I didn't have major abdominal surgery and I am fine and my baby is perfect and healthy and amazing. It was quite the ride.
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One of my affirmation quotes, that I can't remember where it came from now, was "There is a secret in our society, but it is not that childbirth is painful. It is that women are strong."
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What pain relief strategies worked best?
Tennis ball on back, lavender essential oil aroma, heat pad, and making what was probably extremely alarming to the neighbors, moans during the contractions. Oh and hearing my childbirth affirmations out loud.
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What position did you end up delivering in?
On my back in a hospital bed with people holding my legs up. Sigh. However I didn't end up in one of those dreadful hospital gowns ;) (there was no time for that)
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How did it feel to hold your baby for the first time?
Amazing and perfect and natural, like I had always known her but had been waiting my lifetime to finally meet her. After processing all the craziness that was her birth, really the only part that I am upset about or that I would change is that i wasn't the first person to hold her. When she came out, they took her over to the little warmer station thing in the room to look her over I guess. I'm not sure if it was necessary because she was crying. Her cord was cut immediately and they took her the other side of the room and I had to wait for the doctor to finish stitching me up (I ended up with a 4th degree episiotomy, so it seemed like it took an eternity). It hurts I missed her first cry, her first kicks, her breaths. I'll never get that back. But my husband was able to go to her and be by her and hold her, so she at least wasn't only with strangers. But after all the work I'd done and after carrying her inside me for 9 months, it just sucks I wasn't able to hold her first.
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What advice can you give to other mamas who want to go natural?
You can most definitely without a doubt do it. Remind yourself of that every day. Fill your mind and soul with good vibes and pass all that on to your baby. Ignore any negativity and block out people who doubt your strength as a woman. For every negative thing you hear about childbirth, go find two positive things/stories to replace it. One of my affirmation quotes, that I can't remember where it came from now, was "There is a secret in our society, but it is not that childbirth is painful. It is that women are strong."
