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When did you realize you were really in labor?
It was 11 PM and my husband had gone out to water his garden. My water broke - just a trickle. When he came in I said, "hurry up and go to sleep. I think I'm going to go into labor tonight and I want to get some rest". He went to sleep, but my contractions started immediately after that, so I let him sleep while I rotated between bed, bath and toilet.
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What was the most challenging thing about going natural?
There was nothing challenging to me about my choice to go natural. There was never a question. I wanted a home birth without interventions, and I had it - complication-free.
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What was the most helpful thing you did to prepare for childbirth?
I got a Doula. Childbirth is an extremely vulnerable time and it doesn't matter how good you are at multitasking, you can't do anything but focus on the contractions when you're in the middle of it. I needed her there to fetch me a puke bucket, serve me water and validate the normalcy of what I was going through.
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What surprised you about your birth?
I was your average first-time mom, shocked at how much it hurt, how long it took and discouraged at 6cms, thinking I would have been further along. But I think the most shocking part was when my son actually arrives. You imagine what your kids will look like and you consider them an extension of you, but when he arrived, he looked like himself, he was and still is his own beautiful person.
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There was nothing challenging to me about my choice to go natural. There was never a question. I wanted a home birth without interventions, and I had it - complication-free.
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What pain relief strategies worked best?
Hydrotherapy helped to balance and calm my contractions. I was in and out of my bathtub in early labor and in and out of my birthing pool as labor progressed.
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How did it feel to hold your baby for the first time?
Surreal. Just so surreal and yet so normal and right - as if holding him had always been a normal part of life.
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What did you name your baby, and why?
Vincent Oliver - just because we liked it
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What advice can you give to other mamas who want to go natural?
When I was pregnant my instincts became incredibly intense. There's nothing like the instincts of a mother. Follow your gut and do what you know you need to do.
