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When did you realize you were really in labor?
My husband and I had planned to give birth at a nearby hospital with a local midwife practice. However, the birth did not go as planned. At 5:30am after going to the bathroom for the fourth time since 2:00am, there was a little blood in the toilet. I decided to wake my husband who started timing my contractions which were about 2 minutes apart. We called the on call midwife who told us that we needed to get to the hospital ASAP. However, I started dry heaving and I was not able to move from the toilet. My mom arrived at our house at 6:00am. I was holding my breath through contractions instead of breathing. My mom told me to focus on her face and to breath with her which I was able to do at that point.
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What was the most challenging thing about going natural?
The hardest thing about labor and going natural for me was not knowing what the labor would be like for me. I slept through most of my labor and when I was finally awake and unable to go back to sleep my labor progressed so quickly that there was very little else I could think about. Also once I realized that I was not going to make it to the hospital, I felt bad that I did not listen to my mom. She had told me multiple times that my family has a history of very short labors. It was very challenging not to have a trained professional present to explain to my mom that what was happening was normal and that I was going to be ok. I know she was very concerned for me and about the amount of blood that she saw. However, it was not out of the ordinary of a normal birth, it just seemed like a lot when your not used to seeing it.
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What was the most helpful thing you did to prepare for childbirth?
I had a very knowledgeable, strong, supportive and dedicated support system that ended up being my birthing team. My mother was the key to that support system. She was my anchor (and kept me breathing) during the most painful part of my labor and she caught the baby during the delivery. She was absolutely critical to my labor. The mama natural birth course was also very helpful to making me feel like my husband and I were prepared for child birth. Although in the end, I had no idea I would move through all the stages so quickly and with such little pain. One of the things that I took to heart was to sleep during the early labor if you started labor at night. I took that to heart and slept through most of my labor not just the early labor.
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What surprised you about your birth?
How quickly my labor progressed and how little pain I experienced.
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You have to prepare for a natural child birth (in your own way) but also realize that there is a lot you can not control. It is hard to be ready for the unknown but going with the flow and having a great support system really helped me get through my labor.
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What pain relief strategies worked best?
In early labor, I used the sleep breathing technique from hypnobirthing which allowed me to sleep through most of my labor. Additionally, when the pain increased to the point where I was holding my breath, I focused on my mom's face and watched her breath in order to anchor my thoughts and breath with her. I also used the squatty potty a lot throughout my labor (pretty much until the very end). I was sitting on the toilet with the squatty potty on four different occasions between 2:00am-5:30am. At 5:30am, I was unable to go back to bed and I just sat on the toilet with the squatty potty until I told my mom that I felt burning. She looked and the babies head was coming out. She told me to get down on all fours and the baby went back up and the pressure went away. It was at this point that I thought that we could make it to the hospital because the pressure went away. However, my mom knew otherwise and told my husband to call 9-1-1 that the baby was coming. There was a lot going on and I was not focused on my labor but apologizing to my mom and trying to listen to the operator on the phone. I think this really helped so that I did not feel a lot of pain because I was more focused on the other things around me.
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What position did you end up delivering in?
My mother and I were in the bathroom and I was sitting against my bathtub with pillows behind my back and my legs pulled up. I had envisioned birthing in all these different positions (squatting, all fours, having my husband hold me up) and the position that I ended up giving birth in was very traditional in my mind. My husband had collected a bunch of towels and my mom had bunched them up right under me. I never pushed and with one of the contractions the baby's head came out and then she rotated herself and shot out landing in the towels in my mom's arms.
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How did it feel to hold your baby for the first time?
After she was delivered, the operator on 9-1-1 said that I could not hold her until the umbilical cord was tied off. I kept telling my mom that I needed to hold my baby but we did not have anything to tie the umbilical cord readily available. My mom told me to talk to her and that I would be able to hold her in no time. She came out bright eyed and completely observing the world. She was so beautiful. She never cried just coughed a little and then grabbed her grandmother's finger until I could hold her. I told her that her mommy loved her and that we were so excited that she was here. My husband found a clean tie from a sweatshirt that had come out in the wash that my mom used about a minute later to tie the umbilical cord. The first time I held her, I felt so much pride and happiness. It was an amazing moment that I will never forget. She was so perfect. She had the roundest head (like a c-sectioned baby I thought), she had no red spots and was surprisingly clean considering the journey she had just taken.
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How did the Mama Natural Birth Class help you in your childbirth?
You have to prepare for a natural child birth (in your own way) but also realize that there is a lot you can not control. It is hard to be ready for the unknown but going with the flow and having a great support system really helped me get through my labor.
