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When did you realize you were really in labor?
At around 12:30 am I woke up, startled. My first thought was that the baby had kicked me awake, but then I realized I was having a contraction. I tried to go back to sleep, but the contractions kept coming, so eventually, I got up and started timing them. They were about five minutes apart. My husband woke up and I told him the baby was coming. "Can't you wait til morning?" was his response. (He was kidding.)
Our two older kids (3 and 1.5 years old) were both asleep in their beds, so I told myself "this baby is going to come very quickly" because it needed to happen before they got up for the day at 7!
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What was the most challenging thing about going natural?
I had my first two children naturally at home, so I knew what was coming. For me it was very challenging to be positive about this birth, knowing the real work that labor can be.
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What was the most helpful thing you did to prepare for childbirth?
I always do positive affirmations during pregnancy, and those were fantastic for countering any negative thoughts in the weeks leading up to my birth. A few weeks before my birth, I also had a conversation with my doula that turned out to be birth-changing. I was telling her how much I wanted a quiet room, and she told me that she'd had a silent birth. She literally made no noise. "Well I could never do that," I thought. But the thought stuck.
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What surprised you about your birth?
Having a silent room made my birth pain-free!!! I'm not kidding. A month before labor I watched one of your videos where you said you had a pain-free birth. "C'mon, I've given birth twice. I know that's not possible," was my reaction. Oh, Mama Natural, how happy I am to eat those words.
I don't mind contractions, as I only find them uncomfortable. But around when I hit transition and things were getting intense, I asked everyone in the room with me to stop talking. My midwife, doula, my husband, and I were all silent for the rest of my birth. When the room became silent. I was able to focus and relax as I'd never been able to during my previous two births. My contractions were still intense, but instead of gripping the hands of those around me, as I'm used to doing, I lay on my side and quietly breathed, without touching anyone. My baby was posterior, and we'd been trying to get him to rotate for the whole birth. After the transition, I was so relaxed that I thought my labor was stalling, maybe because of his position. I told my midwife my fear, and she checked me. "Give me your fingers," she said. "That's your baby's head." He was right there, ready to come out! I'd been gently pushing for a couple of hours, and I just upped my efforts a little, and I could feel him crowning. He came out head up, and then my midwife rolled me to my back and he rotated as the rest of him came out! But none of it hurt. It wasn't even difficult. I actually said out loud as his head came out "wow, I am so present. I didn't know this was possible during birth!" My midwife and doula laughed so much, and my husband was in shock. I was so full of joy. Literally, within minutes I was talking about when our next baby would come. Because I wanted to do it again!
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I actually said out loud as his head came out "wow, I am so present. I didn't know this was possible during birth!" My midwife and doula laughed so much, and my husband was in shock. I was so full of joy. Literally, within minutes I was talking about when our next baby would come. Because I wanted to do it again!
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What pain relief strategies worked best?
During the first part of labor, I used the visualization of a flower opening. I thought of the peonies in my garden and how much I hoped their blooms would open soon. Envisioning them opening must have helped me dilate faster because my baby came in less than six hours! (Oh, and the next day their blooms had opened! What a gift!)
After the transition, silence allowed me to relax and made the birth pain-free.
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How did it feel to hold your baby for the first time?
I was shocked that he was a boy!!!! And overjoyed that he was safely in my arms. I'd experienced bleeding from a sub-chorionic hemorrhage early in pregnancy, and we'd thought that we had lost him. To hold him in my arms, after thinking he was gone was the most incredible gift from God.
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What did you name your baby, and why?
We named him Louis Benedict Joseph. My husband is devoted to St. Louis Martin, I am devoted to St. Louis IX and we are both devoted to St. Benedict Joseph Labre, a French saint who was a beggar. We love naming our children after saints who will be their friends in heaven, asking God to help them be saints too.
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What advice can you give to other mamas who want to go natural?
You can do it!!! And don't think that just because you've given birth before, this birth will be the same. Birth can surprise you in the most incredible ways!
