What surprised you about your birth?
My birth story:
I was 41 weeks and 4 days on Friday November 10th and faced an induction on Monday if baby did not choose to make an appearance. I had a midwife appointment and in a very positive voice she told me, "You are 4 cm dilated, 80% effaced with the bag of waters bulging and you will have this baby in 48 hours." A couple days before this I made my peace with God and truly believed that He was under control of the situation and had my baby and myself in the palm of His hand. I knew that when the time was right our baby would come into the world, however when the midwife spoke these words to me it gave me another dose of peace and reassurance.
My pressure waves began at 8:30 that evening very lightly while my husband and I were getting our daughter ready for bed and reading her a book. Around 9 pm I decided I better lay down and listen to my Hypnobabies audio tracks, starting with "Your Birthing Time Begins" and then "Your Special Safe Place", while my husband was in charge of putting our 2 year old daughter to bed. The whole time the pressure waves felt like lower period cramps and I was just laying down in my bed in a very peaceful state, very relaxed and in total control. Around 10:30 pm I started to feel anxious that my husband was still with our daughter and I started to text him, "Where are you?". When he came in 10 minutes later, I felt more of a rhythm to my pressure waves and decided to time them out. Quickly, it seemed like they were coming every 5 minutes I told my husband to check the OBGYN sheet for when to call the midwife, which he quickly decided to call and we made the decision to get to the hospital right away! My mom arrived just in time to watch our daughter and I started to cry as I made my way downstairs as the emotion started to come as everything was happening very fast.
I had a difficult time getting into the car as I became unsure of myself and then when I finally did I became calm again as I listened to my "Joyful Pregnancy Affirmations" audio track out loud. When we arrived to the hospital about 15 minutes later things started to get more out of control for me as I walked to the hospital registration by myself while my husband parked and there were some patients at the desk in front of me. I was trying to listen to my tracks but also was very uncomfortable and anxious leaning against the registration desk, while thinking in my head (and out loud at times) that all I wanted to go to was the birthing room. When my husband was able to help me out I was getting all the more frustrated with the formal process because I was far along in my birth process and wanted to be somewhere safe and away from the bright lights and strangers in the hospital. Finally, I was given a wheelchair and we went up the elevator to floor three and the next hurdle was going through the very unpleasant triage process. There I was weighed and then taken to another room for ultrasound, a vaginal check (9-10 cm dilated) and the doppler scan. I was becoming ever more agitated at this point and did not want to comply with the nurses and kept saying " I just want to go into the room". I was finally able to leave triage and choose to walk the long distance to the birthing room draped with a sheet around my waist (my wish) with the help of my nurse and midwife to the birthing room. When a pressure wave hit I leaned against the midwife for support and relaxed as much as I could while having "Your Easy First Stage" playing.
What seemed like an hour walk, I entered into the birthing room and I was shocked by a large table covered with many surgical tools. I had to ask for the lights to be lowered and my midwife informed me that she flew in from Kansas. I felt disappointed that it was not a midwife that I had a chance to meet from the seven at the OBGYN practice and from the beginning we did not seem to click. A short while later, I entered into transformation time and started to make loud "ahh" sounds to let out the energy and in between kept informing everyone I was "okay" and just something my body had to do for comfort. I was not very comfortable mentally or physically due to the high breakdown "hospital" bed and not enough pillows. Whenever I got into the bed I felt like I was going to slip right off! (I was informed later that the natural birthing room was unavailable due to upgrades.) I felt a small urge to push and told my husband to quickly play the "Pushing Baby Out" track so we could be ready when the time came. There was not enough time to bring in the carefully packed suitcase, so the speaker I bought especially for this time would not be used and I had to rely on using my phone's speakers. I could barely hear the track at this point because the midwife kept asking me questions rather than reacting to my birthing time, and even was saying "You are moving too fast" when I was trying to get into good positions for pushing. The problem was the bed was too high and she was concerned I might fall off the bed, I suppose.
I began to push when I could feel a great urge and used all the positions I did with my first daughter including heads and knees, leaning over the bed, squatting and leaning against pillows over the bed. I remember the midwife at one point being concerned that the baby might fall on the floor when I was squatting over the bed, and thinking to myself why? when this is how I gave birth to our first daughter. After about two hours of pushing the midwife started to become concerned and we tried other positions such as grabbing a towel tied to the squat bar and using the squat bar alone. At this point I was given a mirror and felt curious as to why I could still not see the head as I was pushing with all my might and felt very strong urges to push. The midwife became concerned as to the lack of progress and decided wisely to bring in the doctor for a second opinion. The nurse told me to not to push as much, even though this was very difficult and still had strong urges to push with all my might.
When the doctor finally arrived her first words were "the way I can help is through a c-section". This was obviously not my plan, but my husband and I agreed that if it was medically necessary I would agree to it. Once she checked me, she told me that she would not use suction, but could help me get the baby out as long as we were both doing well while I pushed. She then assisted me by opening me up strongly and I could feel an even stronger urge to push. I was instructed to lay down while grabbing behind my legs as I was told the baby kept hitting my pelvic bone and so that was why she was not coming out easily. I kept pushing in this manner while the doctor left again and when she came back I was getting quite close to crowning and my husband was saying he could see the baby's head just like when our daughter was born! I started to gain more reassurance while the nurse kept telling me I was doing a great job. The doctor said she was concerned about shoulder dystocia so I was instructed to go towards the end of the bed, while half of the bed was broken away and a couple more care providers entered the room. After close to three and half hours of pushing with all my strength I could feel the baby crown, and although it burned, I felt relieved and knew the baby be in my arms very soon.
After a couple more pushes, our baby was born and placed on my chest. The doctor waited until the cord stopped pulsing and my husband cut the cord. She was in my arms the entire time, while I birthed the placenta and was stitched up for a third degree tear. Due to a bleeding risk, I was administered piotican and cytotec, but other than that I had a completely natural birth experience.
My amazing husband gave our beautiful daughter the name Melina Mae. She weighed 8 lbs 13 oz (3 lbs larger than our first!) and was 20 inches long. Other than a bruise on her head from all the pushing, she was perfectly healthy and scored well on all her newborn tests.
I am extremely grateful first to God for giving me peace that passed all understanding (Philippians 4:7) when I passed my "guess date". Second, my husband who always stood by my side and was my greatest coach. Third, to the care providers at the hospital, including the nurse I knew from my church life group who was always encouraging me and the doctor who acted wisely and did not push a c-section that I did not need. Last but not least, I am grateful for Hypnobabies for an extremely quick and relaxing birthing wave time at home, and the online support group for answering my questions. The birth of Melina Mae Bozinovski was truly most powerful and the intense life experience that has ever happened in my life. All glory to God for a healthy child, mother and our growing family!