Our baby was conceived after I had two miscarriages in a five-month
period. Even though I learned that at least one of those was
caused by a chromosomal abnormality, and all the plumbing checked out
normally with the specialists, it was still very hard for me to ever
relax and enjoy being pregnant. I fought my mental demons for 35
long weeks—anyone who has had a miscarriage can understand that feeling.
The pregnancy was physically very easy. I stayed
very active, swimming two or three times a week up through about 38
weeks, and walking a lot. And, of course, doing yoga! Even
after the Pierce series was over, I continued to do a series of yoga
stretches at home every single day, right up through the last day.
This got to be very tiresome on those days when I wanted to veg on the
couch, but along with the bowl of raw spinach I ate, it was something I
did every day because I knew it was good for the baby.
The Pierce yoga class was wonderful, and that was where my
consciousness was raised about natural childbirth and doulas. I
had never really given it much thought, and really never had the idea
that I would do a natural birth. But when I learned about the
rising c-section rate, and noticed that most of my friends who had
recently given birth had had c-sections (even as compared to friends who
gave birth 5-10 years ago)—I knew I knew that was something I wanted to
avoid, and it seemed like a natural birth was the best, maybe even the only way
to do so.
My education started at Pierce, and continued with a fantastic
nine-week natural birth preparation course, Intuitive Birth, taught by a
former Bradley instructor (www.babystepsonline.net)
who herself had given birth in a kiddie pool at home with no one but her
husband in attendance! In this class, we learned in detail about
how to write a good birth plan, what to expect in the stages of labor,
coping techniques, and how to avoid unnecessary interventions in a
hospital setting.
Along with the class, I read Childbirth Without Fear, The Thinking
Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth, Active Birth, and the Sears Birth Book.
By the time the class was finished, there was no possibility I was not
prepared for. I was also not the least but afraid of the pain of
labor—this came along with being educated. (I was still afraid of
the random freak thing happening—see first paragraph!) We hired a
doula, Ayla from Pierce, and we wrote a great birth plan.
I had learned that first labors usually start slowly and take a
while. We had already decided to labor at home as long as
possible, and I had visions of many hours spent at home in early labor—I
thought I would clean the windows and blinds, and make cookies to bring
to the nurses (a tip from our class). But, of course, that wasn’t
how it went!
I had learned that being induced with Pitocin doubles the odds of
having a c-section, so I was anxiously watching the calendar as my due
date approached, and hoping I would go into labor spontaneously.
On the advice of a Pierce class, I had been taking evening primrose oil
daily starting in week 37, and drinking raspberry leaf tea. I was
also doing daily perineal massage starting at 38 weeks (this was
definitely not a highlight of pregnancy). Beginning on my due
date, I started taking the homeopathic pills recommended by my doula
(purchased at Health Unlimited in Toco Hills). And, I was walking
every day, eating eggplant every day, and even having sex. I was
bound and determined to avoid an induction! (Note to those facing
induction: one advantage is that you can choose your doctor.
Find out who is on call, and go with the one most open to natural or
minimally medicated birth. It can make a huge difference in your
birth experience.)
So, on the second day after my due date, we were sitting on the couch
watching TV around 8 pm, and I felt a spurt of water. I knew it
was not a full rupture of the membranes because it was not very much,
but I knew it was definitely amniotic fluid. We called the doula,
and she said to go about our normal business, and that it might mean
labor was starting, and might not. So, I went to bed around 10 or
11, alone as I had kicked my husband out weeks before due to the size of
our double bed!!! I slept really hard for about two or three
hours, which I later realized was my body power napping for what was to
come! When I woke up around 1:30 or so, my back hurt very badly.
I had been very constipated in the final month, and I figured it was
related to that. But even after going #2, it didn’t feel any
better. I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t because I was
having waves of back pain. I didn’t even think this was labor,
because it was so concentrated in my back. I decided to get in the
shower, and I didn’t even wake up my husband—if this was actual labor,
he needed to get as much rest as he could, I thought.
I stood in the shower with the water concentrated on my lower back,
as hot as it would get. It helped a little, but the fact that the
pain was coming in faster and faster waves made me realize this was, in
fact, labor. (I was two days after my due date, duh!) I
hollered downstairs to Rob, and he went to contractormaster.com, a
website that records contraction time and the time in between for you.
All it requires is a tap on the space bar to start and stop the clock.
It eliminates the need to be fooling with a watch and calculating time
in the wee hours of the morning while many other things are distracting
you, and it gives you a great display of how things are progressing.
We had already decided to try to stay at home until 3-1-1 if possible,
having learned that getting to the hospital later rather than sooner
increases your odds of achieving a natural birth, and decreases
unnecessary procedures.
By this time it was 2 or 3 am, and I was sitting on the toilet—the
position that felt most comfortable. Every time I would feel a
contraction coming, I would scream out to Rob to hit the space bar, even
though the computer was about five feet away and I could have done it
myself. I just did not want to move! I was holding the
heating pad to my back, which was a lifesaver. He was running
around the house trying to finish packing our suitcase that was mostly
but not completely packed. When we got a series of contractions
that were only four minutes apart, he called the ob’s service and the
doctor called us back, and told us to come in. We called the doula
and told her we were going in. The original plan had been for her
to come to the house for part of the early labor, but given that it was
the middle of the night and that things were moving pretty fast, that
plan went out the window. We waited for a short window between
contractions, then ventured out to the car. I remember bracing as
we went over the speed bumps in the neighborhood!
It was 4:30 am when we got there, and after we checked in they put me
in one of the small triage rooms and put me on the monitor. Ayla
arrived, and she stayed with me while Rob went to move the car—another
advantage of having a doula. That is a time where you do not want
to be left alone in a cold, impersonal hospital room!
At this point the contractions (still accompanied solely by back
pain) were very strong and pretty painful. I was three centimeters
at that point, and I remember thinking, still a long way to go, after
all that! The monitoring takes a while, and I was still in that room
when my water broke—that was at 5:35 AM. That was a huge,
unmistakable gush!
They asked if I wanted to be wheeled to our room, but I walked with
help from Rob and Ayla. We spent the next hour or two in the
bathroom in our nice, big, fancy delivery room. Again, I sat on
the toilet and labored, and when the contractions came they would rub my
back and hold the heating pad on there. They were very intense,
and what I did not realize at the time was that I was having back labor.
Thankfully the nurse mostly left us alone, and I was not required to get
on the monitor at any particular time. This was great, since lying
down on my back did not feel good at all. We had brought a birth
ball and all sorts of props, but I sat on the toilet the whole time!
I was even in a room with a bathtub, but I had no interest in a bath.
At some point, they said to come to the bed so I could be checked and
the baby monitored. I remember thinking at that point, “I’m not
sure I can do this—maybe I should ask for an epidural.” I did not
voice this to Rob or Ayla. But, when they checked me, they said I
was at 9 centimeters and it was time to push!
The doctor came in, all kitted out in her gear, and she said
something along the lines of, we’ll be done in no time. (I guess
this was because I had dilated quite quickly.)
Here is another advantage to a natural birth—you can actually feel
the difference in your contractions, and it is so cool! The
expulsive contractions were a huge relief compared to the dilation
ones—not painful at all. So, I pushed when I felt the urge to, and
this went on for quite a while, pushing three times for a count of ten.
At first I was making loud noises when I pushed, but they told me to
hold my breath in because by making sounds I was pushing out all the air
in my lungs. The doctor kept leaving and coming back. I was
hooked up to the monitor the whole time for the pushing phase.
So, this went on and on. They were all telling me I was doing
great, and I kept thinking, this is going to be over soon, but it just
kept going. I started to feel thirsty and for the first time since
labor began, I actually drank some water and Gatorade. As it went on,
the pain in my lower back started to intensify, to the point where Ayla
and Rob were putting pressure on it between pushes (I was still on my
back, not because they told me to but because it felt the best).
At some point they said that a full bladder can impede the baby, so they
told me to get up and pee. I tried but I totally could not, so
they put in a catheter and I peed that way. I think it was at
about this point that they gave me some Pitocin to strengthen my
contractions. I do not remember them feeling any different, but
they said it helped. I was getting very tired—I had essentially
been up all night in labor. So, after 2.5 hours of pushing, I
asked the doctor, “At what point do we start talking about something to
help?” And she said, “Well, now.” So I gave her permission
to do whatever to help because I did not think I could push for very
much longer. So, she attempted to put the vacuum on baby’s head to
pull her down. Ayla told me that she thought it popped right off,
but Rob thought it was on for a minute or so. At some point she
cut a median episiotomy, and with a big push she was born. I
really do not know the order of all of that, and I did not really feel
the ring of fire or my third degree tear, or at least not that I could
distinguish from everything else going on! She also had the cord
around her neck, which apparently is pretty common, and not usually a
big deal. She was born face up—left occipital posterior, according
to my chart. Usually they are born face down, and that is why the
pushing lasted so long, and why the back pain was so severe. I
guess it was textbook back labor. She was born at 9:27 am, four
hours after my water broke, five hours after we arrived at the hospital,
and about eight hours after my labor pains first began. Baby went
immediately to the breast and nursed. She was very alert, very
quiet, just taking everything in with an amazing, serene expression on
her face.
Apparently a few things had happened that I did not even realize:
they had called in the NICU team, and they had prepared the papers for a
c-section. The NICU team was sent away immediately after the
doctor held and patted her for just a minute before they cleaned her up
and gave her to me. The papers for a c-section were, thank God,
not even touched, because we had such a great doctor. Baby was
never in distress, and it was a long labor, but the doctor knew that I
wanted a natural birth and she knew that the baby was never in any
danger. Later on, the nurse said to me, “you are so lucky that
this doctor was on call today, because any other doctor would have cut
you open an hour ago!”
We took the placenta home and planted it under a Japanese maple in
the backyard. (You have to bring your own red medical container in
order to do this, but the hospital will give it to you.)
It was the most incredible event of my life, because I fully
experienced every second of it, without anything to mask my body’s
natural functions and feelings, and nothing to interfere with baby’s.
Rob felt the same way about the natural birth experience.
And, it is true what they say, you forget about the pain immediately
when you hold that baby!
My labor with Rachael
started on a Saturday night around 9PM. I had some pre-term labor with
her around 25 weeks, so I was used to having contractions for an hour
and then having them stop. This time they did not stop! I had
contractions every 10 minutes lasting about 30-40 seconds the entire
night. I tried to sleep in between, watched a movie, and generally
rested throughout the night. They were not terribly intense, so I let
my husband sleep - I felt I would need him well rested later when they
got harder!
On
Tuesday the 11th, our estimated due date, we checked in the with our
midwife who said she would set up n induction meeting if we wanted for
next week. We thought this was probably code for "you're not going
anywhere soon". We went to dinner with my parents, that night. They had
arrived that afternoon in hopes of catching the birth of their grandson
in the next ten days or at the least, help their daughter distract
herself from being past her due date.
