Birth Stories
Birth Story: Nicky & Greg
My story sounds similar to many others. This was my first child. My husband and I read everything we could about pregnancy, the birth process, and pain management. After much learning, I knew that I wanted a natural birth and planned on this in the hospital.
It was week 36, and so far I had the picture perfect pregnancy - no risk factors, exercising regularly, still working, and overall feeling quite good. At this appointment, my provider started mentioning things to me regarding inducing at 41 weeks, c-section, pain medicine, timelines, etc. Completely caught off guard, I didn’t understand why I was suddenly being bombarded with this information. These things were clearly not part of my birth plan. I started asking questions concerning my desire for a natural birth and learned that due to many hospital policies, I may or may not get what I wanted. Or at the very least, I would have to be prepared to fight the interventions that would surely be “offered” at the hospital. I also learned that the majority of hospital staff are not prepared to labor a natural birth due to the astonishing low number of women who actually desire this.
At the 39-week mark, I made the switch to the birth center, and I am happy to say it is one of the best decisions I have made in my life. It turns out that I did not go into labor until 10 days past my due date. I labored at home for 11 hours, then the birth center for another 15 hours, the whole time dealing with immense back pain. In the hospital, given these circumstances, it would have been almost impossible to have a non-interventional, natural birth. Despite all the pain and prolonged labor, I just kept thinking the end was near and kept trying every position the midwives suggested. Eventually we found some that allowed me to push and deal with the back pain, and our baby girl was born. As soon as I held my baby for the first time, I knew I made a great decision. After a 4-hour nap, the three of us were up, walking around, and back in our own house to recover.
I cannot say enough positive things about the midwives at the birth center. They are some of the most caring, supportive women you will ever meet. They truly love everything about birth!
My advice to other women who are considering natural birth: learn everything you can, ask questions of your provider, and follow your intuition!
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Birth Story: Camryn
On Friday September 17, 2010 at 4:15am, we welcomed our second daughter, Camryn, into the world. It was an exhausting and euphoric experience. We waited 271 days to finally meet her. She is perfect and healthy, and I feel empowered about the entire experience.
We decided in December 2009 that we’d like to become pregnant again and expand our family. I heard about a book and a technique that would favor the odds of conceiving a boy, so I decided light-heartedly to give it a try since we already had a girl. The book claimed an 85% success rate so I figured it was pretty much foolproof. The early part of the pregnancy was much different than it was with Claire. I had terrible morning sickness until 15 weeks, and I craved red meat all the time. I swore that it must be because I was carrying a boy. However, much to my surprise (and delight), we found out at 15 weeks that we were having another little girl. We all agreed that this was one tough little lady to beat out all the boys against the odds!
Claire was born at a hospital under the care of a nurse midwife. It was also a wonderful and empowering experience, but when we found out she was no longer practicing in our area, we started to look at all of our options. We seriously considered doing a home birth, but when we found out that a new freestanding birth center, run solely by midwives had just opened only 30 miles from our house, we knew that was where we wanted to have Camryn. We scheduled a tour and got to meet our midwife Christine. We loved her philosophy on birth and felt like we would be in good hands for the entire experience. We really loved the fact that choosing to have our baby at the birth center kept all of our options available. I would be able to eat, drink and have freedom of movement during labor. We were also excited at the prospect of having a water birth.
My guess date was September 13 based on a 28-day cycle, but I figured that since my cycle usually runs about 30 days, it would put me closer to September 16. Sure enough, on the morning of Thursday, September 16, I woke up around 5:00 am with some back pain and cramping. I had an appointment with Christine already scheduled for that afternoon, so I went about business as usual. Brian had been working from home so he came to my appointment with me. We got there and Jordan, a midwifery student, felt the baby’s position and measured her. She was in the perfect position for birth and measured 41 weeks. I was still having sporadic cramping and we all felt like it was sure to happen that day.
It was hot that afternoon, but I really wanted to get things moving so I decided to take a long walk. Brian came with me for about half of it but had to go inside. I ended up walking about 4 miles and my contractions were about 5-10 minutes apart but not very intense. Figuring it was going to be a long night, we decided to take a nap and rest as much as possible.
Later that evening, we called my mom and stepdad to let them know we were pretty sure Camryn was coming soon. We got our bags packed, baked some cookies and waited for the grandparents to arrive. We were so excited! We played music and danced with Claire. She couldn’t wait to meet her new baby sister. While I wasn’t uncomfortable, my contractions were getting closer together, and around 6 pm I called my midwife. She suggested waiting another hour, and if they kept coming, call her and start driving to the birth center. We got Claire’s bags packed and sent her off for a sleepover with Pop-pop and Uncle Ricky. She didn’t mind a bit and seemed to look forward to the extra attention. I listened to my “easy first stage” Hypnobabies CD, and the birthing day affirmations, but I wasn’t in any pain, nor was I scared.
My mom came with us, and we met Jordan at the door. We arrived at the birth center around 8 pm. I didn’t have any desire to be checked for dilation because I knew that I was in labor, and it was going to take some time for my body to prepare for birth. We decided to watch season 1 of Glee to keep our minds occupied and continued to time the contractions. My contractions were about 1-2 minutes apart and I welcomed the sensations bouncing on my birth ball and swaying back and forth.
About 2 hours later, I decided to have Jordan check me, and she said that I was fully dilated. I didn’t feel “pushy” but if I was fully dilated then why not try right? So we filled up the tub, and I got in. I pushed for about 20 minutes and really didn’t make any progress. My bag of waters was bulging. Jordan asked me if I wanted her to break it to get things moving, and I agreed. She tried to break it with her fingernail but it was no use. It was too strong. Perhaps it was all that fish oil I was taking. Anyway, Christine suggested I get out of the tub and let her check me. She felt that I had a small cervical lip and suggested I get up and walk around for a while. If I would’ve pushed her out at that point, I could go around telling everyone how easy it was the second time around and, wow transition was a breeze, but the real challenge lay just ahead.
I began to feel extremely antsy. How was I supposed to know if my body was ready to push? Everyone talks about it like it’ so obvious. What if I never get the feeling? I needed to try and calm myself down but I was losing confidence fast. I tried listening to some of my Hypnobabies CD, but it was very hard to stay in trance because the contractions I felt now were very different.
I felt crazed. No position or movement would relieve me. I kept going to the bathroom, clinging to the last shred of control that I had over my body. Maybe I needed to turn the lights down? Nope. Maybe if I took this godforsaken nightgown off I’d feel better? Nope. Maybe if I go to the bathroom again, or maybe a shower, or get back in the tub? Nope. Nope. Nope.
I kicked my mom out of the room when things were starting to get hairy. I looked over at Brian and saw reflected in his face pure exasperation. Okay now I really knew that I needed to pull myself together. I told him to go get Christine. I needed some reassurance. I apologized and asked my mom to come back in. Christine checked me again and said she still felt a lip, however the baby had dropped down significantly. She told me to wait for a contraction and she pushed it back. WOW! Now I needed to push. It was like magic.
So I was quickly ushered back into the tub, but this time with renewed confidence. The water level was high in the tub. I grabbed the handles and pushed, and pushed and pushed. I knew I was going to see my baby very soon, but physically I felt like throwing in the towel. It had been a very long day. I asked Brian to put on any Hypnobabies CD, anything to give me an extra edge. He must have felt that I need more support and decided to get in the tub with me fully clothed. He boosted me up and right at that very minute, we were so very close, I could feel her head, a booming voice announces “And now it’s time to push your baby out!” It was the CD player on the “Pushing Baby Out” track. Perfect timing! That’s it. I decided I wasn’t going to hear anymore of that track. I beared down gave it all my might and pushed. Coco reached down and grabbed Camryn and put her right up on my belly. I swear I have never felt so relieved in my life. I did it! I finally got her out. She had one eye open and looked as if we had woken her from a good nap.
It was 4:15 am after all, and everyone was exhausted. To be honest, I have no idea how I mustered up the strength to get myself out of that birthing tub. It was a long walk back to the bed. A half hour later, I delivered the placenta, and she was latched on and nursing like a champ. She was perfect and healthy. She weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces and was 21 inches long.
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Pure Birth Midwifery | Christine Strothers, RN, CPM, IBCLC | Charlotte, NC