Positive natural birthing stories

[StarlitHome]

My birth story with my first mostly natural hospital birth.

Spoiler

I woke up feeling excited and happy, because my mom and sister were arriving from Canada the next night. I made my list of the things I needed to do the next day while TeacherMan was at work, tidied the house, and got ready to go out with TeacherMan and his aunt that afternoon.

I was feeling a little uncomfortable and funny, but I chalked it up to false labor (like I’d been having for a few weeks) and got on with my day. We had dinner at Sizzler and then went to the movie theater and saw “Conan the Barbarian”. During the movie I felt a couple tightening-style contractions, but no pain except a bit of back-ache. I just leaned forward in my seat and had TeacherMan rub my back a bit.

I was feeling pretty quiet and untalkative while we drove home. We dropped Aunty off at her place and then came home to our apartment. I had a shower and laid down on the bed. TeacherMan was on his computer in the living room and I turned on a laptop in the bedroom to watch “Friday Night Lights” on Netflix.

Around 11pm, I had my first painful contraction. It felt like a dull, low ache in my pelvis and my first thought was fearful until I realized what it must be. It felt nothing like the Braxton Hicks I’d been having for weeks - it hurt. I kept an eye on the clock and had another one 7 minutes later. The next one came in 6 minutes and when it was over I went out to the living room and let TeacherMan know what was going on.

Around midnight, the contractions were coming 5 minutes apart and were hard - I could only concentrate on them while they were happening, although between them I felt all right. I called L&D and talked to a nurse, who said I could come in at any time to be checked.

I told the nurse we’d probably wait a little while, but then we packed up the hospital bag and decided to go in. The contractions were coming about 4 minutes apart and I really didn’t want to risk having my baby in the car!

TeacherMan and I got in the car and drove to the hospital - when we got to the closest freeway on-ramp, it was closed off by police! I had a panicky moment but luckily my husband knew what he was doing and we got to the hospital just fine.

The contractions were unwalkably hard by the time we reached the hospital. We went up to the maternity floor and the nurses got us into a labor room and checked me. I was only 2cm so they couldn’t officially admit me, but they put me on the monitor and said we’d wait a bit and see.

The next time they checked, I was 4cm so they admitted me and everything. Then they said we should walk the hallway and see if we could get things sped up a bit. I really didn’t want to walk but we did - we did about 5 or 6 walks up and down the hallway outside the room. I’d have a contraction at each end of the hallway and in the middle, too. Oh, and I had to go back to the room to throw up after our first trip up and down. Yuck.

I just wanted to lie down and sleep then, so we went back to the room and I got into the bed. The contractions were super, super painful - lots of pressure too because Molly’s head was really low. The nurse told us after I went back to the bed that she’d check where I was at 2:30am, so every time a contraction came TeacherMan would say “just a few more, just a few more and then we’ll know”. I think it was around this time that they put my IV in - just the part that goes into your wrist, they didn’t have anything going in to me yet. And they asked if, after the baby was delivered, I was all right with having Pitocin to aid in the delivery of the placenta. (I was).

At 2:30 (or maybe it was 3:30, I’m not sure&#8230 they checked me and decided to break my water. That was the weirdest sensation ever! I also had a morphine shot around then sometime, TeacherMan thinks I was in the “transition” stage at that point. I felt like I’d been in labor (aka IN PAIN) forever and it was never going to end and I just wanted some help. I know I said “I can’t do this” and he told me that I could, I was doing it and I was doing a really good job.

After they broke my water they checked me again and I was at 8cm. I really wanted to push, I was feeling like I could feel so much better if I could just push down! But I was only 8cm so they said no, if I pushed I’d hurt myself and I had to wait. It was awful, all I wanted to do was PUSH but they told TeacherMan to make me blow like blowing out a candle instead. NOT THE SAME THING…

Plus they were saying I had to relax so I could get to 10cm and it was so hard! I wanted to relax but the contractions were coming hard and fast!

Finally, they checked and I was fully dilated and I was allowed to push. So I pushed… and pushed… And pushed…

TeacherMan thinks I was pushing for about an hour and 15 minutes before Molly was born - I have no idea, it felt like much less time. Finally she was crowning (oh GOD that hurt, yikes) and then they said her head was out and I’d have a baby with one more push!

I can’t even describe the feeling when they put her on my chest and I could touch her and she was crying and she was SO beautiful, all pink and purple and a full head of hair…

They let me hold her skin-to-skin for a few minutes, I kept saying “Happy Birthday” and telling her she was so beautiful and I loved her. TeacherMan was right beside me. They started the Pitocin going in my IV and I delivered the placenta just fine.

Then they said they had to take her to the other side of the room to check her breathing - I guess she inhaled or swallowed some fluid so she was a little raspy. We asked for a “tour” of the placenta and one of the nurses showed it to us - it was pretty amazing! The doctors had to fix a tear on me, too, so TeacherMan kept an eye on both of us. He called his parents, too, to tell them and handed me my phone so I could call my mom.

I was SO loopy from emotion and hormones and probably the morphine shot- my mom said I sounded funny on the phone! I’m pretty sure I said some stupid things to the nurse too (like “You have a Hello Kitty sticker on your badge!&#8221 but oh well *haha*.

Then they gave me back my baby and I don’t even know how long we were in the room, I was just looking at her. TeacherMan fell asleep (we’d been up since the morning before!) on the chair next to my bed. Then they moved us to recovery!

This time I will not be "okay" with Pitocin to "help deliver the afterbirth" as there was really no call for it and I will not take a morphine shot because it did nothing at all and just made me feel extremely loopy after the birth

 

[katerdid]

Fast homebirth of my christmas rainbow baby.

 

[Mark&Annie]

My planned HB turned unplanned free birth

https://babyandbump.momtastic.com/h...y-planned-hb-turned-unplanned-free-birth.html

 

[luna_19]

I didn't plan a natural hospital birth but I got one and it wasn't so bad!
https://babyandbump.momtastic.com/b...d-not-choice-arrival-little-devyn-sawyer.html

 

[christinelle]

My plan was a natural birth in a hospital setting (there's a special room in that hospital that looks like a home bedroom and has a large bathtub).
My slightly painful contractions began on Saturday night - early Sunday morning but they were irregular. By Sunday afternoon they were every 7-15 minutes and lasted about a minute but not consistently. I told my midwife around 10.30 at night and she said it's nothing and that I still have another couple of days at least. Thirty minutes later, my waters broke.
We arrived at the hospital at 12.30, I was put on a wheelchair because I was mid-contraction, they removed my clothes and put me in a gown, asked me a bunch of questions (about blood pressure, medical history, pregnancy so far, etc), I peed and they transferred me to the special room. They put me on CTG for a few minutes to check baby's heart rate and then my midwife arrived. I think that's when they allowed my husband in too. She told me how to breathe and when I was around 4-5 dilated, I got in the tub. It felt great! At some point I felt pruney and asked to get out. I was fully dilated by that point so I started pushing. At first I wasn't pushing well enough but after a while I figured out how to do it (I also pooped even though I had pooped 3 times at home that day! I didn't know I pooped, they told me). My husband massaged me, brought me water and was encouraging me. My midwife was very supportive and helped me with proper positioning and breathing. Crowning felt like burning and stinging and at 3.27 my baby was born!
She was placed on my chest but I couldn't see her face well because the cord was short and we were waiting for the placenta to come out. She was pink with 9/10 apgar and I couldn't believe she was mine. We nursed a few minutes later and stayed there for 2 hours for monitoring.
I have to say that time passed really fast, my whole labor and birth was short but it seemed even shorter. It was painful and at some point I thought I'd get the epidural next time but it was so worth it. I'm really proud and happy about my fast, uncomplicated, unmedicated birth.

 

[CaT1285]

I had a natural water birth in the hospital. My water broke in a big gush on a Saturday night as I was getting into bed around11pm. We called the midwife and she said to try to get some sleep. My contractions started 30mins later and were too intense to ignore from the beginning. They were also about 5mins apart from the beginning. We called the doula around 2 in the morning I think and she said to call her back when I felt I needed her there to help. We called her back around 5am and she was there before 6. The contractions were painful, but I was in the zone and focused on breathing through each one. My doula filled up the bathtub and I got in. It did seem to help a little. After a couple of hours in the tub, my doula mentioned that we should head to the hospital soon. I had wanted to stay at home as long as possible. I told her I was afraid I would get there and they'd tell me I'm 3cm. She said she had seen a lot of women in labor before and she didn't think that would be the case but we could stay at home longer if I wanted. I said I wanted to trust her judgment so we got ready to go. She called the midwife to be sure they would have a tub ready. Getting to the car, being in the car, and when we first got to the hospital was the worst part. We got there around 915. I was fully dilated, but they had to monitor the baby for 20 mins with me lying in the bed before I could get in the tub! I think I asked them after every contraction if I can get in the tub now. Finally I got in the tub and started pushing. My husband was amazed to see the baby's head coming. It took 45 minutes, but I got him out with a second degree tear that I didn't feel. My husband announced it's a boy! And the midwives put him on my chest. I sobbed like an idiot i was so happy and relieved. Then the nurses and my husband took my son to the warming bed to give him his apgar score (9) and I practically jumped out of the tub after them. It wasn't easy, but it was beautiful and possibly the best day of my life, although my wedding day is hard to beat! Incredible experience.

 

[Suser]

I must say, after 4 children I highly recommend the natural birthing process. I was quite naïve with my first child and welcomed the idea of an epidural. The result was horrible – although the numbness allowed me to relax so I could dilate, I was not able to push properly and the doctor ended up using forceps. Additionally, the epidural created a “pocket” in spinal fluid, which caused a debilitating headache shortly after my son was born. I read a great deal about relaxation techniques before my second child, and found that a form of self-hypnosis was extremely successful for me. Simply finding a focal point and measuring my breathing allowed a relaxed state similar to sleep. Although labors were similar to the first (without the numbness from the epidural, of course), the birthing process itself was sooooo much better. I pushed for 15 minutes with my second child, three times with my third, and just one massive push for my fourth. I will say that I was fortunate to have a hospital and doctor who supported natural birth.

 

[JennyCX]

WOW you ladies are brave

 

[Jes Willi]

Yes, you should be brave enough for home birthing.
But you should all remember that postpartum depression is basically post traumatic symptom. Often enough birth is a trauma. Not only for mom but for a child as well, thus stressful environment affects little person too. Sometimes people are forgetting that kids' life not starts with a birth, but it starts earlier.

 

[lynnikins]

Well my 3rd homebirth was a positive one

labour ( mild contractions according to the mw i was never in fully established labour ) started 6pm,put children to bed ( 7pm), Friend arrived(1am), MW arrived (2am) got in pool laboured in pool (4am), waters went (5am), MW phoned second mw, Baby delivered into my hands as MW was unprepared (5:07am), snuggles and first feed in pool, transfered to bed, placenta delivered, checked no tears just a slight graze, handed off baby to husband to dress, had shower and used toilet, back to bed for sleep ( hubby emptied pool while we waited on the placenta ) hubby dried and deflated and packed away pool, removed floor sheeting, got the children up to say hi to new baby sister, snuggled in bed with new baby till MW arrived later ( with hubby bringing tea and food and the boys poking their heads in to say hi ) GP arrived by noon to do newborn check then left us to sleep,

 

[NDH]

My planned Freebirth

https://babyandbump.momtastic.com/birth-stories-announcements/2383036-freebirth-jeremy-david.html

 

[gardenofedens]

Positive Birth in Hospital:
https://babyandbump.momtastic.com/p...dens-growing-again-kinda-18.html#post20164197

https://babyandbump.momtastic.com/p...rden-edens-growing-again-73.html#post30598543

Positive Natural (& Unassisted) Home Birth
https://babyandbump.momtastic.com/p...edens-just-keeps-growing-80.html#post37755717