Natural Pregnancy Project

photo credit: galateadia

Sometime around 10 pm on the 30^th of January, I noticed the Braxton Hicks contractions that I had been experiencing for days were getting stronger and more consistent.  They were coming anywhere from two to eight minutes apart and lasting a minute or longer.  My husband and I stayed up timing them until near midnight when I decided he should probably try to get some sleep.  I stayed up for another hour and, when they did not change much, decided to head to bed myself.  Getting to sleep was not particularly easy, as there was too much excitement, and I was more than a little worried about how my first son would handle us being gone for two days while we would be at the hospital.  My first son seemed to know it was time for the previous week or so.  He was getting increasingly concerned about getting enough Mommy time and was asking me to read his books at night, something that is normally time for him and Daddy.  He was also waking up and wanting to come cuddle with me a few times in the night.  He slept restlessly the night of the 30^th and woke at 4 in the morning.  I knew I would never get back to sleep, so I got up and headed downstairs.  About the time I hit the last step, I knew I had lost my plug, and the contractions were then coming every 4-6 minutes.  They rapidly increased to a regular pattern of four minutes, with each lasting about a minute.  I decided it was time to call my mom and have her drive over.  I did not want her to get stuck in rush hour traffic, and I really had no way of knowing how long it would be before I would need to get to the hospital.

The nesting instinct to clean the house suddenly kicked in, or perhaps it was the desire not to have my mother arrive to a sink full of dishes, and I got to unloading the dishwasher and tidying up.  The noise woke my first son again, and he refused to go back to sleep.  In a way that was good, he got some time with us before my mother arrived.  I tried to hop in the tub for a bit, but after 20 minutes of that, decided I would rather spend the rest of the time at home with my son.  Mom arrived at 7, and we headed off to the hospital.  I do not know what it is about me and needing to go into labor during rush hour, but this clearly was not going to be any different the last time.  Unlike the last time though, we only had about 25 miles to go instead of a 75-mile trek to the hospital, and the freeway was pretty clear until the last ten of those.

The hospital, which the nurse had assured us during the walk-through was hardly ever over-crowded with birthing moms, was full.  They had already delivered a baby in the triage room, and since I was still contracting only four minutes apart, I opted to wait in the hallway for a birthing room instead of getting set up in triage.   I have no idea how long we waited, perhaps 20 minutes or so, before we got a nice birthing room – one of the ones with a tub, hooray for that.  I had been looking forward to that tub since the moment I found out they had them and I had gotten a bit worried while we were sitting out in the hallway that I would end up spending the morning flat on my back in some random hospital room where I would progress slowly.  Apparently, they were not sure I should stay at the hospital.  They wanted me on the machine for an hour to be sure the contractions were progressing.  I do not know if I was too mellow to be in active labor or if it was standard procedure to wait an hour.  Who knows.  *I* knew I was not going back home.  Once I was hooked up on the monitors, we found out I was 2-3cm dilated and 60% effaced.  They decided I should stay.  My husband hooked up the stereo with my hypno CDs, and I decided to enjoy the Jacuzzi tub.  A new labor nurse came in about 20 minutes later.  She was beyond awesome and actually asked if we had a birth preferences list *and* she took it seriously.  She was training a new nurse and specifically noted to her that I requested not to be asked about my pain, and so instructed her not to ask me about my pain.  Never once during my first birth experience did a nurse *ask* to see the list, and few of them paid any attention to it.  I was quite happy to find that this experience would be different – it is hard to stay focused on providing natural anesthetic to your body when people keep interrupting your trance to ask you to put a number on the pain you are theoretically supposed to have.  The new nurse let me know that I could get in the tub as often as I wanted, as long as I got out every hour for monitoring, and to make sure I knew that a water birth was not allowed.  I could hear her whisper to the other nurse that I was a “hypnobirth” and thus they needed to watch me, because “when they go, they go fast.”  Soon, we’d find out how true that statement was.  Getting out of the tub was less than easy – I knew if I stayed there, they would have to pry my hands off the rails if they wanted me out for the delivery.  It was just too darned comfortable there.

My husband got out my essential oil blend, and we put it on the pillow case to aid with focus and to keep my nasal passages open.  When I got out of the tub at 11am, I was having lots of pressure waves, flowing from the top of my uterus down to my hips and thighs.  I was 6 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  In the next 15 minutes or so, the pressure was getting strong and the tightening was so intense that I could feel my body pushing even though I did not want to.  Thinking I was only 6 cm, I was getting worried that I would damage myself by pushing.  That fear made me waver quite a bit – I did not think I could hold my concentration and stave off the feeling to push for another four hours, which was the high end of their estimate for how much longer it could be before I was 10 cm.  I really started to have a hard time focusing and the fear of what it *could* feel like made me tense up, and tensing made it hurt.  I just wanted something to take the edge off when it got worse, and I had convinced myself it was going to get worse.  The nurse asked if I wanted to get back in the tub because I had seemed so peaceful and relaxed there.  Frankly, I was afraid to move at that point and was clenching every muscle trying to keep the baby from tearing through my cervix too soon.  I knew getting in the tub would be a better place to be, but I also knew I would not be able to face getting out again.  Thankfully, I had the aforementioned most awesome labor nurse.  She was really supportive of med-free birthing, and told me that the decision to get meds was mine of course, but that she sees lots of people coming in wanting to go med-free and not making it and she knew after watching me breath and focus that I could do it if I wanted to.  My husband was fine with whatever decision I made and went out to talk to the anesthesiologist about options.  While he was there, the nurse told him how impressed she was by my focus and breathing because she does not see that kind of calm very often.  She also told him that it would probably only be another half hour, but she did not want to tell me that in case it was longer.  She really wanted him to know that she thought I could do it.  He came back in and told me what my options were, and also that he would prefer I get an epidural if I wanted meds, but that there might not even be time to do it.  I was still completely undecided and, while the encouragement was nice, I was not sure I believed it myself.  The nurse reminded me about my goal, but truthfully, I was more concerned about my fear than my goal.  She asked if I wanted her to check me again, just to see if progress had been made.  Maybe I was not 6 cm anymore, and maybe that would affect my decision.  So as the anesthesiologist stood waiting outside for my decision, she checked my dilation again.  8 – 9 cm and fully effaced!  In 15 minutes.  The nurse was not wrong when she said when it went, it would go fast.  I was in transition.  It turns out I was already midway through the “worst” of it, and the worst of it was not so bad.  With that info, I relaxed and gave in to what my body wanted to do, complete with the primal urge to moan a long “ahhhhhhhhhhhhh” and grunt through the waves (the latter being something that came as a surprise to me, since it did not happen with my first son).

By noon, my water had broken, I was at 10 and ready, and I desperately wanted to push.  But alas, my OB was in an emergency c-section and they wanted me to wait.  I tried to breathe through the urges and not push, while my husband and the nurses rubbed my legs to calm me.  But after 20 minutes of that, I was getting really annoyed that I was not being allowed to do what my body was going to do whether I actively participated or not.  I asked why I could not push, and they said they wanted to wait for the doctor.  The collective crowd of nurses (…either med-free births are a spectator sport, or they have an ungodly number of staffers at births at this hospital – it is the later…) had a good laugh when my response was “well, screw him!”  The nurses started to prep to deliver the baby themselves since the baby’s head was becoming visible, all the while mouthing “where is he?  He needs to get here now!”, so my husband informed me later.  Luckily, the OB showed up as the next wave started, and I finally was allowed to start pushing.  After waiting so long, the “ring of fire” was a welcome, and almost pleasant, change of sensation.  Alas, Social Distortion’s cover of “Ring of Fire” did not serenade the experience as it had in my first delivery…One has to wonder if Johnny Cash would be amused.  Once the baby’s head was out, the OB saw that the cord was around his neck, and I was instructed to keep pushing as much as I could.  They wanted to get the baby out in a hurry since his heart rate was dropping to 60.  It’s not so easy to push when there is no contraction to help you.  I pushed so hard from every part of me that I somehow sprained my middle toe.  As it turned out, I had no rips or tears, and the only part of me that was sore the next day was that toe.

The baby was born at 1:02 pm on January 31, 2008.  He weighed 8 pounds and 2 ounces, and 20.5 inches.  He is a quite peaceful little boy who did not make the slightest fuss when they drew blood for his bilirubin test.  He nurses like a champ, and my milk was in by the end of the second day.

Teri Nava, PhD

[tags]natural childbirth story, natural chid birth stories, hypnobirthing, hypnosis for childbirth, natural childbirth in the hospital[/tags]

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Sunday, June 24^th around 11pm I started to experience some cramping and suspected I would be having my baby sometime soon. I decided against telling my husband that I was starting to experience some cramping because I wanted him to get a good night’s sleep since I didn’t know when the next time he would get one. I didn’t sleep much that night, but I did get some rest.

Monday, June 25^th at 630am I told my husband I was having mild contractions all night long, but I still wanted him to go to work since it wasn’t time to go to the hospital yet. I hadn’t been timing the contractions, but I knew they were a decent distance apart. Before he left for work, I changed my mind and told him he should stay home, and then yet again told him to go to work. I started working at 8am. I work at home as a technical support analyst so it’s not like I had to leave my house. It was at 830am when I started tracking my contractions. They were around 20-25 minutes apart. I was just working and asking people to hold for a moment if I felt a contraction coming. I’d breathe through the contraction and go back to work. My husband was getting pressure at work to leave and take me to the hospital. He came home at 1030am and wanted to go to the hospital, when my contractions were around 15 minutes apart, I told him “no way”. I said it’s too early and I didn’t want to be stuck in a bed all day. I told him nicely to stop staring at me and to take a nap because it was going to be a long day.

Finally, at 230pm I decided to stop working and got the rest of my things gathered to go to the hospital. We didn’t leave the house to go to the hospital until 330pm and arrived at the hospital at 4pm. Upon check-in the nurse asked me if I wanted her to check me first or do paperwork first and I left it up to her. She said she better check me because I was too calm and making her worried. She said “calm mommies worry her”. She checked me and found I was already 5 cm dilated. She also said my bag of waters was ready to break, but she did not want to do that. We filled out papers and then she told me the doctor would be in to see me as soon as she was out of surgery. I endured the labor pain by being out of the bed as much as possible. I did not want to be lying on my back since most of the pain I was feeling was in my back. I sat up in a chair or walked around as much as allowed. I also endured some vomiting during transition, but was told that was completely normal. It wasn’t until 745pm that the doctor came to see me. She checked me and accidentally broke my water, but the good news was I was 8 cm dilated. I went from 8 to 10 cm in 20 minutes. I started pushing at 805 and delivered my son after 3 or 4 pushes at 815pm.

I was extremely proud of myself for going through my entire labor completely drug free. My husband and I attended a child birth class, but basically worked on deep breathing to prepare for birth. He was there to remind me to breathe deep and to breathe through the pain. The first thought is to stop breathing and hold your breathe when the pain is intense, but that actually makes the pain worse. I did not have an episiomity, but did have a small natural tear that required two stitches.

Despite my great efforts to protect my baby by not requesting any drugs he did have to go to the NICU since he was grunting and not breathing freely. The nurse stabilized him while in my delivery room, but did need to take him directly to the NICU after returning to the nursery. I was ok though because I knew he was in good hands. I was a volunteer in the same nursery during my entire pregnancy and knew the doctors and nurses well. I was happy to have that experience and knowledge. The doctors determined my son had swallowed a small amount of amniotic fluid and that was what was causing him to be congested. Our little munchkin was the king of the NICU weighing in at 7lbs 10.8 ounces. The next biggest baby in the NICU was just over 5lbs. I am thankful for my [tags-tec]natural childbirth experience[/tag-tec] and thankful that I have a happy, healthy baby.

***** Thank you Barbara from CafeMom for sharing your story with us! We do appreciate you. *****

[tags]natural childbirth story, natural childbirth at hospital, NICU[/tags]

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I woke up at 5am that morning thinking “here we go again, another false alarm.” I had been having prodromal labor for a few weeks at this point and was getting frustrated and emotional by it. I just wanted things to be real already! I got up and went to the bathroom. Things felt a little different but I wasn’t going to put any merit to it yet. I went back to bed but couldn’t get comfortable so I decided to take a bath. It didn’t go away. In fact it became more wonderfully intense, 5 mins apart suddenly became 2 mins apart. Could this seriously be it?? My mom had flown in from Texas a week or so prior when we thought things were really going. She was asleep in my son’s room, so I let her know that I “thought” I may actually be in labor, but that she could stay asleep longer until I figured it out. I knew if I was, I wanted to eat now instead of later, so I went downstairs and ate breakfast and drank some red raspberry leaf tea.
2 mins apart stayed 2 mins apart for over an hour so I just decided to call my midwife. Midwife Amy was on call that day and she’s an hour away so she just decided to start her trip over, because she’d rather go and be there for a birth that we had all decided would be relatively quick, then not leave and miss the whole thing!

I went ahead and called my support team, my friend Maria and my doula Emily and they headed over as well. I woke up mom and told her things were “on” but I still wasn’t positive that this was “it” and needed lots of encouragement. I had been disappointed by 2 – 3 min apart waves being nothing at all several times before. But thankfully things became more intense. Things were going great. Intense, powerful, I was vocalizing and laughing my way through some of them. There’s a film called “orgasmic birth” and that’s what I felt almost. Wonderful, no pain at all. Discomfort at times but that was easily dealt with by getting on my hands and knees, rocking and rotating my hips and of course using my Hypnobabies, but what’s so wonderful is after practicing for so long and for so often I didn’t feel the need yet to recite to myself my peace cue, I just knew things were working and they were!

I was very aware during this birth and very active. I have video of me laughing through birthing waves and enjoying them. My friend Maria was laughing right along with me from behind the camera and you can see it shaking from it. Very different from my son’s birth to which I chose to rest and sleep as much as possible.
Even though I had eaten eggs and toast earlier that morning, my mom was making pancakes for everybody and it smelled so good. So I ate! And I drank more tea and loots of ice water… with lots of ICE. More ICE!

So most of the birth went like this. With me on my hands and knees enjoying my very intense waves. Vocalizing and feeling so good. My son who is 15 months, snuggled and slept in with daddy. And when he awoke, played on the floor, and when I’d have a birthing wave and would instinctually drop to the floor drawing circles with my hand to help me “open” my cervix, he would come crawl over to me and laugh and play some more. It was exactly what I wanted during my birthing, to be with friends and family, and welcome our newest into a loving atmosphere.

What I found funny was I had set up this birthing room to labor in and I found myself in the dining room by the table a lot because it was right by the bathroom and I was peeing.. a LOT. All that tea and ice water, but it was encouraging somewhat and I took it as a sign that my baby was moving down.

I refused to be checked until I was emotionally ready, for fear I was a mere 3 cm. And while 3 cm means that things are moving along… I was fearful that it wasn’t real, and had to repeatedly tell myself “today is my birthing day, open open open”.
The midwives kept telling me “there’s no reason by what we’re seeing that this isn’t anything but VERY real.” Which was very comforting to hear. They didn’t force me to be checked. Once it was mentioned it wasn’t mentioned again until muuuuch later. They could tell I was working hard.

At 12:50 or so I decided to get checked and I was 6 cms!!! Typing that even now brings the tears and joy I felt when I heard that. HOW GREAT! I was so amazed, and proud, and crying!!! I couldn’t believe I had gone this far and felt so good. I knew I could do it, but to actually DO it and be at that point was beyond words for me “it’s real!! it’s real!! i’m having a baby!!! Today is my day, FINALLY!”

I soaked in the birthing tub for a few hours and enjoyed my waves there. Lots of laughs and saying “oh my god”. Felt like sex from the inside out, if that makes any sense at all. Both Maria and the back up midwife (Vicki) that arrived ended up becoming so relaxed from the Deepening cd that they both passed out on my couch. I didn’t even notice. I was in my own world enjoying the rest before the finale to come.

At around 2pm I started complaining of discomfort in my pubic area and it became hard to focus. Went through the usual transitional “I can’t do it”, “I don’t want to do this any more” “It hurts, my god, it hurts”. Everybody was so great and so comforting. I decided to get back out of the tub and be checked again. I felt very, very hot and didn’t want the water any more. I wanted something cold. And when they checked me, boy was I surprised “a very stretchy 8cms!! possibly 9!! Do you want to push a little and see what happens?”

I responded with “pop my waters!!!” So they thought they had actually popped my water because a spurt came out, but it was apparently only a little layer. A couple of practice pushes later from me and it popped for real with clear fluids.

This part was very uncomfortable. I kept shaking my head no. Saying “I can’t” and “I’m done” over and over again. I didn’t want to go on. I’m glad that I had surrounded myself with an encouraging birthing support team who knew how important it was for me to be told positive and encouraging words. My midwife, at one point where I started breathing in a manner as I can only describe at almost hyperventilating, put her head against mine and said “Michael. Breathe for your baby. Long, deep, slow breaths.” And she showed me how to breathe again. The thing that helped the most was an ice cold washcloth on my pubic area where the hair and belly meet. I had my hypnobabies on in the background but pretty much phased it out at this point. I commented that everybody was acting like it was time and all I could think about was I was only at 8cms! I had 2cms left to go, what were they all bustling around about? Little did I know, 30 mins later I’d have a baby in my arms!
Well I was verrrry uncomfy laying on the futon so I commented how I really wish I had a birthing stool to sit on.
My midwife said. “*gasp* I have one in my car! I’ll be right back.”

So when she came back, I labored a bit more until I was comfy to move. Said “NOW!!!” and got on the stool. That was a whole change. Uncomfortable at first because the pressure downward made more discomfort on my pubic bone, but getting through it and I *actually* felt the urge to push!!! I never felt that with my first [tag-ice]home birth[/tag-ice]. I was just feeling so much pubic pressure at the end of that one that I pushed to get past it all and have my baby. But this time… I actually had urges to push and it felt GREAT to push.

No pushing prompts. I did it my own way with a combo of purple pushing at points just to move baby down a bit, then breathing through some and “ahhhhh” pushing when I just really felt the urge.

I birthed my baby sitting on the stool. I can’t even explain how good it felt to birth him that way. Sitting and birthing just felt so right. So easy. It was amazing. Not what I expected or even imagined, but exactly what I needed and somehow wanted. I wanted a squatting up right birth. I remember writing on my list of “wants” for this birth that I wanted to have Willem at around 3pm just so my son Roan would already have had a nap and could be there. He was born at 3:09pm.

So yeah! Labor starting at 5am and not feeling any pain only minor discomfort until an hour before birth. I’m so proud.

OH my son Roan (15 months old) did VERY well during all labor and birth. He cried when people picked him up and away from me at times because they thought he was bothering me. But the only time he bothered me was when he cried because he was picked up!
There was one point during my laying on the futon after my being checked and found at 8cms and very much feeling the discomfort from laying on my back.. that I yelled out *very primal* and it scared the crap out of him. I had been very vocal my entire labor, but he wasn’t prepared for a yelp and he cried. But soon got over it and was up by me again.

I STILL can’t believe that Willem is 9lbs 5oz, 22inches long. Head Circ of 36″ and Body Circ of 38″. “not your average baby.. he’s a bruiser!” said my midwife. But birthing him on the birthing stool… he didn’t FEEL 9lbs coming out. He felt like 7lbs coming out, which is what Roan was when he was born.

Another thing that’s very different from Roan.. he nursed within the hour!! And very well indeed! Made me sooo happy.

Our little boy. =)

This amazing story of birth belongs to

Mrs. Michael C. Robertson
CD (CBI), HCHI
www.comfortbirth.com
Certified Doula & Hypnobabies Instructor

[tags]natural birth story, natural birth stories, hypnobabies homebirth[/tags]

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