Our Birth Story
A month or so prior to my due date, about when I started wanting to really not be pregnant any more, once every few days I would be woken up at around 6am by really strong braxton-hicks contractions. They'd last a minute or so and reoccur every half hour until around 9 or 10am when they'd fade away. After a few weeks of this I became convinced that I'd start labor in the early morning, and that one morning I'd wake up to contractions and they'd just keep going.
So on Friday, March 7th, when that mornings contractions petered out to nothing yet again, I became quite despondent and went out to get myself some really saltly, greasy comfort food. A quarter pounder with cheese and super sized fries. (Heck, I was home alone, no one would know I wasn't subsisting solely on organic produce and herbal supplements. I felt so naughty, hee hee!) Sated on cow fat and carbs I puttered about the house, eventually noticing around 3:30pm that I hadn't eaten since the morning (I was, on the whole, doing the eat small amounts often because you may go into labor any moment and you don't want to start labor starving or too full thing), so I foraged some strawberries out of the fridge. I ate the whole basket. I don't even really like strawberries that much. Eating the last one I thought to myself, gosh I feel a bit nauseous after eating all these strawberries, but I finished it anyway. Fifteen minutes later I had my first "for real" labor contraction.
The first of the labor contraction felt like a mild period cramp with some lower back pain. I felt uncomfortable but wasn't really thinking about why that might be. I took a book into the parlor (the birthing room) and laid down on the floor in the sun to read. 30 minutes later it happened again and it was then that I realized I might be in labor. I called Dillon and informed him that he was to come home RIGHT NOW. All I remember is that he arrived home really quickly. When he arrived the contractions had become stronger and more painful, so we broke out the TENS machine and hooked me up. It helped a bit. It at least gave me a distraction to fiddle with the intensity settings during each contraction. The next several hours wizzed by, I don't really remember them. I was excited and nervous.
By 10pm the contractions were 15 minutes apart so we decided to call the midwife. She suggested that I take a warm bath and try to relax to see if my labor was really established or not. We called her back an hour later, my contractions were now 2-5 minutes apart and I was in a great deal of pain. I muddled through by breathing deeply and having Dillon pour hot water down my back. Ronnie told us that she would be over in a few minutes. I decided to get in the birthing tub. The contractions were really intense and very long. And they HURT.
Ronnie (our midwife) and Christi (our doula) arrived in what seemed like no time, it was probaby around 11:30pm or midnight. Ronnie lured me out of the tub and did an internal check. I was so afraid of not progressing that I was desperate to find out... She checked me and it turns out I was already 6cm dilated! Only 4cm to go and I could start pushing! I was definately in "active labor" at that point. Laying on my side on the futon after she checked my dilation was awful. I was in so much pain! I couldn't stand it and I couldn't bring myself to even move into a more comfortable position the contractions were so intense. They finally managed to get me back into the birthing tub and BY THE GODDESS did that feel GOOD. Being in the water, floating effortlessly into whatever position was most comfortable, being held up by the warm soothing water. I now cannot fathom the sheer stupidity of birthing on dry land!
Once I was back in the tub my entire concentration was focused on birthing. I began chanting "open" and "flow" in a deep, low tone. The chanting really helped reduce the pain. Sometimes my voice would rise in pitch and the pain would skyrocket. When I noticed, I would lower my tone and the pain would sink to a managable level. The contractions felt very sharp and intense and like nothing else I've ever felt. As labor progressed I squirmed and moaned and chanted and I kept asking when the endorphins would kick in. It turns out that Baby's presentation was posterior, I was having the dreaded and extra painful "back labor". At the time I didn't think I was having a back labor because the pain wasn't actually as bad as I would have expected it to be in that case. I had seen a video of a woman laboring a posterior baby in her hot tub and it had looked like she felt really awful. My contractions were strong and painful, but at the time they felt "normal", eventhough I'd never felt them before and had nothing to compare it to, it just felt like that was the way it was supposed to.
Time passed, but I wasn't really conscious of it. I was completely in "the zone". I was completely in my body, in the moment, letting my body do it's work and not interfering with extraneous things like thoughts. I do remember one moment of cognizance though. I was getting worn down by the work of labor and I ached to have it over with. I was hoping that I was ready to start pushing, so I asked Ronnie "should I start pushing now?" And, I didn't find this quite so amusing at the time, she said "well, do you feel like you should start pushing?" Argh! I just wanted to be told yes! So I pushed. Ouch! Ah ha. I could tell that I wasn't all the way dialated yet. Got it. Not time to push yet. In what must have been a short time later I *did* feel the urge to push, it was unmistakable. It may sound unromantic, but the only thing I can compare it to is vomiting. Your body just does it, you can help it along, or fight it, but your body is going to do what it has to. One thing I really didn't expect was that pushing felt so good! There didn't seem to be much time between contractions, and the contractions hurt, but when I pushed, the pain receeded. To be even more unromantic, it felt like a deep, satisfying bowel movement. I practically groaned with pleasure from the relief from pain during each push. My chanting changed, the baby's head was moving down and the contractions had become so intense that I started chanting "easy" and "down". I realize now that I was intuitively urging the baby to ease down the canal slowly and smoothly. Ronnie made an internal check and encouraged me to feel also. I could feel hair! The head was nearing the opening with each push and I could feel that it was all bumpy and furry.
tbc...
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