Jenny’s Natural Birth Story

Jenny was kind enough to share her beautiful natural birth experience with us. I hope her experiences are inspiring and help those who are trying to decide what type of birth is best for them.

“My birthing experience was perfect for me. I loved it! I knew going natural was different from the way anyone else i knew had done it (besides my grandma of course) but i felt I wanted to do what was best. After much research…it was obvious that natural is best for mom and baby…esp on your first child. Since my birth experience I have had two friends decide to go natural after having already had a child or two via inducing and epidurals. They both were very nervous but after their experiences they both say that natural is 100% better. They both said that recovery was so much faster and easier and that the contractions weren’t as bad and that labor and delivery was much faster. Those were all the things i read about that convinced me to go natural. I am now pregnant and can’t wait for another wonderful natural birthing experience. This time my goals are to not have an IV in me and to push slower so the fluid can get out of the babies lungs properly. Tessa came out in one contraction and just two or three pushes. I highly recommend anyone to go natural if anything just for all the benefits for baby plus there are many for the mom as well.

After writing several drafts i thought my husbands view was best:

Baby Tessa Clark was born Fri Dec 12, 2008 @ LDS Hospital. Jenny started having bad contractions Thursday night around 9pm. We showed up to the hospital around 2:30am Fri. morning at which point Jenny was dilated to 2+ centimeters with consistent contractions every 6-10 minutes. It didn’t take long till they were ready to call the midwife. Once Diane arrived, Jenny was already at a 5 with intense contractions every 2 minutes.

Jenny and I choose to have a natural childbirth because of the many health benefits for the baby and mother. I had been massaging Jenny’s back through all the contractions and coaching her along as best as I could. I was relieved when Diane showed up and helped us through the rest of it. Apparently, laying in bed is the worst place for a natural child birth labor. Luckily our nurse hooked us up with a jacuzzi delivery room. Jenny spent most of the rest of her labor in the warm jetted jacuzzi tub. It looked like it relieved her considerably. Even so, she was still saying things like, “I can’t do it anymore…. they’re coming too fast…I need a break….I think I’m going to die!” Luckily at this point she was already a 9 and ready to push.

Honestly, I think Jenny was made to push out babys. Once she got the green light from Diane, Jenny pushed with all her might and it seemed like she pushed the baby all the way to the opening in a single contraction! Jenny told me after that the pushing part was a big relief because it stopped the contractions from hurting. This gave her lots of incentive to push hard and fast.

I was helping Jenny hold her left knee and I had a great view of the entire birth. I saw the head begin to peak out and it had hair! I told Jenny that I could see the head coming. Another pushing and the head crowned and came fully out. Diane said she needed one more small push. Jenny took a deep breath and gave it one last push. I looked down to see the baby literally shooting out into Diane’s hands! It was like she had shot out the end of a water slide head first!

Because the baby came out so fast, she still had some fluid in her lungs. I guess that is usually worked out as the baby slowly makes its way through the birth canal. So the baby began to turn very purple. They gave her oxygen and then wisked her over to the table and extracted the fluid from her lungs with some tubes and things. After a few moments of suspense, she was breathing fine and the color returned. She got to meet her mommy. It was a beautiful moment!

We’re so glad that Tessa is here with us now. She’s just so adorable and we love her so much! She’s definitly daddy’s little girl.

We feel so blessed. It made us a little nervous that the baby was 12 days overdue. Jenny is a really small person and being so small, plus overdue put us at a higher risk of a c-section. We had been praying hard that the Lord would allow us to have a natural birth.

I’ve also been very impressed with my own dad’s reaction to his new granddaughter. It’s like he’s found new meaning in his life as well. There’s a new twinkle in his eye. He says that all day while he’s at work etc, he just wishes he could be here holding Tessa. He loves to hold her and sing to her. He’s become attached He can’t help it. We all are. Jenny and I are happy to welcome Tessa to our family.”

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