Jessica’s Birth Story- Guest Post

This blog post is from one of my readers, Jessica, who was kind enough to share her wonderful birth experience with us.

My husband and I just had our first child 6 weeks ago. Even before I was pregnant, I was hoping for a natural childbirth, inspired by my mom and sister who have both gone natural. Once I became pregnant, I started to look into the options that were available in my area. My husband was not comfortable with a home birth for our first baby, so I started to look into what birthing centers were close to us and we had two options to choose from. One was a free-standing birth center, the other, an unusual option; a birth center in a hospital (I think there are only about 4 hospitals in the country that do this – wish there were more.) I ended up starting at the free-standing birth center, but due to some concerns I had with the midwives there, I moved to the other birth center at 5 months. I could not have been happier with my choice. The midwives there were wonderful and my husband liked the fact that if there was an emergency, help was right there. The birth center was on a separate floor from L&D, so it did have more of a birth center feel with homey rooms. I chose to have a very natural pregnancy as well, being on a great nutrition regimen that my holistic doctor had me follow (no typical pre-natal vitamins) and I also declined the flu shot and Rhogam during my pregnancy. I felt very supported by my midwife with these decisions and also with my birth “wish list” which included the requests that my water not be broken and the cord not cut until it had stopped pulsing. I also opted to hire a doula and it was one of the best decisions I ever made! She was wonderful and taught me and my husband so much before our birth experience and also introduced us to Hypnobirthing and the instructor that taught us at home (a GREAT option for one on one instruction!)
I went into labor about a week ahead of my due date. It was a total of 11 hours – 8 in labor and 3 pushing. From the first contraction, the labor was painful and intense – I had back labor the whole time and ended up laboring the entire time on my hands and knees. I went from contractions every 8 minutes to 4 minutes in the first hour. My doula came to the house and we labored there for 5 hours and then we all drove over to the hosptial. When we got there, the birth center was full, so ended up delivering in L&D, but still had my midwife. It made a huge difference for me and my husband having my doula there coaching me and helping my husband know how to help me better. She was also able to get some great pictures for us. My labor was the most painful thing I have ever gone through, but I would do it all over again (and hope to!) without medication. The midwife was faithful to follow my wish list and didn’t break my water – it broke 10 minutes before my son arrived. When my son was born he was placed right on my chest, and started to nurse immediately – his latch was perfect. It was amazing to see how alert he was right after birth. My placenta also came out quite easily a few minutes after he was born.
I hope my story can encourage others to birth naturally and to look into what options are available in your area. I would also recommend looking into getting a doula to be with you during birth. Having a doula present will increase your chances of birthing naturally. Natural labor was difficult, but so rewarding, and it’s wonderful to look back and say – “I did it!”.

Jessica

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