Hi all, Finally I am getting around to writing.
My brief history:
I had a c/s at 26 weeks with my daughter after she ceased movement for a week due to her placenta giving out. That surgery revealed a malformation of my uterus called a unicornuate uterus. They did a low-transverse incision.
My son was born at 36 weeks by c/s because my doctors were terrified of my labor and I was having early labor stuff. They also told me that my malformed uterus wouldn't go full term ever and that this was probably the real thing. They were afraid my incision wasn't truly low because I was cut so early. That surgery revealed that it truly was low-transverse.
I decided to try a vbac this time because it was really important to me to learn to trust my body instead of being afraid of it. This has bled over into all aspects of my life where I never feel safe or trust my instincts. I found a birth educator/midwife from out of state to help me. There was no one in my home state that could help. My midwife empowered me and really believed in me. My husband was supportive too.
I prayed that my body would slowly open and the baby would drop down lower over time preparing for birth. That is what happened. I was effacing and dilating and contracting since about week 34ish.
At 5:00 on Feb. 16th my water broke. I called friends for prayers. We set up the birth pool, had a fire in the wood stove, and got all the birth supplies out. Our midwife was out of cell range and didn't get our message until 6. She came immediately. Our neighbor brought over her 8 year old and some food for my 2 kids. She read to them and gave them lots of attention while my husband and I were together. The contractions got pretty intense around 6ish and my neighbor assured me that they were supposed to feel that intense (I was wondering).
All of a sudden, the intense contracting (which was very obviously cervical opening contractions) changed to an intense desire to push. So I started pushing with the force that my body wanted to push with. I wasn't breathing very well during some of those pushes and decided to have some oxygen. After that everything mellowed out really nicely; the painful contractions were gone and every now and then I had to push. I got quite a bit of rest time in between the pushing. I kept feeling like the baby was probably going to come sometime soon but wasn't sure because I thought my labor would last a long time.
The midwife arrived at 8:30 ish. I could feel the head getting lower. I only pushed when I had the desire and quit the moment it went away, my midwife taught me that this was the body's wisdom. It worked well because it opened my vagina just enough each time to avoid any major tearing. It took a few good rounds of pushing to get the head all the way out. He turned and with one little push the body came right out. I picked him up and brought him to my chest and he cried the moment he was out of the water. He was pink while he was being born and had apgars of 10.
My kids were there, we got the whole thing on video and feel so blessed to have had our baby at home. He weighed 8 2oz and came a week after his due date.
My brief history:
I had a c/s at 26 weeks with my daughter after she ceased movement for a week due to her placenta giving out. That surgery revealed a malformation of my uterus called a unicornuate uterus. They did a low-transverse incision.
My son was born at 36 weeks by c/s because my doctors were terrified of my labor and I was having early labor stuff. They also told me that my malformed uterus wouldn't go full term ever and that this was probably the real thing. They were afraid my incision wasn't truly low because I was cut so early. That surgery revealed that it truly was low-transverse.
I decided to try a vbac this time because it was really important to me to learn to trust my body instead of being afraid of it. This has bled over into all aspects of my life where I never feel safe or trust my instincts. I found a birth educator/midwife from out of state to help me. There was no one in my home state that could help. My midwife empowered me and really believed in me. My husband was supportive too.
I prayed that my body would slowly open and the baby would drop down lower over time preparing for birth. That is what happened. I was effacing and dilating and contracting since about week 34ish.
At 5:00 on Feb. 16th my water broke. I called friends for prayers. We set up the birth pool, had a fire in the wood stove, and got all the birth supplies out. Our midwife was out of cell range and didn't get our message until 6. She came immediately. Our neighbor brought over her 8 year old and some food for my 2 kids. She read to them and gave them lots of attention while my husband and I were together. The contractions got pretty intense around 6ish and my neighbor assured me that they were supposed to feel that intense (I was wondering).
All of a sudden, the intense contracting (which was very obviously cervical opening contractions) changed to an intense desire to push. So I started pushing with the force that my body wanted to push with. I wasn't breathing very well during some of those pushes and decided to have some oxygen. After that everything mellowed out really nicely; the painful contractions were gone and every now and then I had to push. I got quite a bit of rest time in between the pushing. I kept feeling like the baby was probably going to come sometime soon but wasn't sure because I thought my labor would last a long time.
The midwife arrived at 8:30 ish. I could feel the head getting lower. I only pushed when I had the desire and quit the moment it went away, my midwife taught me that this was the body's wisdom. It worked well because it opened my vagina just enough each time to avoid any major tearing. It took a few good rounds of pushing to get the head all the way out. He turned and with one little push the body came right out. I picked him up and brought him to my chest and he cried the moment he was out of the water. He was pink while he was being born and had apgars of 10.
My kids were there, we got the whole thing on video and feel so blessed to have had our baby at home. He weighed 8 2oz and came a week after his due date.
: 
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