my baby girl - born 6/5/03

[yogamama]

My lovely baby girl is 2 days old and is sleeping away. Dad and older brother went to run errands - so here is my baby's birth story...

I started early labor on Wednesday evening and felt that the baby might be born Wednesday night or Thursday morning. My husband suggested that we take our 3 1/2 year old son to his parents house and our doula agreed that that was a good idea. Our son is excited to go tell grandma and grandpa that the baby might come tonight!

When we got home I felt that I was having fairly productive contractions from 9-11pm that were strong and close together, but I tried to sleep based on the recommendation of our doula. My husband and I listened to some Hypnobirthing tapes and we were both able to sleep for several hours. I felt that my contractions were much less intense when I laid down, and stronger when I got up to use the bathroom or walked around.

About 4am I had a small gush of fluid and called the doula again. By 5am I felt the contractions much stronger and we called the doula to come to our house and called the midwife. By 6am the contractions were difficult and I had the urge to vomit - I was definately moving into active labor. We headed to the hospital with our doula immediately behind us.

We arrived at the hospital about 6:30 and went to triage where I got an antibiotic, since I had tested positive during my pregnancy for Group B Strep. No internal exam was done. The baby sounded good on the external fetal monitor.

7am - my husband, doula and I went up to the Alternative Birthing Center at the hospital

7:25am - our midwife met us at the ABC

7:50am - I threw up

8am - first internal exam - I was at 5cm, baby anterior, 90% effaced, -1 station

8:25 - I laid on my side to rest and listened to Hypnobirthing and mantra tapes. At one point I fell asleep! My husband and doula said they could hear me snoring... The contractions kept me awake and I did alot of low moaning during contractions, but I did feel that the time passed fairly quickly.

9:43am - spontaneous rupture of membranes - now the contractions came very quickly immediately on top of each other and were difficult for me

9:50am - second internal exam - 6cm, 100% effaced, 0 station

9:59am - third internal exam - 8cm, +1 station

10:05am - I got into the birthing tub, but stayed only a few minutes - the water felt too warm and I had the urge to push that was very difficult to resist - I wanted to be back in the bed

10:15 - last internal exam - complete at 10cm

10:18 - baby's head is crowning - I move from side laying to back laying to push - I hold my husband's hand and push and moan

10:23 - the baby is birthed in two big pushes - her head and left hand with one push and her shoulders and body with the second push

We have a beautiful baby girl - 7 lbs 7 ounces, 19.5 inches long - she has a mass of dark hair and she looks exactly like her older brother at his birth. There are no tears to my perineum (despite her hand at her head) and I had no pain medications.

Our baby girl nurses well within the first few hours of life and she was alert and bright with an intense curious gaze.

I could not have hoped for a better birth experience. It was difficult and intense, but I felt good about every part of the birth. I felt well supported and prepared. The logistics of getting our older child settled and ourselves to the birth center worked without a problem. I felt alot of strong positive energy surrounding the birth and I was ready when labor began. During the birth I was able to maintain an inward focus and was able to stay present to my physical and emotional experiences. The whole birth team - my husband, the doula, the midwife and the labor and delivery nurse - were all wonderful.

A friend had e-mailed me on Wednesday night to remind me that 300,000 other women would be birthing at the same time as me, and that image helped sustain me during my labor. I felt so grateful to have all of the love and support that I had, and at the same time I felt grief about the pain of childbirth and sad for the women in the world without the support that I had at that moment. All of the beauty and pain in the world seemed mixed up and connected during my labor.

The transition from 6cm to the birth of our baby girl was 40 minutes. That was definately the most intensely painful and empowering 40 minutes of my life. I'm proud of myself and my body. I'm proud of my husband and his love and support. And I'm proud of my baby girl and grateful for her spirit and her new life.

We are deeply blessed by each other.

[mamabutterfly]

*sigh* :love :D :hug

Thank you for your story, yogamama. You made my night. It is beautiful.

I wondered about you when you told us you were in early labor. Glad it all went so well.

Hooray to you and the 299,999 others who gave life together in that same moment. Welcome little ones.

Enjoy your babymoon!
maambutterfly

[Zoe]

Yogamama:

Congratulations on your little girl! Sounds like a wonderful experience. I get so excited to hear other people's birth stories, thanks for sharing.

You probably won't have time to write back, but did you think the hypnobirthing worked? Did you really need a Doula? How did you like West Sub. I'm delivering there is August.

Congrats to you and your family again!
Zoe

[yogamama]

Zoe -

I have a baby who is sleeping alot, so I have plenty of time to hang out on the Mothering boards right now!

I think the Hypnobirthing did help alot. I was pretty uncertain whether or not it would be useful, but since I was able to FALL ASLEEP during active labor listening to the tapes, I would have to say that it was pretty successful! My husband said I was like the poster child for Hypnobirthing and the nurses on the unit were talking about it...

Regarding the doula, I was really glad to have her, because it helped me going into labor to know that we would have extra support. My husband is a nurse and it was alot for him to be my one-and-only support person during the birth of our first baby. I think he is just too hyper-sensitive about possible complications...

The doula was good for these reasons: she really helped us prepare in the few weeks before the birth and helped us both feel supported; we called her a few times in the middle of the night and that was reassuring; she helped us figure out the logistics of getting our older child settled (I was really worried about that). Also, she was an extra advocate for an unmedicated birth at the hospital; she kept my husband company; she did a bunch of tactile things (rice sock, ice, massage) during the birth; and she kept track of what time EVERYTHING happened.

I definately couldn't have written that birth story without all her notes. And she came to my house and gave me a massage a week before the baby was due and is coming back next week to show us infant massage techniques. It was definately worth the $600 we paid her. But honestly, since this was my second birth, I think the actual birth would have been similar without the doula. We had great midwives (Greta Gulizan attended the birth and Shirley Moore is our primary midwife/caregiver).

I was really happy with West Sub. The nurses were good and totally left us alone after the birth. They asked before they did any routine baby care and even waited before they weighed and measured the baby (about 1 1/2 hours) and until much later in the day to give the eye ointment. Overnight the nurse asked if we wanted her to check in or just come if she called. We left after 24 hours - just because I was more comfortable in my own bed at home. But the hospital staff was good.

Good luck in August and blessing on the remainder of your pregnancy.

Kathleen

[its_our_family]

What a beautiful thing! This is the birth I want for my baby....I hope I'm as blessed as you were with yours!

[Spark]

Kathleen, what a beautiful birth story! Thank you so much for sharing it. Now, what is it about us HypnoBirthing moms who have babes born with a hand up. My son Jude was a HypnoBirth baby and had his hand up, too. Maybe that rainbow tape says, "Indigo, feel your baby waving to you!" I don't know though, I always fell asleep by yellow. (Jude's birth is posted here if you want to read)

Thank you for sharing your daughters birth with us. What an amazing story. I love that you fell asleep. I think HypnoBirthing worked well for me, too. There was about and hour of discomfort towards the end, but all in all everything else was pain-free.

Blessings to you and your family. Enjoy that little one!

[Beth]

Just wanted to say that your experience is inspiring. I am praying and working for a similar experience for my third baby due this December.

Dh and I also use Hypnobirthing. When practising when I was pregnant with dd#2 I told my instuctor that I always fall asleep by the second or third color he said that I probably wasn't asleep but hypnotized and deeply relaxed. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like this method worked well for my labor. I am going to try again with this upcoming labor and hopefully I'll be more prepared.

Thank you for sharing your story. Congratulations!

[yogamama]

I always feel asleep using the Rainbow Relaxation tape by the end of Red. I really didn't expect Hypnobirthing to be all that useful in labor - I mainly took the class because some of my yoga students recommended it and I was having alot of insomnia.

It did help reduce the insomnia during pregnancy ALOT.

Also, my husband meditates, but it is hard for me to relax enough to really meditate and I thought this would be a good technique to learn. I guess I'm a convert to Hypnobirthing - but I think the name is terrible, maybe it should be called "Deep Relaxation for Pregnancy and Childbirth" or something. I think the name makes it sound so wacky.

Also, I did experience real physical pain during childbirth. Not unbearable or something I wanted to escape, but it did hurt. I think the Hypnobirthing philosophy of "no pain" may be true for some people, but I think most mothers experience some level of "pain" during childbirth. I think we do first time mothers a dis-service if we are unrealistic about the fact that most women do find childbirth to be hard. That is a whole other discussion, though...

its_our_family & Beth - I hope you both great births. I'll send you good laboring vibes.

Kathleen

[carrots]

thank you for sharing your story. i am totally impressed by how quickly you posted it wow:eek congratulations to all of your family:love