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Here's my long birth
story from almost 3 weeks ago. Wow, how time flies. I should first
note a disclaimer that I did not follow the program in it's entirety
and therefore, it did not work completely. However, it worked in a
very interesting way. If you want to know how, you have to read the
whole story.
Here's the abridged version: beautiful baby girl born to first time
mom and dad (who are completely in love with her) on February 7th.
Long version:
On February 6th, my due date, I went in for my weekly appointment
and I was 3 cm dialated and 50% effaced. I was so proud to hear that
because I knew my girl would be coming soon (I had been having some
minimal discomfort for days). My midwife stripped my membranes and I
went home.
The next morning I got up around 8:30, went to the bathroom and lost
my mucous plug. Boy, was I happy! I started getting pressure waves
and started timing at 9am. I started listening to Easy First Stage,
in case this was it. As I was timing, I noticed they were 5-6
minutes apart. Since they were so close together, I thought this
can't be right. So I called my husband home from work and he got
home at 10am. I had him make me some eggs because I knew the
hospital wouldn't let me eat. He helped me time them and then they
were 3-4 minutes apart and I thought I should probably call the
doctor. So we went in to the doctor's office at noon for me to be
checked. I was almost 5 cm dialated and 100% effaced so they wheeled
me over the hospital. I got in my room at about 12:30. They pretty
much just left me in there with my husband and I started to get
scared. I felt very unsure, since I didn't finish my Hypnobabies
course (BIG mistake) and I really wished I would have hired a doula.
It would have been better to have someone there with us, supporting
us more. I learned afterwards that almost everyone gets an epidural
at that hospital
Anyway, they hooked me up to the monitor to the left of me (which I
didn't want) and hooked me up the IV to the right of me (again
didn't want) and the antibiotics for GBS (had to have). This was the
worse part of labor. I felt so confined to the bed, as the waves got
very very strong (which I now know was transformation) I felt like I
was going out of my mind. So I took myself off the monitor and got
scolded by some stupid nurse (although she didn't realize I was off
until it was about 20 minutes later).
My pressure waves came so fast and strong, I didn't think I could
make it through unmedicated. I caved and asked for Stadol through
the IV. The nurse acted like I was exaggerating my discomfort, but
when the resident checked me I was 9 cm dialated. Lucky for me, too
late for drugs! Within a half hour I was 10 cm and ready to push.
I pushed for exactly 1 hour and my beautiful girl, Emmaline
Elizabeth, was born at 4:36pm on February 7th. She was 7lbs 8oz and
19 inches long. Towards the end, they were having difficulty
measuring her heartrate between pushes, so they did internal
monitoring. The internal monitoring made me so motivated I pushed
her out in 2 pushes after that. I had 3 small tears, which resulted
in 3 stitches and I've never felt so proud in my life.
Here's the part where I thank Hypnobabies and God. I *truly* believe
that listening to the tracks throughout the labor helped me to
progress so quickly and have the natural childbirth I so desired.
Afterwards, I was tired, and so hungry, but felt great!!!! During my
"recovery" at the hospital, they kept asking me to rate my pain,
which was always a 1 or a 2, they kept trying to stuff Motrin or
Tylenol with Codeine down me. I'm happy to say I didn't take it and
didn't need it.
The next day a med student that was in the room for the birth came
to check on me. He told me that in his 6 week rotation there, my
birth was the only natural one he had seen. Every other mother had
an epidural and he was amazed at how well I did. He thanked me for
letting him be in the room to experience that and I was really glad
I was able to. Also, my husband told me that when he walked by the
nurses station, my delivery nurse (not the snippy one) was bragging
to the post partum nurses about how good I did and how I didn't have
any drugs or an episiotomy.
If I have another child, I will definitely use Hypnobabies again,
except this time I will do the course completely. My haphazard style
did work, but in a way I never imagined it would. Bringing my
beautiful daughter into the world is my badge of honor. |