Birth Story: Marcela and Matt

Elijah Mathew Baugh 7.10oz,19.5 inches long.

My water broke at 8:50pm on Saturday. Everyone told me it’s probably contact for several hours before my water broke. I was contracting, but nothing that was serious or consistent. I wasn’t even sure what happened. I told Matt “either my water broke or I need my pants in a very weird way…” Contractions were not progressing so we decided to go to my parents house since it was closer to the hospital. We waited there until midnight, and decided we would head to the hospital. Contractions were still not strong or consistent. But it had been a while and I was getting worried. When we got there I was dilated at a 2 and was 60% effaced, the exact same as my midwife appointment on that earlier Thursday. The nurse called the midwife and told her where I was and she said that it’s her recommendation was that we start pitocin. I heard that and was immediately upset. “Did she even read my birth plan?” I thought. Luckily I have the most amazing husband and birth companion and he told the nurse that we would like time to try a few things before he consider any medical intervention, as it says on the birth plan. They gave us two hours. So we did a few things our Hypnobirthing class instructed and two hours later I was dilated at a 3. That was enough progression to side step the mention of that medical intervention again. We continued very slowly forward doing scripts, affirmations, and laboring in the tub. Everything was awesome and great, moving along slow, breathing through surges by myself with the help of my amazing supportive husband. I continued to progress until I hit 9cm and 90% effaced, then everything stopped. I was not managing any thing well knowing I wasn’t moving forward. My midwife then told me that we could try to get that last bit of cervix out of the way by bearing down and pushing. So I listened to her. And I did that for 3 hours. I was at a 9 and 90%, bearing down and pushing for 3 hours. I was still trying to breath and use the techniques I learned. Then came the vomiting from not being able to handle the surges. And then the talk about medical intervention. I was so tired and done, that the thought came into my mind, if I keep going like this, I won’t have the energy, will, or let alone strength to do what I needed to to get my son into the world in the natural way possible. They gave us our options and Matt and I asked for them to leave the room to be able to discuss. I decided I would get an epidural to hopefully rest a little before he came. I was sad I couldn’t make it to the end but my husband told me he was proud of me for making it as far as I did. And I thought “I’m prepared to meet whatever path my birthing may take.” The anesthesiologist came and I had heard horror stories of woman who had gotten an epidural and were paralyzed or they couldn’t feel their legs for months afterwards, that wasn’t going to be me. So I relaxed, I relaxed to well he even put the needle in during a surge.  So I got the epidural and it didn’t even work! It numbed my left thigh was numb but nothing else! But I think the the purpose of it was to get me back into my mind and relax. Because about an hour he left, I was at 10 and I was ready to go. From crowing to fully born was 25 mins. He came out and the first thing I said was “I did it!” And then cried at how beautiful he was. I’m going to say I had a natural birth because the epidural didn’t even work! Haha! My husband was the best birth companion I could ever ask for. He met every twist and turn with a calm, clear mind and every medical intervention completely informed. I couldn’t have done it without him. I couldn’t have made it to be 9cm or survived a 24 hour labor without the preparation and knowledge from the classes and the program. Hypnobirthing gave us the resources and courage to speak up and make informed decisions. Although it didn’t go exactly as planned, it was amazing to see what my body can do and to bring my baby boy into the world.

Thank you Fiona for your class! We couldn’t have done it without you!