I couldn’t believe my ears when they announced his weight…9 pounds 13 ounces!! I had birthed a nearly 10 pound baby naturally! The next thing I thought was, “oh no…what’s the damage to my perineum!” I looked at Roberta as she was examining me and she informed me that I did not need stitches…I only had a minor laceration that would heal on its own. Incredible. I was relieved, to say the least.

Everett was doing fine, so they finally handed him to me all wrapped up. I wanted skin-to-skin contact to I tried to unwrap him and while that was going on, I delivered the placenta. It was finally over! They wanted me to nurse Everett right away because his blood sugar levels were low. I finally got him unwrapped and on my chest and was even able to get him to nurse a bit. This is when everything went downhill.

The cramping started as he was nursing, and as soon as he was done my nurse came to push on my uterus. Out gushed lots of fun stuff and she kept pushing and pushing to get it all out. I was in so much pain and begging her to stop, but she couldn’t! After the gushing stopped, she took it all and weighed it, and I had lost about 350ccs of fluid & clots. I guess this is a lot because they were a little worried about me after that & gave me a shot to help the uterus contract. Well, as you can imagine, that started 2 hours of excruciating pain. 4 ibuprofen, 2 percocet, and 1 shot of demorol later, I could finally relax and feed Everett again. I am being completely honest when I say that was the most painful thing I had ever experienced…way worse than labor…and I actually asked Nathan if they could knock me out!

My blood pressure shot up during the pain and they were worried that I might be having post-partum pre-eclampsia (toxemia) which is rare but does happen from time to time. Luckily, as soon as the pain went down, so did my blood pressure. Finally, around 3 or so in the afternoon, Everett and I were doing well enough to be moved to our recovery room. I was able to get up and go to the bathroom, and felt so much better in the recovery bed. They kept the pain meds coming and I wasn’t in too much pain after that. My recovery has actually been faster since then…my bleeding is lighter, sitting down isn’t painful at all, and I’m looking forward to a fast recovery. This birth was a bit more traumatic than Kaisa’s (mostly because of the meconium issues & the post-partum pain) but I still feel that it went extremely well and that my choice to birth Everett naturally paid off. I have a feeling that if I’d had an epidural, the pushing would have been completely ineffective and I would have been whisked off for a c-section at the first signs of fetal distress. Thanks again to the Hypnobirthing method for another wonderful birth!

Natha, Kaisa, Everett & I

Baby Everett

Happy Mom & Baby

Roberta said I was dilated 9.5 cm and to push if I wanted to. The problem was, I wasn’t really feeling the urge that strongly, and when I pushed it didn’t feel right. The pressure was not in my bottom where it should be. A couple of surges later I was fully dilated but I still wasn’t feeling right. She had me turn on my side; the baby probably needed to turn a bit more and that’s why things didn’t feel quite right. I was pushing all on my own, I felt, with almost no help from my body. I could feel him coming down though, and that was encouraging me to keep pushing even though it was extremely difficult and quite painful. Pretty soon I could feel him coming over the tailbone and I knew it was close. As he was crowning, Roberta had me reach down and feel his head. Almost there!

I started to sense and urgency that they really wanted this baby out. I later learned that his heart rate was dropping a bit and one of the nurses was even talking c-section. I’m glad I didn’t hear that at the time! Roberta was wonderful, she kept encouraging me to push without freaking me out. I was a little worried about my perineum at this point, but I was more worried about the baby, so I gave it literally everything I had, and pretty soon his head was out. Moments later, I had delivered him and I heard him cry. This is the most wonderful feeling in the world! Nathan was right there with me the whole time, and since we couldn’t yet hold our baby, we held each other and kissed.

I went to bed Sunday night with no signs of labor. Shortly after lying down, I started to feel him move like crazy and he was putting a lot of pressure on my cervix. I was uncomfortable enough that I couldn’t fall asleep, so I lay there for well over an hour wondering if this could mean something. I kept getting up to go to the bathroom to check for bloody show or any signs, but nothing.

I finally drifted off to sleep and awoke to a strong surge around 3am. I was able to fall back asleep but awoke again shortly to another strong surge. From that point on, I wasn’t able to sleep the rest of the night. I started timing the surges on Nathan’s iphone application (iContraction) and they were coming anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes apart and lasting around 45 to 60 seconds. I was told to wait until they were 5 minutes apart and 60 seconds long for one hour before calling the midwife, so I just tried to stay as relaxed as possible while I waited it out.

Around 6am I started to lose focus. I wasn’t staying relaxed through the surges and was freaking out a little, not knowing if I should call the midwife yet. I really wanted to wait until 8am because the next midwife on call would take over at that time, and I didn’t want to bother whoever was on call for the last 2 hours of their shift. I woke Nathan up and he gave me some encouragement, which helped a lot. I had been playing my CD since the surges started and finally at this point decided to draw a hot bath. I stayed in the tub for an hour and it was absolutely wonderful. Instant relief and relaxation came and I was able to focus again.

I decided to get out and eat breakfast. As I was sitting at the table on my birth ball eating, the surges were getting strong enough that I needed hip presses from Nathan. I was losing focus again since I was trying to finish packing for the hospital and make arrangements for Kaisa. Finally, 8am came and I called Roberta who was on call for the day. I explained everything that had been going on and she said to go ahead and get to the hospital to be checked. I was relieved but nervous at the same time…I did NOT want to get sent home and I really had no idea how far I could have progressed.

After taking Kaisa to the neighbor’s and getting everything together, we finally got to the hospital around 8:45 or so. To my joy they were not busy at all and the “natural birth room” with the tub was open for me. The nurse checked me and I was 6cm dilated and 100% effaced! This was the most wonderful news yet. I could stay and I was very close to having my baby.

As soon as I got changed and into the bed for monitoring, I got my groove back. I was a lot more aware of what I needed and wanted this time around. I had them drop the bed into a sitting position and Nathan did knee presses through each surge while I listened to my CD. In between surges the nurse asked all of those ridiculous questions but I remained calm and relaxed.

As soon as monitoring was over, Roberta drew me a hot bath and I spent the next hour or so in the tub, relaxing and breathing deeply through each surge. Nathan was feeding me ice chips and juice. His mom arrived at this point and commented how nice it looked to be having a baby here. I admit that in between surges I felt completely comfortable and even pampered! The surges were coming in spurts…two or three close together and then a 5 minute break. They started to get very intense and I felt them in my back, so Roberta suggested I move out of the tub and into another position because the baby may be a little posterior.

After another little while of sitting on the birth ball, then hands and knees, surges getting stronger and stronger, Roberta suggested I go to the bathroom. While sitting on the toilet I started to feel a very weak urge to push. They got me back into the bed and encouraged me to start pushing through surges if that’s what I felt like doing. My bag of waters was still intact and Roberta seemed pretty nervous about it popping everywhere and asked if she could break it…I said sure. At first she said it was clear, but as I continued pushing she saw greenish chunks and at that point told me that baby wouldn’t be able to come to my chest. They called in the respiratory people from the NICU just in case. I was pretty upset about this but there wasn’t much I could do at that point.

As labor progressed and the surges became more intense, I did feel discomfort while on the ball, however pain relief isn’t the only benefit of this wonderful object. Sitting on the ball opens the pelvis and helps the baby descend more quickly. I spent a great deal of time during my labor sitting on the ball, and my husband applied counter-pressure to my hips while I rocked my baby down. I feel that this greatly contributed to my smooth, natural birth.

Those who are planning on natural birth, especially a hypnobirth, should plan on purchasing a birth ball and practicing with it before labor begins (if you are hypnobirthing, practice your hypnosis in different positions with it as well). Another benefit of practicing with the birthing ball is it promotes good posture which can help get your baby in the right position. Many natural birth instructors will have handouts of different positions to use with the ball to provide relief, and will demonstrate these positions in class. Don’t miss out on this benefit—it will help you immensely!

** Update: I’m 5’9″ and found the 65cm ball worked great for me. Hopefully this gives you a ballpark estimate for your own birthing ball.

When I first started to think about what kind of birth I wanted, the idea of a water birth appealed to me (although not to my husband—he thought it was weird). At my next prenatal appointment, I asked my midwife about doing one. She responded that the hospital would not let midwives perform water births, so I immediately had to rule out that option. However, I always knew I would want to labor in the tub and so I included this request in my birth preferences sheet. I’m not sure if it is common for midwives who deliver in hospitals to be denied water birth privileges or not, but if you are interested in a water birth, definitely check on that before choosing a provider and location to have your baby.

I got in the tub once at home, and twice at the hospital. The hospital tub was a bit bigger and was jetted, so I definitely preferred that. The warm water feels so wonderful and eases the intensity of the surges. It also relaxes the body. I found that after a certain amount of time in the water, I needed to change things up again, but it was so nice to come back to and always provided that extra bit of comfort I needed. One of the best parts about it for me was having my water break while I was in the tub. I didn’t feel the awkwardness of it, and the midwife was easily able to check for any meconium. How convenient! Overall, I highly recommend using the tub for any natural birth, and especially for a hypnobirth.