Birth story - Nadine and baby Nico

*Trigger warning* - use of the word contraction, pregnancy bleeding

Listening and reading to positive birth stories were the most helpful in empowering me for my natural birth and gave me the motivation that I could do the damn thing! While listening to these stories, I found out about hypnobirthing and PBC which aligned with me so much.

The QUICK GIST:

I had NO idea when I was in established labor because my contractions/waves stayed every 6-8 min for a while. The duration of each wave would be anywhere from 40seconds to over a minute early on. And even when things got really intense and I started to have the typical transition thoughts and symptoms, the waves were still irregular and farther apart. Weird 🤷🏽‍♀️ And also very discouraging at the time because as they got much harder to breathe through, I thought “My god if this isn’t even active labor I don’t think I’ll be able to do this!!” But once I got to the hospital I was 8-9cm and ready to push! Hallelujah! We got to the hospital at 730pm and I delivered our amazing baby boy at 1030pm 🥹 So grateful for PBC and that we delivered our baby with no meds - my ideal positive birth story manifested! I can’t get over it. And this community helped me so much!! Thank you thank you ♥️♥️

The DETAILS:

Pregnancy went pretty smooth except for a few episodes of moderate bleeding/dark brown discharge during my 1st and 2nd trimesters. They were painless, never heavy, and didn’t last long when they occurred so my OB wasn’t concerned. It eventually subsided toward the end of my 2nd trimester.

I’m 38 years old so they did chart that as something to note but the doctor actually told us we’re on the “younger side” of their clients 😄 We weren’t really worried about it anyway. We switched hospitals once so that I could receive midwife care. Although the hospital we delivered in is still OB led, it was nice to know midwives were there.

I ran a few times a week until the middle of my 2nd trimester. Then I only did walking, pregnancy pilates and yoga. The YouTube channel, pregnancy and postpartum TV, has great work out videos to prepare for natural birth.

I started drinking raspberry leaf and nora tea in my 3rd trimester, ate dates starting 36 weeks, also went to chiropractor, acupuncture and massage appointments throughout my pregnancy.

Around 11pm night of the 27th, I had three period like cramps in an hour. Around 2am, lost my mucus plug and started getting contractions about every 20-30min. My husband was sleeping and I decided to let him so he could conserve his energy. He woke up around 630-7am and I told him the exciting news 😄 He worked from home all day while I labored in our bedroom. He checked on me every half hour to an hour but I told him I’d let him know when I really needed him. It was nice to labor on my own for a while just being in my own my head space and very focused. I was actually able to get some rest every 20min until about 11am. Then they were coming about every 10-15min and I started the Freya app.

I ate, drank coconut water, and rested as much as I could. By 230pm they were 6-8 min apart and getting a little stronger but some were still 10min apart and lasting over a minute. I closed the blinds, kept lights off, listened to music (including our wedding songs) and some meditations, did hip circles on my birth ball.

It wasn’t until about 430pm I told my husband that I needed him. We put tea lights around the room and put on our wedding video but had to stop it after a few minutes because I really needed to focus as the waves were coming in stronger, lasting 40-90 seconds. My husband was amazing at doing up breathing with me, reminding me to relax my jaw and doing light touch massage. I thought I would like a massage gun and more firm massages but it just put way more pressure on my back.

Around 545pm the waves were getting so intense, finally getting closer 5-6min apart. I still thought I was in EARLY labor because some waves were still 6 min apart even though most of them were lasting 60-90sec. I started to think the usual transition thoughts - I was scared I wouldn’t be able to do this, I don’t know how much longer I could go, etc. I was nauseous and shaking. I tried to get in the shower for relief but once the shower turned on a contraction would come even stronger and I just couldn’t. The only thing I wanted my husband to do at that point was hold my hand.

By 7pm I just told him I wanted to go because I couldn’t take it anymore. And right then I started to have waves that were 4min apart and thought FINALLY. But also thought - omg if THIS is just the start of active labor I’m definitely not going to last without meds. The car ride to the hospital was only 10min but felt like forever. I had three intense contractions in the car and three more on the way up to the labor & delivery unit.

Once they got me into my room I immediately went on hands and knees feeling disheartened that I had to go on like this (still thinking I only just started established labor). The nurse or doctor (or someone… really have no idea I was in labor land😆) checked me and said “I don’t feel a cervix……. She’s 8-9 and about ready to push.” I was like for fuck’s sake, THANK GOODNESS. My doula got there right at that time. And both her and my husband were telling me the best things to get me through pushing.

My husband said I started pushing around 845pm. I can’t tell you how incredible he was. In the midst of it all, he still made sure to give and voice to the nurses our birth plan. He kissed my forehead a billion times and kept telling me how great I was doing. My doula kept reminding me my body knew what to do. The doctor told me to feel his head and touching his head of hair was just the motivation I needed because I was so tired. It felt like I had been pushing for hours on end. I spent most of my time on all fours or on my side but surprisingly at the end, it helped to push on my back. I never thought I would but baby may have been more comfy that way. I had a little bit of oxygen in between my last few pushes.

At 1030pm I birthed our amazing baby boy 🥲 Immediate skin to skin. And he did the boob crawl!! Which I was overjoyed with. I wasn’t sure if I would experience it or not. The placenta didn’t take too long after. I had a small tear which the doctor said they don’t even consider a first degree tear because it was so small.

I am ecstatic that I was able to experience this and couldn’t have even started to think about it this way without positive birth stories and PBC!!!