Emmaline's Birth
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.