Our son and first child Miles was born Friday at 1:25 a.m. at the University of Illinois Family birth
center--for any of you in Chicago, it turned out to be a nice place to
give birth. My midwife, Charity Cooper, was awesome.
My water actually broke on Thursday, at 3:34 a.m., but the
pressure waves did not start until about 7 p.m. Thursday evening
Charity was great about letting me wait for it to get going. I was
actually going to allow Pitocin at that point if it didn't start.
Fortunately, after Charity stripped my membranes at around 6:30 pm
there was no need for the Pitocin, the pressure waves began all by
themselves.
I was able to do the birth completely naturally. I only really felt
intense pain twice: when I tried to lay down during labor, and when
Miles slipped into "back labor" during transformation. Miles was still
sitting sideways at that point, as he has since about day 1 in my
pregnancy (when he wasn't doing his daily break dance routines
anyway)...his little feet were pressed against my left side, and I
could feel his little butt on the right. My theory about hypnosis for
childbirth and pain is this: it works when things are going correctly,
but pain in this case was natures way of saying, "Your baby is going
to bump up against your tailbone and not progress very quickly if you
don't get your butt up and move!" So I walked almost the entire first
stage, although between contractions I was able to sit in a chair and
"sleep" for two minutes at a time at one point (I know hypnosis helped
me do that!)
During transformation I started getting back pain and moved into the
shower. At that point I wondered if I could manage without an
epidural. But I'd followed Kerry's recommendation and read "Back
Labor No More!" The ouch was intense at that point, and it was all
kind of fuzzy in my brain, but I tried the belly lift technique and
voila! The ouch went away and suddenly I found myself experiencing a
very new kind of contraction -- that didn't hurt! (but was a lot of
work, I can't recommend weight lifting and cardio enough for every
pregnant woman) Unfortuanately, the labor and delivery nurse was upset
because the belly lift technique made my baby's heart rate monitor
slip off! She finally came in and told me that I had to lay down.
This was the one time during my delivery when I was really afraid. I
had experienced the back labor sensation early on in my birthing time
while laying down...I knew if I laid down I wouldn't be able to hang
on without an epidural. I found myself screaming, "Get this thing off
of me, and get my midwife now! I can't lay down!" Fortunately,
Charity was on hand (talking to my husband in the main room) and told
the nurse to take the monitor off.
I was told that I was going into the pushing stage but I didn't know
one stage from another being a first timer. I had a couple of pretty
mild pressure waves...got the urge to push, and got to work. We used
a birthing bar. After standing/walking for 5 hours I was exhausted.
Between pushing I would lay back and Eric, my husband, would offer me
my choice of Gatorade or water (if I'd had an epidural I wouldn't have
been allowed to hydrate! What sort of nonsense is that? Marathon
runners, mountain climbers, weight lifters and all other atheletes get
to hydrate -- and birth is an athletic event!) When it came time to
push my husband would grab my arms and haul me back up to the bar.
During the waves and pushing he was gently rubbing my back--I actually
found it very comforting. I followed Kerry's advice and pushed his
head out slowly between waves. As a result, although my "little" boy
was 8 lbs and just over 12 ounces I only got one 1st degree tear...and
no, I didn't notice myself tearing!
I can't say that I was quiet while pushing, it felt good to vocalize!
I told my husband that it sounded a lot worse than it felt.
When Miles emerged the labor and delivery nurse followed our
instructions to put Miles skin to skin as soon as he came out. As
they lay Miles on my chest I could hear Eric start to laugh the
happiest laugh I've ever heard from anyone. Miles himself was
screaming bloody murder! Which at the time I found a little scary,
was he hurt? (Yes, I'm definitely a first timer).
Because Pitocin had been considered when I came into the hospital I
did have the shunt in my arm for drugs. This turned out to be a good
thing. My placenta was a mutant creature of its own. It had 3 lobes
instead of 2. Because of this instead of normal bleeding when a
placenta is pushed out, I had bleeding and a half. They used the
shunt in my arm then to give me Pitocin (the drug I dreaded!) to stop
the bleeding--then it wasn't enough and they had to give me a shot of
something else...they told me that it would cause painful
contractions, but I never actually felt anything.
Anyway, in the end, I thought Miles birth showed both the good and bad
of nature and science. I think if I'd gone with an epidural I
wouldn't have been able to turn Miles during transformation with the
belly lift, and that I'd probably would have wound up in labor (and
we'll call it that) much longer. Also, I probably wouldn't have been
able to push out Miles between waves and might have had substantially
more tearing. On the one hand, the hospitals insistence on procedures
could have made my birth experience very unpleasant...but on the other
hand, I was glad I was in a hospital when the bleeding started.
Apparently I was just shy of being described as a true hemmorage. If
I'd been at home I would have had to go into the hospital anyway -- in
an ambulance, and away from my husband (who is more a man than ever in
my eyes since his great performance in delivery, he even cut the
umbilical cord!) and away from my newborn baby.
Anyway, we're all home now. My husband, Miles and I are settling into
our new lives. This is the first time Miles hasn't had me awake from
midnight to 2 a.m....and I found myself with the time to write this
all down!
Thanks Kerry for your program - it really helped educate me and let me
take control of Miles' birth experience -- it also kept peoples
negative opinions about pain and childbirth from making me nervous
during pregnancy.