Natural Birth of First Child

Just wanted to share this picture and the story of my first childbirth experience. This is a picture taken unprofessionally by my sister after the water birth of my daughter 8 months ago. My story is rather long but I am hoping my story shows women that they can do it too!

The pain started around 5:30 am on the 24th of June. At 11:30, I called my midwife and told her my symptoms and she said it sounds like early labor but to monitor contractions and call back in an hour. I called back at about 1:00 pm and asked if I could just go to the hospital to get my cervix checked and she said they might end up keeping me there, so I waited. For the days prior, I kept bothering my husband to clean the pool so I could enjoy it one last time and the night of the 23rd, he emptied it and began filling it the morning of the 24th.

The pain was really starting to hurt but we waited til the pool was filled before heading to my MILs house which was around 6pm. We got there and I was still hurting but it was all tolerable pain, it was just uncomfortable. At 8 pm, my step-mom called me and timed my contractions and said they were about 2 minutes apart which is what my husband said earlier when we monitored them around 1 pm. She told me to call my midwife and let her know so I did and she said she could meet us at the birthing center at 9 pm to check me. At first we weren’t going to take our bags but then decided to. On the way over I told my husband, “watch me still be at 1 cm and have a UTI or something”. We got there and she checked me and said “you’re 5-6cm dilated and you’re staying!” I couldn’t believe it! She had me walk up and down the hallways to get contractions to start so I walked around for a little while, about an hour, and when I stopped I went to a 6. My step-mom and sister helped so much with rubbing my back during contractions!

The midwife suggested breaking my water to dilate faster, so me and my husband discussed it and decided that was the way to go. Since I wasn’t really feeling terrible contractions, I wasn’t sure if I was “ready” to feel them so that’s why it was hard for me to make the decision to have my water broken. I asked my midwife if the contractions were going to be painful after they broke my water and she said there will be a lot of pressure. They broke my water at 11:29 pm and I went to 7 cm. Within 45 minutes I was at a 10 and ready to get into the birthing pool which felt VERY good! Even during the “strong” contractions I couldn’t even feel them really! This was with no medications at all. The pushing part didn’t hurt but just felt a little uncomfortable but I knew I was getting closer to meeting my daughter each time!

My daughter was born at 1:24 am on 25 June. I had a really good breathing strategy which helped so much! The relaxing, classical music I had playing on Pandora made it so much easier as well! I could feel my daughter moving further down and everything, I am so glad that I didn’t get any medication because it was really an awesome feeling and wasn’t even painful! The part that hurt the worst was when they pushed on my stomach to get the blood out and to contract my uterus after I had her! The stitches also hurt since the numbing medicine couldn’t get all the way inside since that’s where I tore. It was only a first degree laceration, only tissue no muscle. There were quite a few tears though so it took them about an hour to stitch me up.

I hope that this gave some inspiration to soon-to-be mamas! Childbirth is all on how you envision it. If you let it be painful then it will be. But if you really think about the amazing thing that your body is doing and just relax and let it happen then it makes it so much easier!