I’ve been meaning to share my birth story on the blog. For those of you who are not interested in this subject, I apologize in advance! But it was a big deal in my life so I definitely want it recorded.
Today I’m going to discuss my pregnancy leading up to delivery day. Tomorrow I’ll tell you more about my labor and delivery of Lily. The subtitle for this post is “Why I Decided to Have a Baby Naturally”.
I have had three labors so far – my first two I would call “convenience inductions” and I got an epidural both times. Over the past few years since I had Camryn I have read an article here and there about natural childbirth. I’ve heard from friends how empowering it feels to know that “I did it!” – you were able to have a baby without medication! My idea was that – if the medication is available, why not use it? I’ve even heard a few people say (including my sister’s bishop who is an OB/GYN in Utah) that you wouldn’t get your wisdom teeth removed without anesthesia so why would you have a baby without it too?
Well early in my pregnancy I started considering looking for a different doctor that was a little more pro-natural childbirth. I even briefly looked into a birthing center nearby where they have big bathtubs you give birth in, surrounded by a calming atmosphere with dim lights and candles. Sounded cool, but what it came down to was this – did I really have a reason to want to switch it up so dramatically? At that point (around 4-5 months pregnant), the answer was no. So I kept going to my regular OB/GYN and didn’t plan much. I got tired a lot and also busy with my girls.
About 2 months before I was due, I was browsing the hospital material I had received back in December and I came across some info about classes the hospital offered. I saw that they had a class called “Advanced Comfort Measures” and it said they would cover massage and comforting techniques to help ease pain during labor. It was 2 hours on a weeknight and it was $20. I signed us up. One of the main reasons was that when I had Camryn I didn’t get my epidural until quite late in my labor and by the time it kicked in I was ready to push. It was really hard for me to cope with the magnitude of the pain without any preparation, so I always said I needed to be better prepared next time.
Merrick went with me to the class- there were 5 other couples. All of them looked significantly older than us and we were the only ones having our third child! The class was nice – we got out birthing balls, massage oil, back rubbers, and tried out different things. I figured I at the very least it was worth the $20 just to get that great back massage from my husband that day! He kept turning to me and saying, “You’re going to do it! You’re totally going to have this baby naturally!!” It was kind of a joke but kind of serious. Honestly it was the first time I had really seriously considered it and could see myself doing it. I was surprised, though, at the end of the class when they asked who was going to try to have their baby naturally and we were the only couple timidly raising our hands.
After the class (about a month before my due date) I was much more motivated. I had heard of a book called “Ina May’s Guide to Natural Childbirth” and was intrigued so I checked it out from the library and absolutely devoured it. It is written by a midwife who has done thousands of natural births. It gives a lot of positive birth stories, which seem to be more scarce nowadays. When you think about birth stories, you usually hear someone’s list of horrible things that happened to them (epidural only took on one side, the nurse had to poke me 3 times before she got my IV in, the baby had to be yanked out with forceps, emergency C-section, etc.). The book contained stories that were happy, albeit they still obviously experienced the pain of childbirth. The women were just more determined so they did it. The second half of the book talked about reasons why you shouldn’t get an epidural- complications they don’t talk to you about and they talked about things you can do to make labor easier without an epidural. They talked about questions to ask your healthcare provider. And much more.
Some of the main things I took away from the book were this: I can do this – women have been having babies naturally forever. And it’s the safest thing for me and my baby. I also gained some ideas to make my labor go more smoothly – laughing, getting out of the bed and sitting on the birthing ball or a rocking chair, taking a shower, drinking lots of water, relaxing different parts of my body, counting out my breathing, etc.
I started talking about going natural with my mom and realized that she hadn’t had an epidural for any of her babies, which for some reason I never realized before. This made me even more motivated. I got some advice from a couple friends who had had babies naturally, and I made up some notes into a plan. I wasn’t going to be induced, I wasn’t going to have an epidural, I was going to labor at home as much as possible, I didn’t want internal baby monitors, I was going to stay out of the hospital bed, I was going to use massage, etc. to ease the pain. I also got to talk with my aunt who just moved here and she shared with me all of her natural birthing stories. I felt good about my plan.
My due date came and went. My parents were gracious enough to delay coming until a week after my due date. They arrived and still no baby. I talked to my grandma and she said she had gone 2 weeks late with all 8 of her babies. Ahh! Not very encouraging! I kept getting phone calls from relatives wondering when that baby was coming. Still no baby! I actually felt pretty good at that point. I felt the same as I had a month earlier, which was frustrating. Merrick thought my body did not know how to go into labor on its own because I had been induced 2/2 so far. Not very encouraging either!! So I did some walking on the treadmill and at the mall, and I did some bouncing on the birthing ball. My aunt and uncle recommended castor oil – but this made me very nervous and my doctor didn’t like the idea either.
Finally my OB/GYN said she wouldn’t let me go past Friday, July 29th – 10 days past my due date. And my parents had been here for 3 days already, patiently waiting. I told her that would be fine and so we scheduled the induction, but I still wanted to try to have the baby without an epidural. The day before my induction I finally started to feel a little more crampy and I lost some of my mucus plug. I felt like my body was finally going into prelabor but I knew if I didn’t get induced the next day it could still be another 2-3 days (at least) before I went into labor on my own. And I didn’t really want to have an August baby with a due date of July 19th! So induce we did!
Tomorrow I will give you the full details about how I spent my day on July 29, 2011 – The day of Lily Amelia’s birth. :)
