We just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that our daughter was born May 20 at 141pm. She was 8lbs., 1oz and 20" long.

 Labor was great! (hahaha) No, really. I started having contractions around 1am, but they were far enough apart to sleep through them. Around 3am, they were too noticeable to sleep through, so I got up, walked around the house and had a little breakfast. At 6am, I woke up Greg and told him that I was having contractions, but they were still irregular, and that he should go teach his first class. He came home around 10:30, we ate lunch and decided to go for a walk with the dog in the park. By the end of our walk -- 11:30(?) -- my contractions finally started to settle into a pattern lasting for about 1 min, and 5 min apart. We decided to go home and head to the hospital.

While Greg packed the car, I laid down. Then my water broke with a gush and things started to speed up. By the time he got back into the house, I was on my hands and knees, working through the contractions. He helped me get to the car and we drove the 3 mi. to Crawford Long. I barley made it!

 By the time we got there, I told him that I could not walk through the parking deck. We'd have to use valet parking. We left everything but our IDs in the car and went up to the maternity center. They made me go directly to L&D. It was now about 12:30 (?). The doctor came in, said I was 9cm. Greg, who was the best coach ever, said, "Are you all aware that this is going to be a natural birth?" They all laughed and said, "Yes... but even if it wasn't, it is now!"

I had to start pushing around 12:45. There was never any time to even put a heplock on me! Pushing was definitely a challenge, but when Greg said he could see the baby's head, it gave me such inspiration to push harder and better the next time! I did start to tear upwards, so the doctor gave me an episiotomy. She was born two pushes later at 1:41!

 Thanks for all your instruction. It really helped us!

Sincerely,
Tracy

            I am so excited to share the birth story of Samuel. First, a little background on my pregnancy. At 37 weeks I was diagnosed with preeclampsia due to slightly elevated blood pressure. I was put on bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy. At 39 weeks, certain blood tests came back abnormal (platelet count was low and uric acid was high) indicating the elevated blood pressure was affecting my body and therefore was affecting the placenta and the baby. My midwives decided that I should be induced the following day. I was extremely disappointed as I was trying to avoid being induced. I had envisioned a labor free of monitors, IVs and drugs. I had heard that Pitocin contractions were much more intense and painful than natural contractions which made me worry that I would have to have an epidural which I was hoping to avoid. However, everyone else I told was thrilled!

           My husband, Cameron, and I arrived at Piedmont Hospital at 8am on Thursday, March 4, 2004. I was hooked up to a fetal monitor and a monitor to gauge my contractions. An IV was placed in my forearm for future use. At 9am, my midwife checked my cervix and I was 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated. Just a week before I had been 0% effaced so I was happy to hear this news. My midwife inserted Cervadil, a drug used to ripen/soften the cervix so that I could be given Pitocin either later that night or the following day (whenever my cervix was ripe). The midwives had told me that sometimes the Cervadil caused women to go into labor so I was hoping that would happen to me and I would not need the Pitocin.

             Around 3pm, I began to feel some mild contractions, which really just felt like mild menstrual cramps. I was not in any pain, but was uncomfortable. The contraction monitor kept slipping down so it wasn’t accurately reading the contractions. Later that afternoon, the contractions began to get a little stronger and more regular and I began to have to focus a little bit to get through them, but not very hard. My pain level on a scale of 1 – 10 was about a 4. The worst part was that I kept feeling like I had to go to the bathroom and getting up was quite an ordeal. My parents came to visit around 6pm and I was still feeling pretty good focusing somewhat on relaxing to get through contractions. The contractions were about 6 minutes apart.

             Later that night, we began taking walks around the halls hoping to progress the labor. At this point, I had to stop during contractions and lean against the wall, focusing on relaxing. I also concentrated on breathing deeply. Around 9pm, my midwife checked me and I was 80% effaced and still 1cm dilated. I was pretty disappointed as I had thought the contractions were doing more than that! However, my contractions were regular (about 5 minutes a part) and somewhat strong so they decided not to insert another Cervadil as that would make the contractions too strong.

              I continued feeling the same strength contractions until about 4am when I could no longer drift off to sleep. The contractions had definitely increased in strength. I called the midwife and she checked my progress. I was 90% effaced and 2 cm dilated.  They decided that I should be moved to a labor and delivery room that morning. My contractions were strong (pain scale of around 6) and I had to focus very hard on relaxing. Cameron talked me through each contraction telling me to relax and creating other visualizations for me to focus on. This was so helpful. I envisioned holding our son at the lake, on our boat, at my parent’s farm, etc. Most of the relaxation techniques we had learned and had practiced involved Cameron touching me. However, at the outset of even the most minor contractions, I would not let him touch me at all. Even his feet touching my bed got on my nerves. So, we were left with him talking me through each contraction which worked extremely well. I couldn’t even turn over to my stomach as we had practiced because of all the monitors around my stomach. 

Around 9am, I was moved to a LDR room. My midwife told me that she would break my water before giving me Pitocin to see whether that would help further my labor. However, before she could do this, a nurse found that my blood pressure had increased and I was running a slight fever (100.8) so my midwife decided I should be given the dreaded Pitocin immediately.

 At around 10am, they began the Pitocin drip. Immediately, my contractions increased in strength and were increasingly painful. Cameron still talked me through each contraction telling me to “Relax. Take a deep breath. That’s it, breathe deeply. You’re doing great.” He must have said these things thousands of times. The reassurance was integral to my natural delivery.  Unfortunately, because of the monitors and IVs, I was unable to fully utilize the relaxation positions that I learned in my Bradley classes and in yoga.  As a result, I was forced to rely on concentration and breathing techniques to manage the contractions. 

 My water broke naturally around 11am. We heard a pop like a balloon bursting and then a gush of liquid came out on the bed. The nurses kept turning up the Pitocin and the contractions kept getting stronger and stronger and closer and closer together. I tried using the birthing ball for a few contractions which was helpful. Then, I got back in bed so my midwife could check my progress. At around 11:30, I was 5 – 6 cm dilated.  At 12:15 my midwife told me I was 8 – 9 cm dilated. I responded – “You’ve got to be kidding me”. My labor was going so fast I couldn’t believe it. I had just told Cameron I didn’t know how much longer I could do this. Luckily, it wasn’t much longer. My midwife told me that lying on my side would speed up the labor, so for the remainder of the contractions before pushing I was on my side. Cameron was right there talking me through each contraction. I closed my eyes and focused extremely hard on relaxing. It was difficult.

 The last 30 minutes of contractions were painful. With each contraction I felt the urge to push and felt enormous pressure like I had to go to the bathroom. It was nearly impossible to relax during the contractions. I would try to take the deepest breath possible, but I felt like all I was doing was shuddering with the pain. Cameron more emphatically told me to relax and take deep breaths. I tried the best I could. Finally, my midwife told me I could start pushing whenever I wanted. I was so ready to push! 

 I don’t know what time I started pushing, but I was certainly relieved to start pushing. As I learned in our Bradley classes, I was on my back reclined at an angle with the nurses holding my legs on either side while I pushed. I would take 2 deep breaths and then push as hard as I could on the third breath. Generally I would get in 3 big pushes with each contraction. After a while, this too became exhausting. I was sweating a lot and the nurses were fanning me to keep me cool.  I had a great cheering section, with Cameron, the nurses and my midwife telling me to “Push Hard. That’s it. You’re doing great.” I touched Samuel’s head before I saw it. Finally, I saw his head come out and it was amazing. I was told to stop pushing which was difficult. The rest of his body came out, but he was not crying or screaming. The midwife called the respiratory unit to come in. So, instead of Samuel immediately being put on my chest, as I had wanted, he was whisked away by a respiratory specialist. Soon I heard him crying. I kept asking – is he OK? Is he OK? My midwife assured me he was. Samuel entered the world at 1:20 pm, just over 3 hours after I was given the Pitocin. There was meconium in my amniotic fluid which necessitated the respiratory team. I could see them out of the corner of my eye working on him in the corner of the room. Cameron was over there watching. So, our beautiful perfect baby boy had been born. It was about 5 – 10 minutes later before Cameron and I realized we hadn’t named him. We decided on Samuel.

 I got to hold Samuel for about 5 minutes before they took him away for about 2 hours. I did not get to try to breastfeed within the first hour as I had planned. It was slightly anticlimactic to have given birth to a beautiful baby just to have him taken away. But I was busy delivering the placenta which was actually extremely uncomfortable. My midwife pushed on my stomach which was so painful I told her to stop! The placenta was delivered within a few minutes and then I had to be stitched up due to the episiotomy. My labor had progressed so quickly that an episiotomy was necessary for Samuel to be born. We are so thankful for Samuel and for his speedy entry into the world. I don’t know how long I could have endured those last painful contractions. I was so pleased to have gone through the labor without an epidural as that had been my goal.

 You never know what is going to work for you until you’re in labor. I had thought that I would have Cameron massage me during contractions because this was so relaxing to me when I was pregnant, but when we tried this even with mild contractions it made them worse.  Luckily, I had a very supportive husband who talked me through each contraction and constantly told me how great I was doing! All of the preparation in our classes, knowing what to expect (especially for Cameron) under all different types of circumstances, and learning different relaxation techniques (in our Bradley classes and prenatal yoga) all helped immensely during the delivery. It was amazing the difference in the pain level when I was relaxed and when I was not relaxed during a contraction – relaxation was the key! We could not have done this without taking the Bradley classes. The mental preparation throughout the 12 weeks, gaining confidence that I could deliver without an epidural, and helping Cameron prepare to coach me through labor all made this natural delivery possible. Thank you Melinda!

                                                 Mary 

The birth went very smooth actually. Baby Anna was presenting face first with her chin extended but she was also sunnyside up (turns out sunnyside up is better when presenting chin first). Anyway, my midwife tried to turn Anna's head but she kept popping that chin back up so we just went with it. I think it made my labor slightly easier b/c she never fully engaged creating constant pressure - between contractions she would sort of float up a little and so I had a lot of relief.

Everything was very manageable until my water broke (about 1AM) and then I started thinking the typical "oh, no, I don't think I can do this." Greg was a good coach and reminded me that I was probably in transition. To which I thought, yeah right, what do you know!! No way am I that far, it's going to be hours still. Well, he proved right and I proved to be having a very typical response to transition.

I started pushing about an hour later and she crowned with the first push and (as my friend said of her second baby) "she shot out like a rocket" with the second push. I think our midwife was quite surprised not expecting the pushing to go sooo fast.

 Recovery was exponentially easier. I was up to try to pee almost immediately after birth and felt great right away. After having 2 very different experiences, I would choose the natural over the epidural everytime!!! and would suggest the same to others!