The Natural Childbirth Story of a First Time Mother

I was due to give birth to my first child, a son, on March 6^th, 2004. By the time March 8^th rolled around I was extremely impatient and ready to meet my little boy! My mom came to Wisconsin from Minnesota to be a help to my husband and I and to sort of distract me while I waited for the big day.

On The morning of March 9^th my mom and I decided to go shopping in Madison. On the drive home I noticed a slight cramping that came and went about every 8 minutes or so. I didn't know if they were contractions or not since I had not experienced Braxton-Hicks contractions during my pregnancy. When I got home I ate a cheeseburger and fries thinking that if I was beginning to labor I definitely did not want to starve through it, since our hospital would only allow liquids during labor. I tried to lie down and rest since it was late in the afternoon and I thought I would probably be up all night with uncomfortable contractions. However, I was restless and decided that instead I would try to get labor going by taking a walk. I thought that a walk would either make the contractions subside or get stronger. My mom started timing for me at about 6:00PM (my husband was at work), and found that I was consistently between five and six minutes apart. I decided to take a bath as I heard this was another trick for relaxing the muscles to make labor go more quickly. I had a midwife during my pregnancy and was determined to try to get through labor and delivery without medication.

I called my husband and told him he should come home because the contractions were consistent and getting closer together. When he got home I was in the tub and he began timing contractions. By this time I had been consistently contracting for about 3 hours. We were surprised to find that the contractions were only between one and three minutes apart! They stayed this way until he was born. We got to the hospital at 10:30 and I was 4 centimeters dilated. I spent about an hour walking and when they checked me again I was still only 4 centimeters. I felt discouraged and decided that if I did not make progress soon I would probably ask for drugs. My midwife, as it turns out, was not on call and so I was working with a doctor. He prescribed sleeping pills for me and said I should try to rest and they would get labor going in the morning. I was convinced that with my contractions so strong and consistent I would not be able to rest and so I didn't take the pills. The nurse said that she wouldn't check me for awhile and left the room. So, for the next 3 hours I rocked in the glider, walked, made several trips to the bathroom and tried the birthing ball (which was very helpful!). My poor husband had strep throat and so he spent much of this time sleeping on the hide-a-bed in the room.

I began to get very uncomfortable and asked my husband to get the nurse and ask her to check me. I was 8 centimeters! I stayed in bed at this point as I was too uncomfortable to get up much. My husband was wonderful! He sat quietly at my side and abstained from giving me laboring and breathing tips (I prefer quiet when I'm in pain!). He simply handed me the ice water between contractions. Within 45 minutes the nurse checked me again, which broke my water, and I was fully dilated and effaced. I pushed through two contractions before the Doctor made it into the room. I told him then that I DID NOT want an episiotomy (I had never met him before this time). He was skeptical, he had been a Doctor for about 30 years and cutting episiotomies was a common practice for him. It was obvious that he disagreed with my preference to tear and offered no help to reduce the likelihood or severity of tearing. (My midwife would have helped stretch my vaginal tissue with mineral oil and encouraged pushing in a more vertical position, rather than flat on my back). I pushed through another four or five contractions, and then suddenly Caleb's head was out and the rest of his body quickly followed. I tore significantly and had to have two vitamin K shots to staunch the bleeding. However, the tear healed well and I have no negative effects from it now.

My son was a beautiful, perfect little boy who weighed in at 6lbs 14 oz and was 20 inches long. He was born at 4:40AM on March 10, 2003.