Before I gave birth to Noah, I would explore Pinterest for hours reading any birth story I could find. I thought if I read other peoples experiences, I would be better prepared for anything that occurred during my birthing experience. In some ways it helped me, but in other ways the stories scared me to death. While reading the many stories I found, I was inspired by so many women who had gone through birth without medication. This was what I intended to do, but there were a few stories where the birthing process didn’t go very well. After reading those stories I was completely terrified of giving birth. But each story that I read was a unique experience and I hope that by sharing my experiences I can help other mothers-to-be too!
First of all, the pain…
I read (somewhere) that a women giving birth feels the same pain as being burned alive. I don’t know about you, but I pretty much curl into a ball of pain when I barely burn my finger on the stove! How could I ever give birth to a baby when it felt like I was being burned alive?!
Secondly, I was terrified of what type of mother I was going to be. Would I be a good mother to this baby? How would I handle different situations that would come up? The list of unanswered questions went on and on. The more time passed, the more terrified I became.
My due date came and went with no signs of the baby coming. I was sad and a little relieved. I was sad because I desperately wanted to meet our baby but relieved because that meant one more day I didn’t have to know what it was like to experience being “burned alive”! Then one day, I suddenly felt ready. I’m not sure what switched in me, but I was ready for the baby to come out. I didn’t feel scared anymore. I then knew it was almost time for baby to join us! The next day my mom came over to my house to be on “labor watch” since I was nine days overdue. I felt crabby, irritated, and I had no energy. Basically, I laid on the couch for most of the day. But still no signs of labor! I went to bed feeling normal, but I woke up about 2:45 a.m. feeling weird. I went to the bathroom and came back to bed and didn’t think much of it. But, I couldn’t go back to sleep. Suddenly, I felt my water breaking and trickling down. I stood up and it literally gushed out! I yelled at Anthony to wake up as I waddled to the bathroom in attempt to not get the floor too wet.
Which didn’t work at all!
Anthony and I had made a plan, with my parents, that when I went into labor, they would come get Malakhai (aka our first born fur-baby!). Anthony called them and they rushed over to get him. Our plan was to wait for them to arrive and then leave for the hospital. It only took them about ten minutes to arrive, but by the time they showed up, my contractions were three minutes apart! At this point, I thought I would have felt scared about the pain, but I went into “labor mode” and it was as if I were in a different place. I wasn’t thinking about anything except meeting our baby!
Finally, we get to the hospital. And since it was in the middle of the night, we had to enter through the emergency entrance. The nurse there would not allow me walk to the labor ward even though I felt like I could make it. By the time we went through the doors of the labor ward, the nurses were ready for us! We went into a small room and they asked me to change into a gown so they could check how far dilated I was. They phoned the on-call doctor who said I would have to be pretty far along to be admitted into a birthing room since at my last check up I was 4cm dilated and 90% effaced. When the nurse checked me I was 6cm dilated and almost 100% effaced! I was getting really excited, but that’s only because my contractions were at this point not all that painful.
The nurse offered to wheel me to the birthing room but I chose to walk because I knew gravity was my friend and I was ready for this baby to come out! I had to stop a couple times in the hallway during my contractions and this was when they really started to rev up! The contractions were no longer a strong cramping feeling, they were now full on pain. But I worked through each one and finally made it to the birthing room.
Discovering Natural Motherhood 