Rewind to L&D

I want to share this with you for a couple of reasons. Some of you have asked, but more importantly, I don’t want to ever forget that day. Here goes…


Our hope was to have an all natural birth.

We knew that with my sensitivities to just about everything it would be better for me and there would also be benefits for the baby. We knew it would be the hardest thing we would ever do so we prepared. We prepared for our roles during labor and delivery, laboring mom and coach. We took a class, and we read lots of books. Six, I think. We had homework, and we practiced relaxation and labor positions. We ate well, took vitamins, and exercised. We talked about lots of scenarios and how we could stay focused on our goal if things didn’t go as planned. We read more books. We watched a movie of the real thing. We talked about our hopes for the birth. We prayed. We did everything we could to meet our goal of a natural birth.

And then my water broke early at 38 weeks, so much for first babies coming late. Did I mention there were no contractions? Well there weren’t at 4:30am when my water broke, there weren’t contractions at 10:30am when we called the midwife, there weren’t contractions at 1:00pm when we went to see the midwife, and there definitely weren’t any contractions at 3:00pm when we started pitocin. So now you are thinking what’s natural about pitocin? Well not much other than it does what my body should have been doing when my water broke, it starts contractions. Our plan was to stay home and wait for strong contractions to start before going into the hospital. However, due to me testing positive for GBS (whole other story) our baby had to be born within 24 hours of my water breaking. With no contractions 12 hours in this was going to be almost impossible so we had to get the ball rolling to avoid putting our baby in any danger.  Believe me, we talked with the midwife about every option but in the end we decided this was our option like it or not. (Not!)

So at 3:00pm the pitocin drip started and we were on our way to having a baby. My body responded to the pitocin almost immediately, contractions picked up and started a steady pattern. As soon as the drip started, I forgot about it. Well I couldn’t really forget about the IV stand I had to drag with me wherever I went, but I forgot about the pitocin. This was labor for us, no way to change it at that point, and no reason to focus on what started it. We were going to be all natural from there on out.

Labor was tough, like we thought, it was the hardest thing we had ever done. The first stage of labor lasted seven hours with transition lasting only 30 minutes. The only comfortable position we found was standing up leaning over the bed. Believe me, we tried everything. The nurse and midwife were great and suggested many different positions to try but nothing worked. So we labored standing up for seven hours. The second stage of labor or the pushing stage came as a relief for two reasons. One - I pushed lying down on my side which meant I could rest in between contractions and Two - I could do something productive with each contraction. During a contraction I pushed to the point of comfort – no counting to ten for us – and sipped water or rested in between. This pattern continued for an hour and forty-five minutes until she was born and I helped bring her up to my chest. There she was wide eyed and alert taking in the world. Allen and I were awestruck the minute we saw her. Love at first sight. Anna was born at 11:13pm. Healthy (truth) and perfect (opinion).


Here we are 10 minutes after Anna was born.



So there you have it our natural labor story. Yes, there are many details I left out, but you get the picture - WE. DID. IT.

Maybe you are wondering why I used the pronoun we? I honestly believe that I could not have done this by myself. To be honest, there were times I didn’t think I could do it period. During the hardest part of labor (transition), I doubted myself big time. And no one, not even me, thought that I was more capable of natural birth than Allen. His belief that I could do it was unwavering and I knew that. I could feel that. When I questioned it, he reinforced to me all the reasons it was possible and was going to happen. In the L&D room, we worked as a team, we were one. Yes, I was the one with the contractions, and I was the one pushing however I had Allen’s unending support and strength. Using all that WE had, was the only way. I felt so much stronger than I ever expected I would for labor. I know this was because I hadn’t counted on his contribution. Who knew that I could (and would) use his strength as well? After Anna was born, we were both exhausted. Allen’s exhaustion showed how much he gave throughout the day. Like I said, we did it.

I know that I’ve not done justice to our story but I’ve attempted to share it with you nonetheless.

I’ll leave you with these three thoughts -

You are only as good as the coach thinks you are. Brian Williams

Set your goals high, and don't stop till you get there. Bo Jackson

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:14