When Colby and I found out we were pregnant with our first baby, we agreed we wanted to attempt a natural birth. We enrolled in a series of Bradley Method classes, which educated us to make our own decisions for the medical care we received, trained us in nutrition and physical health during pregnancy, in natural methods for dealing with the pain of child birth and trained up Colby as a coach. Through this our fears were diminished and our confidence built up. Here’s our story of when Baby Reid was brought into this world.

Due Date
Today’s our due date (8/17) and still no signs of labor. I feel like this baby is never going to come out! Praying against artificial induction…

Early Labor Signs
Saturday morning (8/19), I woke up writhing around in bed at about 3am with intense cramps that crippled me to the point of just getting on all fours, half delirious, not knowing what to do with myself. Colby woke up and followed Bradley protocol like a champ, asking what I wanted to do, then making suggestions, then deciding for me that we were going to go for a walk. The cramping was constant, no breaks, so we could not time them, causing me to doubt that they were contractions. I worried something was wrong, but talked to an advise nurse when they subsided an hour or so later and confirmed they were early labor signs. I was advised to drink juice and count baby kicks to confirm baby’s ok.

Early First Stage
Sunday morning (8/20), I woke up at about 2am with the same cramping, only I was able to time them this time. They were about 10 minutes apart. I tried to stay relaxed and was even able to sleep between them. By 4am, they were starting to intensify, so I woke Colby up. He suggested we go for a walk during which he timed the contractions at 6 minutes apart, lasting about 30-45 seconds. I walked through some of the contractions, but had to stop and lean on Colby with my arms around his neck while he coached me through the more intense ones. We returned home and, by 5:30am they were 2-2 ½ minutes apart. Colby cooked me a light breakfast. With such a fast progression, we were concerned that we might get stuck at home and unable to drive in to the hospital, so we called Kaiser and were advised to come in.

We arrived at the hospital at 6am. Colby called our moms and dads and I text-messaged friends between contractions to let them know this is it. The nurse in triage must have been at the end of her 12-hour shift. She was very short and cold with us. She strapped external fetal monitors on me, which were very uncomfortable paired with the contractions. As a result of the nurse’s attitude, the monitors, and being left there for an uncertain amount of time, I began to worry, causing my contractions to space apart and become irregular. Fortunately, the nurse’s shift ended and Sarah, the midwife whom we had visited with during previous appointments had just started her shift and came to see me, immediately rescuing me from the monitors around my belly. She checked my cervix and informed us I was only dilated 2cm and advised us to go for a walk. We walked through the courtyards and hallways, sat on benches, stretched and massaged while Colby continued to encourage and coach me through every single contraction. We returned at 10am and Sarah informed us that I was now dilated 4cm. The next hour was spent admitting us and asking a series of the same old questions, which I would answer between contractions. By this time the contractions were really intensifying. I described the level of pain, on a scale of 0-10, as a 7. I threw up a couple times, losing the eggs, toast, juice & water from earlier that morning.

Finally, we were shown to our labor room. Everything was familiar since we had already taken a tour a few weeks previously. My contractions were back at 2 minutes apart. Nurses were coming in to setup the IV so that I could get my penicillin to protect the baby from contracting the group B strep during birth. Nurse after nurse attempted to hook up my IV, but were unable to get a vein because I was dehydrated from puking. They called in Mary, the anesthesiologist, who they claimed if anybody could do it, it was her. Well, they thought Mary had gotten it, until it clogged after she left the room, so more nurses tried until they brought Mary back in. Finally, an hour and about 10 pokes up both of my hands, wrists and arms (during contractions!) later, Mary got it. My hero! What a relief! I was only supposed to be hooked up to the IV to receive my antibiotics for 15 minutes every 4 hours, but I was so dehydrated, they convinced me to stay on it to receive a saline drip to re-hydrate me.

The next couple hours were spent walking through the hallways, wheeling my IV around, visiting family in the waiting room, and being strapped back into the cursed monitors. At about 1pm, we decided to take advantage of the shower. We rigged my IV under the shower door and I sat down while Colby ran the warm water over my back and belly. While we were in there, my contractions spaced out, but significantly intensified, and I lost my mucus plug. Colby then replaced the chair in the shower with the rubber exercise ball for me to drape over while on my knees as he continued spraying warm water over my back. It was so soothing, providing more relief than anything else we had tried. We could hear the nurses letting us know that we needed to come out so they could strap the monitors back on for another reading. Not being in any hurry to leave the comfort of the shower to strap those things back on, we’d respond, “Just a minute,” but probably stayed in another 45 minutes. After about 2 hours total in the shower, we knew we really needed to get out before we got in trouble. =) But then I had to poop. I was very audible during this time (lol) and Colby kept yelling from outside the bathroom, “Are you sure you’re not pushing the baby out??” I shouted back to him, reassuring him that it was only poop!

Transition
After another few minutes with the external fetal monitor strapped on, Colby and I worked through more contractions. I noticed my teeth chattering and recalled from our Bradley classes that the transition stage was often accompanied by odd bodily functions such as burping, cold sweats and chills. I asked Colby if I was transitioning and while he went to reference our text book, I let out a surprising grunt with the current contraction and shouted, “I think I need to push! Ask the nurse if I can push!!!”

Second Stage (Active Labor)
Colby yelled for his mom to get the nurse while he tried to calm me down. The nurse and midwife came in. Sarah checked my cervix and told us I was fully dilated and fully effaced, with the exception of a remaining lip towards the front side. Since it was in the front, Colby directed me to get on all fours so the pressure of the baby’s head would be on it. Each contraction gave me the urge to push. At this point, I knew I had lost any lingering modesty. I grunted through every contraction as I pushed. Sarah asked if I wanted to deliver like this and I just yelled, “I don’t care!” I could sense the presence of our moms and Colby’s 9 and 13-year old sisters in the room and just let my hair hang down all around my face like a curtain.

My bag of waters had still not broken by this point… a sign of good nutrition during pregnancy! Sarah said it was bulging and, despite our request for as little intervention as possible in the extensive birth plan we’d submitted earlier, she asked if we wanted her to rupture it. By this point it didn’t matter to us, since we were well into labor and it would not be popped to progress labor, but only to keep it from bursting all over our midwife while pushing. So she ruptured it in between contractions. It just felt like a big gush of fluid.

The nurse then wanted to get me back on the monitor. The contractions hurt so bad that anything touching me seemed to make it worse. I begged Sarah not to let them put the straps back around my belly, but she persisted that it was very important for them to track the baby’s vitals at this point, so we agreed.

It was at about this point when I cried to Colby that I couldn’t do it any more. He reminded me of what turned out to be the most useful information we received from our Bradley training: The point when you feel like you just can’t go on any more is the point when you are so close to the end. (Thanks, Laurie!)

Probably as result of not doing all the squats and other exercises I was supposed to do as part of my training, my legs were soon too weak and my body too sore to hold myself up in that position, so they helped me turn over onto my back. With each contraction, Colby reminded me to curve my back into a c-shape while he and my mom held my knees back. I was told to bear down and push through each contraction. After about 40 minutes of pushing, the midwife told me about two more contractions and the baby would be out. I remember being shocked at myself for being so loud and losing composure. I was even a bit embarrassed, until I met eyes with my mom and she gave me an urgent nod of encouragement. I knew then that it was really almost finished. Sure enough, through the next two contractions, I got to see a hairy head crown in the reflection of the mirror. I felt what is known as the “ring of fire” and pushed right on through it with determination. I had so much control, as a result of not being medicated, that I could easily follow the midwife’s directions to give a bunch of little pushes during the contractions while he was crowning. Within the first of those two contractions, out came Baby’s head and with the second, his body tumbled out with it.

Postpartum
We did it! The 14.5 hours of labor and the 20+ hours of Bradley Method training paid off and we could hear his strong lungs as Colby and Sarah placed him on my belly. I didn’t really know what to do with him. He was kind of slimy, so I just kind of fumbled with him to draw him nearer to my chest. His eyes were wide open and he stared at me with a sense of recognition in response to my voice.

For me, it was a bizarre moment. It felt almost as if it were not even my own life I was witnessing, but rather a scene from someone else’s life that they would reflect later upon in their twilight years. It didn’t even feel like my baby, despite the fact that I saw him come out! I felt a little guilty about that later, but I told my friend, Lisa about it and she assured me it was a normal reaction… And she’s a nurse, so I believe her!

Anyway, Baby was on my belly for about 15 seconds before I realized nobody announced its gender! “What is it??” I asked. Colby yells, “Oh, yeah! What is it?” as he lifts his leg and announces, “It’s a boy!” Even though we kept it a surprise, I think it only confirmed what we all already knew in our hearts.

I peered down at the mirror again and saw the umbilical cord hanging out of me. I frowned and said out loud, “That looks disgusting!” The nurse laughed and asked if I wanted them to take the mirror away and I responded, “Yes, please!” I completely forgot about the placenta until Sarah told me to give one more push. Delivering the placenta was a little more painful than I expected, but I was already holding my baby in my arms, so it was hard to care about anything else.

He was so alert and was nursing in no time! Colby and the nurse bathed, weighed and measured the little guy. He was 8 pounds, 7.2 ounces and 21.5 inches long. The nurse said she thinks he weighed about 8 pounds, 9 ounces prior to his two poops… one of them being on me! She then announced APGAR scores of 8 and 9 (out of 10), which are based on his heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflex and color at 1 minute and 5 minutes after birth. After this announcement Sarah laughed and said, “She never scores a ten.”

Sarah told me I had two minor tears down there that she needed to stitch up. My legs were shaky. The stitching hurt so badly in an entirely different way. I had no energy or incentive to deny drugs at this point, since I had already delivered a healthy, alert baby au naturel, so I accepted the nurse’s offer for “a little something for the pain” in my IV drip. I still felt the pain of the stitching, but cared a whole lot less! I remember turning to Colby with a grin and slurring, “I’m stooooned.” I really enjoyed watching the family pass him around and hold him for the first time. What a miracle he is!

The midwife reminded me of when I was being admitted in triage many hours earlier and had described the pain level, on a scale from 0 to 10, as a 7. She then asked me if I still thought of that as a 7. I said, “Sure… but on a scale from 0 to 20!” That day I was introduced to a whole new level of physical pain that I never knew existed in the world. I feel an incredible sense of accomplishment and am so grateful that Colby and I were able to give that to our son. I know I could not have done this without my husband. He was such an impressive coach.

Although I remember thinking to myself during the beginning of the pushing stage, “How do people have more than one baby???” and “Why did I want to do this without drugs again???” I think I would try to go naturally again for our next little one. Though, hopefully he or she will not be a whopping 8 pound, 7 ounce baby with a 13-inch head! =)