My Birth Story

The other day at work we were all talking about birth and many of us were sharing our stories since we have many pregnant women at work. It made me reflect on my birth story which I think is important to share. I think a woman's birth experience is a huge part of their life and should be embraced no matter how the situation ends up. The thing about birth is no matter how much you plan or how much you envision a certain type of birth, it can take a 360 on you and you can end up with a birth you never expected.

My story is just that. I had my birth all picked out. I was going to have a natural birth at the Best Start Birth Center. It was a beautiful place that felt like a home and full of amazing midwifes and stories of many heroic births. I did not want a hospital birth. My husband and I felt that was not the right fit for us and our baby. I believed my body was made to give birth naturally and I was going to do my best to make that happen. I have nothing against women that choose to have a hospital birth or pain medication or even planned c-sections. A woman's birth is sacred and should be done how they wish. I have always wanted to try for natural birth so my heart was set on it.

All was going great until I hit my 34th week. My blood pressure was starting to creep up and there was concern I could have pre-eclampsia. My mother had it when she was pregnant with me and while they say it is not hereditary, it seemed I was heading down that road. The weird part was that the signs usually start earlier, signs of high blood pressure, protein in urine, excessive wight gain but I was only having high blood pressure close to birth. My high blood pressure was border line high, usually for pre-eclampsia, it is like 180/90 or something like that. My average was 135/79 to 150/85. As many of you may know, this often leads to a concern for the mother's health and the only way to stop it is to get the baby out which leads to a c-section which was the last thing I wanted.

The Birth Center kept an eye on me but at 38 weeks, they felt I was at risk and was more comfortable having me transfer to a doctor and having a hospital birth. You can imagine that I was devastated especially at 38 weeks. Thank goodness they refereed me to this amazing doctor, Dr. Cap, who was a supporter of natural birth. He reviewed my case and since I was still border line allowed me to try to go into labor naturally. As I waited for my baby to arrive, my blood pressure was slowly creeping up. The concern finally set in and it was decided to induce at 39 weeks, a few days before my due date.

To try and keep this short, I was already having mild contractions and they gave me cervidil to induce. I started having intense contractions right away and it did not feel normal. I was progressing to fast so they took the cervidil out and realized I could progress on my own. There was hope of me having a natural birth! I labored for 25 hours naturally and my little girl did not want to budge! After being exhausted and no longer being able to stand on my feet, I decided to get an epidural and pitocin and hoped this would move her along. I did that for another 6 hours, and she still did not budge. After all this, it seemed the conclusion was a c-section. I was disappointed but at that time I felt it was the right path to go on. Thank goodness for my wonderful husband, doula and doctor, they made the experience so wonderful.

Do not get me wrong, I hated having a c-section and I hated having pitocin. It made my baby's heart start racing and I had to take oxygen so I do regret that choice a bit but it was the best thing to do at the time.

I was proud of myself for laboring as long as I did and know that I could have done it without any medications if I would have had the chance. I hope to try again in my next birth.

I wanted so much to have a natural birth but I am thankful that I had a wonderful birth experience, even though it went a different direction then I had hoped and in the end I had the most amazing little girl.

The point of all this, is to remember to be flexible in your birth and in life. I try to live the most natural life possible but sometimes you are thrown a curve and you have to make choices that you did not anticipate. The important thing is to always remember that you will have something wonderful in the end!

Thanks for reading and I hope your birth is everything you hoped for!