Birth & Parenting Series (9): Mama’s First-Time Birth and Faith in Women’s Bodies

This is part 9 of our Birth & Parenting Series.

Part 1 (Thoughts From a Mother of Four) is here, part 2 (Mother of Seven Shares Her Empowering Birth Stories) is here, part 3 (First-Time Mother of Twins) is here, part 4 (How First-Time Parents Braved a Placental Abruption) is here, part 5 (Childbirth Collective Doula Film Premiere) is here, part 6 (First-Time Mama Bravely Faces Transverse Baby & C-Section) is here, part 7 (Homeschooling Mama Shares Her Path to Schooling) is here, and part 8 (First-Time Papa’s Perspective on Birth Center Birth) is here. 

This first-time mama went through more medical interventions than she had planned, but she stuck with her desire to use as little medical aid as possible and endured terrific and tough pushing to meet her baby girl! Talk about strong. Even with her daughter needing a little extra help to get her breath going, our author has faith in birth process and her daughter’s determination. I wonder where the little sweetie gets that from? A beautiful story to be shared by a sensitive and attuned mother.

Before I give my story, I would like to say that a woman’s body is amazing and strong. Everyone is unique and has an amazing birth story. Whether a woman has a c-section, water birth, home birth or some other process, she produces a miracle and accomplishes something extraordinary.

I had two goals, besides the most important one of having a healthy baby, for delivery. I wanted a natural, unmedicated birth and a vaginal delivery. Unfortunately, when I hit my third trimester, my blood pressure dropped extremely low, so I was passing out frequently and forced to be on bed rest a couple weeks. I ended up having to be induced, which I did not want, but was for the best.

My body reacted immediately to the medication, and I started having contractions every thirty seconds. After a couple of hours, the nurses wanted to give me morphine and sleeping medicine to relax my body so I would have enough energy to push when I was completely dilated. I was extremely reluctant, but after about 30 minutes of them telling me it would help, I caved.

About an hour after receiving the morphine and sleeping medicine, my water broke! I excitedly woke my husband, who had just fallen asleep. I then dilated very quickly from 4 to 9, which caused my body to go into convulsions. This is not how I imagined my delivery. I received an epidural after my water broke (before my convulsions started). I started to feel the need to push and the nurse paged my doctor. I tried every position imaginable for pushing – on all fours, squatting, lying on my side and back, and a labor bar, which looked like a gymnastics bar. I could see her beautiful little, or should I say large, head and I could not understand why she wasn’t coming out to meet me! After three hours of pushing, my doctor asked if I wanted to use a vacuum. She was stuck in the birth canal. After finding out the risks involved, I said no and that must have been my motivation to push her out because she came out about 15 minutes later. She came out completely purple, and was on my chest for about two seconds before the emergency team came in the room to manually start her breathing. After 4 minutes, which felt like 4 hours, E started breathing. I was able to hold her finally! She was perfectly healthy and a beautiful miracle! Although my labor did not go how imagined, I did not care because my daughter was healthy and in my arms. And she nursed right away, which was another huge blessing 🙂 Nursing is a whole other challenge for many women, so I was very lucky for her to latch so quickly.

For anyone who feels scared, or anxious going into labor, know that your/everyone’s body does amazing things and you can do it! And however your story goes, be proud of yourself! Blessings to all the moms out there!