Brenda’s Birth Story – Baby #1

My first baby was born on November 10, 1997. His due date was November 6th. I have birthed five more children since then, in 1999, 2001, 2003, 2006, and 2008. We interviewed a midwife at the beginning of my pregnancy, thinking about the possibility of a home birth. But in the end we decided on a hospital birth with our OB/GYN, and we wrote a birth plan, hoping for a natural birth.

I worked as a Kindergarten teacher throughout my pregnancy. My last day was November 7th, when I finally decided to stop working. That was a Friday, and on Sunday night I had trouble sleeping. I was having mild contractions about every 10 minutes for an hour or so, and then at about 1 AM my water broke. My mom, husband and I drove to the hospital, arriving at about 3 AM. I got into bed to be hooked up to the fetal monitor, and the nurses left us alone for several hours. I stayed in bed the whole time, the contractions were fairly strong and I was tired from not having any sleep. I had very much wanted to have a totally natural birth, but at some point I started thinking that I wanted an epidural. I couldn’t decide; my mind was fighting with what my body was feeling. I was just about at the point to ask for it, when my doctor came in, around 6:30 AM. She examined me and said that I had made a lot of progress. She gave me a hug, looked me in the eye, and said “I know you can do this, you’re almost there!”  Her encouragement was just what I needed at that moment. She suggested I get up and take a shower, which I did for quite awhile. The hot water was very soothing and relaxing to me.

After I got out of the shower and back into the bed, things started moving faster, and I went into transition. At that point I knew that my baby would be coming soon because my cervix was dilating quickly, and the nurses started making preparations for the birth. I started feeling the urge to push, and the doctor came back and said that I was completely dilated. I felt the urge to push very strongly, and I grunted loudly as I pushed. I only pushed for about 10 minutes when his head came out at 9:15 AM, followed right away by the rest of his body. They put him on my chest and said “It’s a boy!” I didn’t know it at the time, but later I found out that the doctor had done a local anesthetic right at the last. I also needed just a few stitches for a small tear. Matthew was wide awake and nursed beautifully almost right away! This was also very important to me as I wanted to breastfeed exclusively; I was very much against using formula or any kind of supplementation. We stayed in the hospital for just over 24 hours, with my husband staying with us.

 After Matthew’s birth, I felt so empowered, and stronger than I had ever felt in my life – I felt like I could do anything! I loved being a mama, and stayed home with him for 3 months. I then went back to work for 3 months and have been at home with my children ever since.