Unexpected natural birth

by Maggie
(Colorado)

I was scheduled to be induced on Monday August 4, 2008. I planned to spend that weekend getting things in order for our new arrival.

I was really disappointed that I was going to be induced, since I was induced for medical reasons with my oldest.

Saturday, August 2nd was like any other Saturday. I enjoyed the day with my husband and my son.

At around 3 in the afternoon my son was pretty sleepy, which was unusual for him, so I went to put him down in his crib. When I bent over to put him in bed I felt a small gush of water. I called the nurses station at my birth center (in hospital birth center) and told them what had happened and the nurse told me that since I wasn't having any contractions that it probably wasn't 'true labor' yet.

My husband was outside mowing the lawn and I told him "I think my water just broke." We were confused because everything we had read and heard said that the bags of water would gush a lot and/or keep leaking. But, I only had the one small gush and nothing else.

So my husband told me to call my OB just to see what he thought we should do. Since we were about an hour away from the birth center my OB suggested that we head in just so I could be checked, but not to be too upset if I just got sent home right away since I wasn't feeling any contractions.

My husband finished mowing the lawn (yeah, I know right!) and even took a shower and ate before we headed off to the birth center.

The whole way I kept telling him "we're wasting our time and gas" (gas prices were outrageous in August). Once we got to the birth center we waited in the parking lot for about 25 minutes until my mother showed up, she was our babysitter for our son.

Once she was there we headed up to triage. It was around 6 pm.

The nurses gave me that 'this lady isn't in labor' look and hooked me up to the machines to check for contractions. Sure enough I was having pretty consistant contractions about every 7 minutes. The nurse decided to check if I was dilated to see if they should admit me or send me walking for while.

She checked, and I was already 6-7 cm. The nurse was surprised, I was surprised and my husband was surprised. I honestly wanted an epidural and I was a little freaked out when the nurse said it was too late to administer an epidural. I was not prepared for a natural birth.

They sent me straight to a room and the nurse had me sit in the jacuzzi. By now, I was feeling some contractions, nothing that was unbareable though, like menstrual cramps.

The nurse stayed with me, which was calming, since my husband was huddled in the corner looking pretty pale. Once the contractions hit hard I had to change positions in the tub and concentrate on my breathing a lot more. 'Just stay calm' I kept saying with my breathing.

Then suddenly, I had an overwhelming sensation to push. The nurse told me to breath through it while she paged for my OB, but nothing I did could stop my body from pushing. Pushing naturally was the scariest, most empowering experience in my life thus far.

I was so scared of the pain, but I knew that the only way to get through it was to push. I took a deep breath, prayed for strength and my daughter was born at 8:03 August 2nd weighing 8lbs 14oz. It was an amazing feeling to know that I had used my body the way it was intended.

My husband always tells the story "she didn't even get an IV, crazy huh?" I think he enjoys telling the story more then me!