My 100% Natural Birth Story

Birth is such a beautiful thing. It is so heavenly and empowering. Itwas amazing to go through such an amazing experience and come out feeling so strong. I’ve never been more proud to be a woman! Our little angel was born Friday July 7th at 1:13 am at Timpanogos Hospital. I’ve long promised my babies birth story so here are 2 versions… the readers digest rendition, and the full detailed rendition. Happy Reading!

Readers Digest Version:

I was in prodromal labor for almost 6 weeks. Meaning, I wasn’t progressing or dilating, but I had steady contractions. I was exhausted before my birth even started! On Wednesday July 5th, I started birthing time, after my husband and I got food poisoning and were super sick. I spent my entire birth time throwing up and on the toilet trying to get rid of the bad food… I don’t suggest it. We did a natural birthing center birth and I spent most of the time at my home laboring. After 12 hours of active labor, my water broke. I wasn’t progressing very quickly and my baby’s heart rate was dropping. But, we got it under control and kept waiting. After 24 hours- I was fully dilated but my contractions were still about 5-8 minutes apart (they never got closer than this the entire time!). I pushed for over 7 hours. For about 6 hours my baby was crowing… like I could feel and see his head. He got stuck on my pelvis and didn’t budge. I started to leak copious amounts of meconium (babies first poop- which is very tar-like and thick). Because he was in the birth canal for so long he was starting to get this meconium in his lungs and his heart rate was dropping significantly during each contraction. The decision was made for us to go to the hospital and get some help from a vacuum just before 1:00am on July 7th. We got the hospital and within minutes things started progressing and there was no need for help. I pushed a few times and our he came at 1:13am. I had no idea that he had even come out until I heard him cry.

They had warned us that because of the amount of meconium that had leaked from me, that he way come out unable to breathe and he may need to be rushed to NICU. To our delight, he came out breathing fine and got to spend his first hours close to his mom and dad. Right after he was born, they invited Jordan to cut the umbilical cord. We asked them to wait for at least 15 minutes until it was done pulsing. The doctor held up the cord and showed us that there was nothing in there. And I mean… NOTHING. It was an empty cord. They didn’t even have enough blood left for the blood sample the hospital needed. Another miracle in our story, because without that our little boy wouldn’t have had any sustenance while stuck in the birth canal for so long!

We were beyond blessed, and he has been the perfect baby. He doesn’t fuss or cry(unless we are in the car. He HATES the car), and is so easy in every way. He just loves cuddling, cooing, and eating. I couldn’t be more happy with how he came into this world. Going to the hospital wasn’t my ideal scenario, but it’s what needed to happen to help him get here safe. I went 100% natural and had absolutely NO interventions… not even an Advil… and I couldn’t be more happy!I can honestly say that I wasn’t in pain throughout the entire experience. It was uncomfortable and unpleasant, but not painful. I owe so much of that to the Hypnobabies program! I had my pain completely managed and my mind was totally in control. If you are giving birth soon, I HIGHLY suggest this program. I give complete credit to this program as my reason for having a 36 hour painless birth! It was beautiful, exhausting, empowering and magic. Natural birth is incredible, and for anyone who is healthy and low-risk, I encourage anyone who is able to choose natural!

Full Detailed Version:

It all started Friday June 2nd. I was working a lot of hours for work… I mean a LOT and it was insanely stressful. I was running 3 campaigns for Dyson vacuums, Dolby sound, and Estee Lauder- Origins. It was a Friday night around 9:00pm and we had an emergency that required me to get on a clock and work a few miracles to save the campaigns. I knew that meant working late into the night and likely all day Saturday. I went into panic mode and began fixing the issue. Within 20 minutes- heavy contractions started. I started freaking out! It was a month too early. They kept getting stronger and closer together. We got home quickly and I did everything I could think of to relax and gain control of my body. I then found a hypnosis track (through the Hypnobabies program) that was meant to help keep the baby in that was coming pre-term. I did it and immediately the contractions stopped and I felt better for the night!

Starting the next day, the contractions came on strong again and stayed consistent at 10 minutes apart. This time they didn’t leave. For the next 5 weeks, my contractions stayed steady every 10 minutes. They varied in intensity. Sometimes I could talk and walk through them, and other times they stopped me dead in my tracks and I thought my little guy could come right then! But, every 10 minutes for all of June and the first week of July, I had contractions. When I was checked by my midwife, we found that I wasn’t progressing, which was depressing. It turns out, I had something that is fairly common, called prodromal labor. It is far more intense than Braxton Hicks and feels like real labor, without the progression. I realized after a few weeks, that I would have no way of knowing if it was birthing time other than my water breaking. So, I patiently waited for that day.

Finally on Wednesday July 5th at 4:00pm, I was having contractions still but it just felt different. The pain level was the same, but my mother instincts kicked in and I knew it was time. We took things slow, but I was beyond excited. Jordan and I ate dinner, which ended up being an awful idea because it turns out, that we got food poisoning. Suffice it to say, this was probably the worst possible timing to get sick. Jordan and I spent a good portion of my birthing time throwing up or on the toilet.

Back to the birthing story… It wasn’t until about 6:30 pm that I finally started timing and we noticed they were getting closer together. IT WAS OFFICIALLY BIRTHING TIME. I was getting so excited. It was real this time. However, I was feeling unwell enough that I couldn’t get focused and couldn’t get into my relaxation hypnosis.

We gathered all of our, and I tried doing my hypnosis tracks and getting ready. By about 9:30 we made our way to the birthing center. We got there and checked my contractions and dilation. I was dilated to only a 5… and my water still hadn’t broken, so she sent us home to go get some rest and wait. We came home and Jordan was able to sleep for a few hours, I tried, but I just couldn’t get myself to relax. This was highly unfortunately because I was EXHAUSTED by this point already. I was so tired and I needed sleep to help my body, but it just wasn’t coming! Jordan woke up and we started to get things moving again. I was on my way walking to the bathroom when my water broke. It was brown and goopy- which meant that little Thomas already had some meconium (babies first poop). Time was of the essence now. So, at 4:30am we rolled into the birthing center again! This time I was sure it would be better. I got into the tub and relaxed. I was able to get some rest in the tub for a few hours. I still couldn’t eat anything because I felt so sick from the food poisoning though, which also contributed to my lack of energy, I am sure!

I was at the birthing center for a while, and things didn’t seem to really be progressing. They measured my contractions and they were pretty high, but Thomas’s heart beat was dropping REALLY low. This was scary because it shouldn’t have been that low while having a contraction. We got worried that we might have to go to the hospital. So we monitored things for a while. I drank some sugar to try to wake him up and get him moving. Sure enough, his heart beat came back up and the crisis was averted. It was now about 9:30am and I was still only dilated to a 5. However, my contractions were getting further apart at about 8 minutes now. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was not in a mental place to make any decisions or do anything coherent. We decided to go home and try to get some more rest. We came home and I tried for hours to relax.

I just felt so tired, sick, and lethargic. The worst of it was, from the beginning, I just couldn’t get into my Hypnobabies hypnosis. I couldn’t get myself to listen to it, I couldn’t sit still or pay attention, I couldn’t get myself to drop into deep hypnosis. I was just half in hypnosis and purely exhausted and by this time it was 4pm and I had been in birthing time for 24 hours!!!! By 4:30pm we went back to the birthing center for a third time. We showed up and they got in my the room. I was feeling the waves pretty strong at this point. Driving there was miserable and I was still feeling so sick from the food poisoning. I wouldn’t say that I was in pain, more that I was totally exhausted and uncomfortable.

We got there and I walked around for a while, tried a variety of positions and within an hour of being there my body began telling me that it was time to start pushing. My contractions were over 5 minutes apart still with no signs of progress ,and I hadn’t hit what people call transition. At this point, they made a gross drink with castor oil for me to drink and had me breast pump to try and get things moving. I just couldn’t really do either of those things. I had Jordan draw a bath for me. I LOVED being in the water, it was the best relief I had the whole time. My midwife came back in told me I really needed to get things moving since my water had been broken for over 12 hours, I had meconium leaking already, and I was so exhausted. I had her check me and… surprise! I was fully dilated. We had no idea since my waves were so far apart, and I hadn’t hit transition.

I got in the bath and at this time I started having small urges to push him out. So, in sync with my body’s que, I began pushing. As I started pushing I began having  some pretty intense back labor, so I kept having Jordan apply counter pressure, which was super intense. I sat on the birth stool and started pushing. My little guy started crowning IMMEDIATELY. I was so excited! There seemed to be something in the way though. The midwife touched around and realized, there was a secondary sac of water in the way. She broke the water and with it came more meconium. I didn’t realize at the time, but that was a huge concern. I sat there pushing on the stool, for HOURS…like 6 hours. My contractions never got closer together, they never peaked, and I never hit transition. The only thing that hurt more was my back. The midwife said that happens when babies put their hands to their face (which I later learned is one of Thomas’s favorite things to do!) I had been pushing for a long time, when we realized he was posterior and his head was getting stuck on my pelvis. So, for hours, he was in the birth canal, with his head stuck on my pelvis, unable to progress past that point.

By about 11:00pm the midwife had me move around to different positions. Hands and knees, kneeling across the bed, laying on my back. I got up out of bed at one point, and there was a huge pool of meconium under me. The midwife stayed calm, checked our baby’s heart rate and then walked out of the room for a bit. She came back in about 10 minutes later and said she had talked to their doctor and felt that we should go in to the hospital and use a vacuum to get my little boy out. That was my worst nightmare. But, I felt like it was right thing to do at this point. I trusted her and I had a gut feeling that we needed to go.

We packed everything up and scooted down to the car. Now, mind you, my baby is crowing at that point and his head is OUT MY VAGINA, and I’m fully dilated. Like, if I bent down I could see the top of his head between my legs. Walking sucked, moving sucked, and sitting in a car on the way to the hospital was not ideal either. A baby was literally hanging out of me! It was crazy. I pushed a few times on the way there in the car, but crossed my fingers he wouldn’t come in the car. We pulled in and I was beyond tired at this point. It was about 1:00am on Friday and I had been laboring for over 34 hours. We got in and they wheeled me into a room immediately. I got on the bed and within a few minutes the doctor arrived. I had to get on my back in the AWFUL hospital position with my legs up in the air (which by the way is the worst possible way to give birth! I mean, every other animal in the world gives birth squatting. Plus, why do I have to push UP hill and AGAINST gravity? But I digress…) and within a few minutes I pushed him right out without any intervention needed.

He was stuck during my last push still so doctor had to do a guided tear, so that he would have enough room to wiggle out.  I had no idea that he had even come out until I heard him cry. They had warned us that because of the amount of meconium that had leaked from me, that he way come out unable to breathe and he may need to be rushed to NICU. To our delight, he came out breathing fine and got to spend his first hours close to his mom and dad. Right after he was born, they invited Jordan to cut the umbilical cord. We asked them to wait for at least 15 minutes until it was done pulsing. The doctor held up the cord and showed us that there was nothing in there. And I mean… NOTHING. It was an empty cord. They didn’t even have enough blood left for the blood sample the hospital needed. Another miracle in our story, because without that our little boy wouldn’t have had any sustenance while stuck in the birth canal for so long!

We were beyond blessed, and he has been the perfect baby. He doesn’t fuss or cry(unless we are in the car. He HATES the car), and is so easy in every way. He just loves cuddling, cooing, and eating. I couldn’t be more happy with how he came into this world. Going to the hospital wasn’t my ideal scenario, but it’s what needed to happen to help him get here safe. I went 100% natural and had absolutely NO interventions… not even an Advil… and I couldn’t be more happy!I can honestly say that I wasn’t in pain throughout the entire experience. It was uncomfortable and unpleasant, but not painful. I owe so much of that to the Hypnobabies program! I ha

d my pain completely managed and my mind was totally in control. If you are giving birth soon, I HIGHLY suggest this program. I give complete credit to this program as my reason for having a 36 hour painless birth! It was beautiful, exhausting, empowering and magic. Natural birth is incredible, and for anyone who is healthy and low-risk, I encourage anyone who is able to choose natural!

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