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Birth Center Story: Natural Birth Story First Baby
This post is part of several birth stories submitted by REAL women looking to share their experiences with other women. If you’re interested in submitting a birth story, please visit my contact page.
Reading about others’ birth stories can often help us modify our expectations, but also realize, that all of our experiences are different, and that’s okay.
I love the idea of birth centers that are NOT connected to a hospital because it is a middle ground between a hospital birth and a home birth. I know many women wonder if birth centers are as safe as hospitals.
In a 2013 study, it was found that in over 15,000 planned birth center births, both mom and baby were safely taken care of. The study shows the safety of the midwifery-led birth centers model.
That being said, read on to learn about Laura’s experience in the birth center!
Birth Center Story: Reuben’s Natural Unmedicated Birth
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When I got pregnant with my first, we started our prenatal care at a busy OB practice that would have had us delivering at the local hospital. Our first experience was very impersonal and cold, with my husband being relegated to the corner rather than being allowed to support me, when I was obviously nervous.
The entire system felt like a factory assembly line, and I knew there had to be a better model of care. Ina May’s book “Guide to Childbirth” is what really shaped my views on birth and I can say changed my life.
Growing up, I think the only message I ever got about birth was that it is the most painful thing in the history of the world, so hurry up and get the epidural. Naturally, I had a lot of fear and anxiety associated with this great unknown called labor and birth. Nobody had taught me that yes it hurts and is hard work, but women are strong and fierce, we can do this, and our bodies were made to do it.
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As I began third trimester, I had accumulated enough hospital anxiety that I gladly switched to the birth center and midwife model of care, and instantly fell in love with the whole thing.
There was so much more peace from the moment you walk in the door, everyone was warm and personal. They actually informed me of things from my charts that I had always wondered, but which no one at the OB had ever bothered to tell me (presumably because it’s their job to know, not mine).
But in my heart, I knew I wanted to be an informed mama, not just a patient. I wasn’t sick – I was a client, not a patient.
With my second pregnancy, I returned to the birth center and midwife care without a second thought. It already felt like my home away from home. Now I am pregnant with our third, but the birth center has since closed – which is devastating news, as women aren’t left with many other options in this area.
As a result, this time we are planning for a home birth, God willing! I can’t think of anything more appealing than going into labor and not having to rush off at a moment’s notice for a hospital stay. I can be in the comfort of my home, in my own clothes, eating whatever I want, with my other children under the same roof as me, recovering in my own bed.
I have many stigmas in my mind about hospital birth, true or not. In my mind, hospital birth is too surgical, too over-medicalized (I know, I’m making up words), and not especially conducive to natural birth.
A few things I’ve found essential in my natural births: peace, quiet, darkness, freedom of movement, no interruptions, no one directing you to do anything – just following your own instincts, undisturbed.
In my mind, hospitals are the opposite of that – noisy, bustling, many interruptions, you are subjected to many protocols over which you have no control.
All that being said, here is the birth story for my first born – Reuben!
As a first-time mom, I didn’t know what to expect labor to feel like, but I woke up to what felt like menstrual cramps. It took me till mid-morning to realize they were running like clockwork – and gradually becoming stronger.
We went to my regular check-up at the birth center that afternoon, where they informed me that I would be having a baby that day or the next. I wasn’t far enough along to be admitted, so rather than make the long drive back and forth to home, we ate dinner, walked around a park, and checked into a hotel.
Finally, my instincts knew I needed to lay down in a comfortable bed in a dark, quiet room – so that is how I labored through the night. I never slept, I know because I clocked every contraction, but I was so deeply relaxed that I got up in the morning feeling surprisingly rested.
24 hours into labor, my water broke. Evidently the midwife still hadn’t expected to admit me, based on how calm I sounded on the phone, so she was surprised when I walked into the birth center at around 7cm. I remember feeling so relieved to finally be admitted and stop feeling in limbo, which couldn’t have been conducive to effective labor.
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I tried the tub for a bit, but had trouble getting comfortable. My position of choice for active labor ended up being child’s pose on the bed.
My sense of time got a little weird at that point, but I must have spent a couple hours like that. I did learn a fun piece of trivia they don’t teach you in birth classes. When you are fully dilated, the black stripe from your belly runs up your bum – being in child’s pose this must have been very apparent to everyone.
However, I wasn’t feeling the urge to push – so the midwife did what was probably the most valid cervical check I had gotten, and discovered that while yes I was fully dilated, there was a lip of cervix over the baby’s head. She had to move that out of the way while I pushed through several contractions, and then the pushing stage began in earnest.
She also gently suggested that I try the birth stool, as it might be the most effective way to get this baby out. She was right of course, it was effective – hence why I hated it. But the contractions were much stronger and gravity did its job to help the baby descend.
I didn’t like pushing all that much. It hurt and there was less relief between contractions, with all the increasing pressure.
I went from deep, relaxed breaths to shallow ones and holding my breath to push – which was not helpful and made me very light headed so I had to get oxygen.
Lesson learned – learn how to breathe better while pushing…
At one point shortly before crowning, the midwife asked my husband if he wanted to come around from holding me and see the baby come out. I responded “NO.” “Do you need him there?” (behind me supporting me). “YES.” So there he stayed.
The baby’s head took a bit of work, but once that was done the rest of him came slithering out in one big push, because I was so ready to be done. This did result in me needing stitches, from his shoulders coming out so fast. We had waited to find out the gender of the baby, so I got to hear my husband’s voice in my ear whisper “it’s a boy”.
My husband had also wanted to be the one to pass the baby to me, which was made harder by him being behind me – but the midwife honored that wish by making sure his hands were on our son as he was passed up to my chest. First words as soon as your baby are born are often a little funny, mine were “he’s perfect! He’s perfect!” over and over.
All 8lbs 15oz of him, and 30 hours of labor, with only the last 5 spent at the birth center. Then 6 hours later we took him home!
This is a guest post submission of a natural birth story by Laura P. Laura is a mom of 2 expecting her third little one. To read her second birth center birth story, go here. These are her opinions, experiences, and thoughts and do not reflect professional medical advice.
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