My 4th Natural Birth: Charlotte’s Natural Hospital Birth Story

September 15, 2020December 11, 2024
by Jessica Whitney

This is the natural birth story of my fourth baby, who was born in the hospital after a relatively short labor on a beautiful, early Sunday morning.

I love sharing birth stories and reading them. Each birth is beautiful and unique, and I love to see the power and beauty of the human body. At the bottom of this post you will see several links to other natural births that other brave beautiful mamas have shared!

My 4th Natural Birth: Charlotte’s Natural Hospital Birth Story

If you’d like to share your birth story, just check out my contact page to let me know!

FYI, much of this timeline is estimated but some of the specific times were relayed from my husband after the fact.

Let’s start with some things I’ve learned from 4 natural births!

As a reminder, these are my experiences and things I’ve learned, but I am not a doctor and you should always defer to their judgement!

There are affiliate links in this post, this means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I might receive a commission at no additional cost to you.

4th Natural hospital birth story: How I love to labor

Things I learned from labor and delivery (from my first 3 natural births!)

As I mentioned above, this was my FOURTH natural birth. I will definitely NOT call myself an expert because pregnancies and babies are all different. However, I did learn a few things with my first pregnancies and labor specifically in a hospital that I want to share with you!

Learn the most common birth fears (you are NOT alone) and crush them!

Why a hospital natural birth?

Between a combination of a few factors, we decided on a hospital birth because we were more familiar with the hospital system, we wanted access to the medical facilities just in case of an emergency, and our insurance! This is of course a very personal decision, but those were the reasons for us!

Tips for natural hospital birth:

Talk about your birth plan with your doctor. To make a hospital birth work, you need to make sure your doctor is on the same page with your desires! Otherwise, you might want to consider a birthing center, home birth, or even just another OBGYN.

There is research that low-risk women have had safe home births or experiences at a birthing center with similar results than at the hospital.

We had a super supportive and awesome doctor in Colorado (for my first two children). While in Texas, I’m not sure my doctor wholeheartedly supported me, but she agreed to stick with my plan and support me and that’s what matters!

While touring the hospital, ask about what resources they have. Here are a few questions to ask:

Are they able to provide intermittent monitoring?
Are they able to provide remote monitoring?
Do they have any tubs for you to labor in?
Do they provide birthing balls?
Can I walk and move around during labor?
What positions do you suggest for birth?
Besides pain meds, how do you help moms be as comfortable as possible?
How do you support mothers who want to breastfeed?

Create a relaxing environment. I will say we were an expert on THIS by the last trip to the hospital. We pretty much only brought this list of items in our hospital bag, but the most important was a speaker to play music to set the mood! We loved our portable Bluetooth shower speaker that was easy to stick to a wall or place somewhere out of the way.

Stick to your guns in the hospital. Use your spouse to help you stick to your birth plan. Sometimes during the strong contractions, it’s hard to think straight, but you can rely on your spouse to say no.

The nurses are the best! From every single birthing experience, I will have to say that the nurses made the labor! They were always so supportive and responsive to my needs. THIS is why I didn’t worry too much about my OBGYN. The labor and delivery nurses are the ones that spend the most time with you during the labor anyway!

Okay, time to talk about my birth story!

Exercising was a priority during this pregnancy. With access to a gym and childcare throughout the majority of my pregnancy, lifting light weights or walking on the treadmill offered a great reprieve from the monotony of stay at home mom life.

Stripping my membranes did NOT induce my labor.

Due to the 2020 COVID-19 restrictions, unfortunately, my access to the gym disappeared around 7 months of pregnancy, but walks were still a great way for us to get out of the house. The night before my fourth child joined our family, I walked around my parents’ neighborhood on a hot, Texas Saturday night.

I was 39 weeks and a hand full of days pregnant and stripping my membranes didn’t induce labor at my appointment earlier in the week. I was soooo ready to be done being pregnant and disappointment by the lack of contractions. My first two pregnancies I went into labor within 5 hours of having my membranes stripped.

(I will mention here that my doctor asked me at my appointment “So, are you done being pregnant yet?” And she was implying she would schedule me an induction if I wanted. But, I believe in letting the baby cook for as long as medically able – especially since due dates aren’t always accurate! So, we settled on the stripping of membranes instead)

What we did while we waited for labor to progress

I prayed for peace with God’s timing during my walk and felt an overall calm that He knew the arrival date of our littlest sweet one. After my walk, I floated around in the pool which felt great on the prego belly! My husband and I brought the kids’ home right before bedtime, and once they were in bed around 8, we started The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Party movie on Netflix (which is awesome by the way!)

During the movie, I started feeling a few contractions. I wasn’t entirely sure if this was early labor or false labor and didn’t really want to get my hopes up! The contractions began around 15 min apart but were relatively faint for the first hour.

By 10:30 though, they had consistently moved to 8-10 min. We decided to call my parents to have them come spend the night just in case we needed to leave for the hospital in the middle of the night!

After we called them, my husband said, so I should probably pack my bag? Husbands!

If you can sleep, are you really in labor? Should you go to the hospital?

My parents got to the house around 11:20, as they only live about 20 minutes away. Tom and I laid down to try and sleep for a while.

The first thing I learned about labor is if you can sleep, you’re still probably in early labor and you should rest as much as possible! It is probably NOT time to go to the hospital, especially if you want a natural birth (but of course always consult your doctor). I woke up around 3 a.m. because the contractions were strong enough to wake me up. Using my BabyCenter app, I timed the contractions at 3 min apart, and 30 sec long! Yay!

We called the doctor on the way to the hospital

I woke up Tom around 3:30 to say that it was go time! Between collecting last minute items, and having a quick snack, we left at 4:15 for the hospital. I called the doctor on the way to the hospital and explained the timeline, and she approved us heading to the hospital!

Yes, we kind of did this backwards because you probably SHOULD make sure your doctor approves before you leave the house, but we could have turned around, right?

We checked in at the ER, masks on, and waited patiently for the nurses to come downstairs. I didn’t have to wait too long for the nurse to come down with the wheelchair, thankfully!

While talking to the labor nurse, I tried to emphasize 3 things:

1) this is my fourth baby,

2) I have fast labors, and

3) did I mention this is my fourth baby? Oh, and my other three births were natural so I know what labor feels like, and please don’t send me home!!!

We checked into the room around 4:30. Disappointingly, I was checked for dilation at 5 a.m. and was only 3 cm. Boo! But, I wasn’t too discouraged as my contractions were still 3-4 min apart 30 seconds… slightly disappointing but I still knew this was the real thing!

They decided to in-process me (thank goodness!), and I got a heplock put in my arm. This was a drastic improvement from my experience with my third delivery. With that birth, they didn’t believe I was in labor, and I didn’t even sign any papers before I gave birth! I “checked in” as I was delivering the placenta haha. I guess that’s a story for another time!

Do you have to have an IV during labor?

During a natural birth at a hospital, my doctors always preferred I have a heplock in just in case they needed an IV for hydration or in case of emergency.

For me, they also used it for the Pitocin to help deliver the placenta after birth. Having a needle in your vain and then taped on tightly isn’t the most comfortable, but I think it’s a precaution that comes with delivering in the hospital that is worth it.

I didn’t want to be fully attached to an IV because I wanted the ability to walk around.

My birth plan was so helpful!

I communicated my desire for only a heplock on my birth plan, so I didn’t have to explain myself while I was in labor.

The nurses at this hospital don’t see too many planned natural births, so they had to “check with the doctor” to make sure this was okay. I wasn’t worried though because I had already pre-checked this with my doctor!

Once the heplock was in, they unhooked the fetal heart monitor and contraction monitor and let me start walking around to begin intermittent monitoring… thank goodness because I really had to go to the bathroom! They also brought me a birthing ball at my request!

How I used a birthing ball during my natural labor

I fell in love with the birthing ball during my second natural hospital birth. It’s super comfy to sit on and then I can lean onto the bed during a contraction which relieves pressure in my lower back.

Below photo is a no joke picture of me in a contraction and (not pictured) is me yelling at my husband to stop taking pictures while I was in labor hahaha. I’m super grateful he took it though after the fact!

It also put me in a position that allowed gravity to assist with labor. For me, laying down was the hardest position to labor in to relax during contractions. It was much easier for me to relax my body through contractions and to control my breathing while sitting on the ball.

What I learned about the Bradley method and husband coached birthing

In the Bradley method, which encourages husband coached birthing, I learned about the importance of relaxing the body during a contraction rather than tensing it, how to work with your body not against it, helpful breathing exercises and positions. (I read a super old 80s book but this one is very similar to the one I read. Lots of useful information, but there are strong opinions in there too.)

The contraction is the big bag of muscle (the uterus), pulling the cervix open and then preparing to push the baby out. Relaxing the rest of my muscles reduced the stress I was already putting on my body during the birthing process.

Low-key and relaxed atmosphere was key

All that being said, Tom and I took some pictures of the room in the early hours of the morning as the sun was coming up.

But mostly I just sat on the ball and talked to him in between contractions while he played on his phone… can you say fourth baby? In all seriousness, he knew from experience that if I needed help from him, I would ask!

Stick to your birth plan

Between night shift and day shift change at the hospital, basically right after we arrived at the hospital, my doctor offered to complete an AROM aka an Artificial Rupture of Membranes aka break my water.

This CAN speed up labor (if you’re ready), but it also puts a timer on when the baby needs to be born and increases the chance of infection and increases the chances of a C-section (from what I’ve read). I politely stuck to my birth plan and declined the offer.

The nurses loved being in our room during checks because we had all the bright lights off, natural light streaming in, and worship music playing! They chatted with us as they double checked my vitals and the baby’s heartbeat.

As the sun was coming up, the worship music on our Bluetooth speaker filled the room beautifully. We loved having a speaker that was small and that we could stick anywhere.

God has always taken care of us with the sweetest nurses. Our labor and delivery nurse was pregnant and loved the Christian music. She said it felt like church (that she was missing out on that day because of work)!

My labors were fast, but this one seemed to drag on

Not gunna lie, around 6:30 the contractions still seemed about the same length and still didn’t seem like they were too much stronger. I was starting to wonder, were we going to be having this baby this morning or not?

Since the hospital didn’t have a wireless fetal monitoring system, my doctor approved intermittent monitoring off and on. What is intermittent monitoring do you ask? Great question. Intermittent monitoring is when they put on the monitoring straps for 15-20 min each hour.

Around 7:45 the nurse put a monitor on again after a 45 min break. During that time contractions started slowly getting longer at 45 seconds to 1 min long but still 2-4 min apart!

Around 8, unbeknownst to me, my husband texted the family that the baby was probably coming soon because the contractions were getting stronger.

He could tell how intense they were by my ability (or inability) to handle them quietly. Through all my labors, I’ve used different breathing techniques during the different stages.

And during the transition phase, I found making noises like “oooo” helped me keep my breathing under control (even though it sounds kind of ridiculous haha. But who cares when you’re in labor, do what you have to do!)

The pain was definitely getting more intense… and I was starting to pray that it be over soon!

Ironically, the nurse removed the monitors around 8:15. Even though I could tell the contractions were getting stronger, the nurse didn’t really say anything, so I thought I would wait a little longer before asking to be checked again.

My nurses knew I wanted a natural birth, and during any birth, it’s normally better to not have your cervix checked too often because:

a) there’s a chance of increased infection the more often they check, and

b) it’s harder on your mental state if you don’t see progress during labor like you feel you should.

So my nurse told me she wouldn’t check me until I asked!

About 5 minutes later, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I felt like I needed to poop. TMI? Nope, that is the classic sign of your body being ready to push, that you’re either fully dilated or almost dilated, and that the baby is ready!

I asked Tom to call the nurses at 8:20 to be checked because the urge to push was becoming overwhelming! Tom grabbed the bed call button, and asked my nurse to come check me. We later we found out the charge nurse told my nurse, “I bet she’s complete…otherwise, she wouldn’t ask!”

Sure enough. After I slowly stood-up and climbed in the bed (oh, so painful as I had an attack of contractions as I stood up), the nurse said she could feel my daughter’s head as soon as she checked. She double-checked the cervix was out of the way, and said, “Yes, you’re ready! Let me call the doctor.,” and she ran out of the room. From 3 cm to 10 cm dilation in a little over 3 hours!

We were ready for the baby!! This is about the point where I grabbed Tom’s hand and probably squeezed the feeling out of it while we waited for the nursing staff and doctors to come into the room. It felt like an eternity.

The sweet nurse ran out of the room to call my doctor and started prepping the room. I could hear people coming in and out but the contractions were super strong, and I was trying to not push even though I really wanted to… that is the worst by the way! For anyone who’s had a baby before, they know that waiting to push is much harder than the actual pushing! It’s a relief to push during the contractions when you’re ready.

As we waited, I tried not to push… kinda sorta. During one of the contractions, I pushed a little bit and yelped when my water broke… it was 8:29. In every other pregnancy, the doctor broke my bag of water for me when I was 9 cm to gain the last cm.

I asked Tom where the heck everyone was because I seriously needed to push and could you please call and tell them my water broke because this baby wanted to come and no one was in there!

At 8:31 (this 2 minutes felt like an eternity), Tom called to tell them my water broke (because still nobody in the room). I seriously was afraid he was going to have to catch the baby!

When he called to tell them, all the nurses rushed back-in and the on-call hospital doctor (not mine) came with them! I heard my nurse updating this doctor about my natural birth plan and my intermittent monitoring.

The nurse threw on the monitors… put a few mats on the bed, and then I heard the doctor say the magical words, “Just do what your body needs to, my dear!” Sweetest words ever!

On the next contraction, I pushed and after a few quick pushes…she was born at 8:36… yup for those doing math… 5 min later! They didn’t set up the bed, get out the stirrups, change the lights or even move me to another position, a beautiful baby girl was born naturally all on her own! She was ready to meet the world!

My actual real doctor came in as I was doing skin-to-skin and offered to get me a refreshment of sprite, apple juice, and cranberry juice… yum! 😋 So glad she made it to the delivery room 😆