When we found out we were pregnant with our first child, I knew right away that I wanted to have a natural birth. To me that meant no epidural. DH and I prepared ourselves as well as we thought we could as first time parents in the internet era. We looked it up online :-)
Our hospital offered so many resources, but we were unable to attend the birth classes due to scheduling conflicts. We decided to order a video we could watch on our own time. We ordered "Laugh and Learn About Childbirth", with Sheri Bayles. It has six different forty five minute lessons that covered everything we felt we needed to know and things we did not know.
- Anatomy and Preliminary Signs of Labor
- Three Actual Stages of Labor
- One Breathing Technique
- Labor and Delivery
- Pushing
- Medications used in Labor
- Induction
- Forceps
- Vacuum
- Monitoring
- Cesarean Delivery
- Post-op C/S
- Postpartum Vaginal Delivery
It was a great guide to have our first. We were able to ask educated questions during our appointments and the laboring process and were able to be an active informed participants in our care.
How I was able to cope.:
I will start by saying, I could not have done it without my husband. He was the best support I could have. I had my first "real" contraction around 4:30pm. I did not know it was real until about an hour later with them progressing and being unable to speak during them. Steady deep breathing helped me get through each of them initially. They were eight to five minutes apart, so decided to jump in the shower as we would be making our way to the hospital soon. While in the shower they went to every three minutes, WHOA! I actually laughed at myself when they hit that point. Of course a hot relaxing shower would speed them up.
Once I got out, they slowed back down to about five minutes, but they were much more intense. It felt like extreme pressure in my lower back and cramping in my lower abdomen. Breathing helped pace myself so I would not freak out and remind myself that I am in control, but counter pressure from DH massaging my lowing back with each breath helped with discomfort. Massage up with each breath in and down with each breath out...for eleven hours :-) He really labored with me. I was able to talk, text, and enjoy a laugh in between contractions for a while. I had continuous fetal monitoring and was doing a lot of sitting during labor. It was a lot harder using counter pressure to assist with pain once I was in bed because DH could not get to my back as well and I could not move as I felt I needed to.
This is where DH's coaching and my will kicked in skills really kicked in. At the end of each contraction I would tell myself, that wasn't that bad, I can do another one, and again, and again. He reminded me to breath when he could see I was holding my breath (that is really easy to do at that time). Slow deep breathing was key for me and he kept me on pace. Him breathing with me and his encouraging words really kept me going. I got to a point where I felt like I could not do it anymore. I stalled at 8 cm and I was tired. He just kept telling me how great I was doing and to keep breathing. That we would see our baby girl soon. I got to a point where all I could do was pray because I was exhausted, I was actually dozing between contractions. I remember saying out loud, "Lord please, I cant do it anymore, please get this baby out of me". AND almost immediately came the pressure to push. Our Midwife (who was amazing letting us do our thing to cope) didn't believe I was ready because she had just checked me again and I was still at 8. She came in with her coffee, went to check again, and their was DD1's head :-) They were not ready for her, but she was coming. Three minutes and five pushes and she was here. Pushing was a huge relief in comparison to breathing through a contraction. She came out fast so I had to get stitches. After enduring 11 hours of natural labor I was so prepared for that...NOT! Now that hurt like a *****!
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