An unmedicated hospital birth..

Buckle up, this is a long one lol. This is my birth story, but before I get to the good stuff I want to tell you a little bit about my first birth. I have always dreamed about having an unmedicated water birth, whether that was at a birthing center or my home. So when I became pregnant with my daughter I called my local birthing center and began the process to receive prenatal care there. At around 8 weeks of pregnancy I began bleeding. Now, bleeding can be very normal, but heavy bleeding when your pregnant is NEVER a good sign. After a detailed ultrasound I was diagnosed with a subchorionic hematoma, which is basically a bleed in the uterus that would resolve on it’s own. Although I was told I should go on to have a normal birth and delivery I didn’t want to take any risk so my dream about giving birth anywhere not in a hospital was out the door. I went on to have a normal pregnancy and my hematoma did in fact resolve. Around 35 weeks I began to prepare for my birth, since it was my first time giving birth I was told I would most likely go past my due date, so I thought I had more than enough time to prepare. However on a Thursday morning at 36w6d I began “feeling weird” is what I remember telling my husband LOL. I was supposed to go into work that morning since I was not yet out on maternity leave, but my husband insisted I go to the OBGYN to get checked first before going to work, so I did. By the time we left the house I was sure something was definitely happening because I was having pretty consistent contractions (every 10-15 mns), but I was still in DENIAL “there was no way I am in labor, I’m only 36 weeks!”. Fast forward to getting checked by my OB and sure enough 5cm and 100% effaced, I was definitely not going into work that day, but headed straight to labor and delivery. My labor/birth was good, it wasn’t what I had envisioned my birth to be like, and not just because I got an epidural, but because I felt like I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been, and I just wasn’t as educated as I would have liked. I felt like if I would have put in more work prenatally I could have had the birth I really wanted. Nonetheless, my birth was a positive one, labor lasting about 10 hours from the start of what I know now were contractions. My daughter was born that afternoon, and thankfully required no oxygen or NICU time given her early arrival.

When I became pregnant with my son, I KNEW this was my chance at redemption. I had a normal early pregnancy, my early scans looked great (I was seeing an OBGYN, but planning to transfer to a midwife). At around 13 weeks my blood was drawn for genetic testing to rule out any genetic condition, and when results came back I was called into the office. MY HEART SANK. When I hung up on the nurse who told me the Dr needed to review the results with me, I knew that was not a good sign. I called my husband and fighting back tears I told him we needed to head to the drs office. Results showed that my son had a 0.5% chance of having spinabifida. I know what you’re thinking, what does that even mean right? 0.5%? My husband and I looked at the Dr and kind of just stared waiting to hear more. Since the number was soooo low, the only way to know for sure was to wait until birth. My OBGYN Dr. Jose Nieves-Sosa with Brownsville OB/GYN Associates assured me that if my son really had spinabifida it would be visible from an ultrasound and his scans were always normal. Due to the abnormal results though I was referred to a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist where I received extra sonograms and care to monitor my sons growth, and yet AGAIN I had to let go of my dream of birthing anywhere outside of a hospital (not a risk I was willing to take). However, this time I began preparing for birth from the moment I found out I was pregnant. Around 30 weeks of pregnancy I began looking for a doula, I knew if I wanted to achieve an unmedicated birth in a hospital setting I needed support. In my journey of searching for a doula, the stars aligned and the universe brought me my doula Katie with Gentle Intentions Doula Care. This time around I was prepared, I had worked on my birth plan since my first trimester, I had taken a childbirth education class, and had started to practice meditations and visualizations. When I had my first prenatal meeting with Katie we went over my birth plan, I let her know my goals and how I envisioned giving birth. I communicated that I wanted my husband to provide physical support, so we worked on practicing laboring positions, and pain management techniques. We spent the rest of our appointments practicing for our big day.

The big day yet again came sooner than I expected, it happened on a Thursday night, as I was hanging out at my friends house, having a girls night. I began to feel what I thought were Braxton hicks contractions around 10:30 PM, so I changed positions from sitting on the couch to the floor to see if they would subside, but they continued. by 11:00 PM they began to feel a bit more uncomfortable, I went to the restroom and noticed I had loose stool, but still thought maybe I could walk around to see if they would go away. After walking around for about 10-15 mns I noticed that they didn’t stop, and they began to feel more rhythmic. One of my friends offered to time them for me just to see how close they were and after a few “Braxton hicks” we determined I was having contractions about 3 mns apart LOL (by this time I began feeling the contraction wrapping around to my back). Now, I had driven myself to my friends house and was now in active labor soooo how was I supposed to get back home?! My friend did what any good friend would do and drove me home. By this time I had already texted my doula Katie to let her know what was happening, I was still in DENIAL again, because I was only 37w3d and surely I was not in active labor LOL. When I got home I find my husband hanging out with his friend about 2 beers in, and I casually tell him I’ve been having consistent contractions for about an hour now and they were 3 mns apart, but not to worry I was going to jump in the shower to see if they would subside and we would reassess after my shower. The hot water felt sooo good on my back! My husband came by to check on me and I told him I felt good, I felt like my contractions were coming a bit slower, but still coming. He asked if she should grab the bags and load the car and I told him to wait until I was out and changed, so he did. I got out of the shower and things picked up. I was having trouble changing as my contractions were coming pretty close together that I couldn’t get my clothes on in between contractions. At this point I noticed I began to breath through my contractions when I had them, so when my husband saw me struggling to get ready and breathing during contractions he loaded the car and decided we were headed to the hospital. I agreed that we could at least make it to the parking lot and I could walk around to see if anything changed or slowed down. I popped in my earphones and began my labor playlist as we made our way to the Valley Baptist Brownsville. When we arrived to the hospital at around 12 midnight my doula Katie was already waiting for us at the entrance and I was soooo happy to see her! Contractions had still not slowed down and were feeling a bit more intense so we agreed that I would check-in to see if I could get checked. As I waited in the lobby of the emergency room my contractions continued to come and I walked and breathed them off while jamming to my playlist. When they finally took me up I had to answer what I felt was a million and one questions before being put in a room. They gave me a gown to change into and began an IV. My nurse insisted I get hooked up to the fetal monitor next to the bed which would require me to lay in bed, and I quickly reminded her that I wanted to labor walking around and with movement, so I requested wireless monitoring instead. She didn’t seem too happy with my request, but nonetheless respected my wishes. After all the nonsense of answering more questions and getting hooked up to monitors I was finally checked 6cm dilated and fully effaced, baby boy was coming soon! After what seemed like forever they finally let my husband and Katie up to my room, and it was GO TIME. Katie began to set up my environment with dim lights and an essential oil diffuser. My husband set up my speaker and had my labor playlist going, as I focused on moving through each contraction. I walked across the room back and forth, only stopping to lean into each contraction. I would then go to the restroom to relieve my bladder and bowels. Contractions began to intensify and I began moaning through them using low deep sounds. Katie set up the rebozo over the door, hooked me up to the TENS unit, and I began to use the rebozo to squat through the contractions now. With each contraction I would lean into my body breathing down with gravity as I would squat at the peak of each contraction. With each squat I would welcome the pressure and visualize my baby boy descending down my birth canal. After about 30 mns we moved to the side of the bed where my husband began applying counter pressure to relieve pain during contractions, and in between I would side lunge back and forth to create more space for my boy to continue his descend. After 15 mns of this and a few more trips to the restroom I decided to get on all fours, so we hopped onto the bed where my husband continued to apply counter pressure with each contractions now very intense and close together. At this point I was zoned out and completely focused on each contraction, they were now lasting about 90 seconds and coming what felt like every minute. My bag was still intact but the pressure was getting worse with each contraction. I used an ultrasound photo of my son to help get me through the intense contractions and shortly after, I felt and heard a huge POP sound followed by a gush of water that went all over my husband pants ooopss lol. After my water broke my contractions really intensified and were coming one on top of the next, I began to doubt myself and my ability to birth my son unmedicated, and I knew I was in transition. Transition is the hardest and most intense part of labor, but I also knew it was the shortest, so I went into fourth gear and welcomed each contraction knowing I would soon be meeting my boy. A couple of contractions after my water broke I began feeling a shift in the way my body was laboring. My body began to push my baby out all on its own (aka. Fetal Ejection Reflex). I could feel my uterus moving him down with each contractions, my body began to involuntary push him out. I leaned into this feeling and soon started to feel a burning sensation, “omg I thought, the ring of fire"!”. This was the one fear I still had in preparing for this birth, but it was honestly not as bad as I was expecting. I gave one actual push, and my son’s head was out, and almost immediately after his body emerged and all of the pain was GONE. I felt so alive, and euphoric, so much so that I touched and took off the TENS unit while it was STILL ON and handed it to my husband who got completely shocked because it was still at the highest setting, but I didn’t feel a thing. I quickly turned and laid on my back so I could finally embrace my son who I so longed for. I have never felt so accomplished in my entire life, I was so happy, and excited to finally be holding my boy, tears filled my eyes as I knew everything in that moment was absolutely perfect. Skin to skin helped me birth my placenta and after some stitching up due to a 2nd degree tear, we were left to soak up our new baby.

Having been able to experience both a medicated and an unmedicated birth, I can say that for me, I would 1,000% go unmedicated again. I liked being able to feel my body working to bring my baby out. I was able to recover so much faster, and I didn’t feel like others were telling me how to birth (with my epidural I had coached pushing). I was so impacted by my experience I knew I needed to do everything I could to be able to help others experience what I did, whether they decide to birth in a hospital, a birthing center, or their home, everyone needs that extra support, and thus Mujeres Poderosas Birth Services was born!

If you have made it this far, honestly, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed my first ever blog entry! I will be writing more so I invite you to follow along. I will be writing about things that relate to birth, pregnancy, and postpartum. I will even feature some special guests who will share their own experiences, with the hopes that those reading will gain something. That’s all for now, until next time, your doula, Yarlett!