My Natural Birth Story {After Three Epidurals}, Part 2

In part one of my story, I talked about how I was introduced to the crazy idea of having a natural, non-medicated delivery. 

Now that I had laid out my fleece and God had impressed this desire for natural birth on me, I was simply waiting, my due date behind me, to see if I could really survive handle the experience.

On the one hand, I was terrified of the pain and unsure how the delivery would go. Would there be complications? Would they have to turn the baby like they had to turn my third born? Oh my, would that be painful! What if I wimped out and was a completely stark-raving mess?

 On the other hand, I was just stubborn enough to purpose myself to stick it out and go through with natural labor.

When I was a week overdue, my doctor told me that she was hesitant to let me go beyond two weeks past my due date. I told her I understood and that I’d continue to wait until that time. I was going to the chiropractor that Wednesday, for my second acupuncture treatment, praying that would put me into labor on my own.

 So I had my appointments on the 9th of October. My chiropractor told me he’d be incredibly surprised if I didn’t go into labor within the next 48 hours. As I talked to his wife, the other chiropractor in the office and a friend of mine from high school, she spoke glowingly about her OBGYN, a male doctor, saying he was a great support during her two natural deliveries. I’m not a fan of male OBs, so I was squeamish at the thought of not having my own {female} doctor.I went to bed that night disappointed. No contractions, no pain, just the same old Braxton Hicks I’d had for weeks. 

On my due date, waiting not-so-patiently!

The next morning, I felt fine but was still discouraged. About 10 in the morning I started to have a bit of a backache and some twinges but I dismissed it, thinking this couldn’t be it. As I went about my day, the backaches increased in frequency and then hung around permanently. My “Braxton-Hicks” were getting a bit more painful, but not so uncomfortable that I had to sit down or stop walking. 

About 3 o’clock in the afternoon, I called my husband and told him that I was feeling uncomfortable. At 3:30, I called him again and told him to come home RIGHT NOW! I was beginning to think these were actual contractions and they weren’t slowing down {when I went into labor with my third, I stalled out for awhile}. 

 At this point, things were getting serious. I called my mom but she needed about an hour to get to our house so we asked a friend from church to come over and watch the kids. We finally left for the hospital {which was 30 minutes away} at 6:15 pm, my contractions 7-8 minutes apart at that point. 

 About 10 minutes down the road, I felt like I had to throw up, so we pulled over but I was able to hold it back. Halfway to the hospital my contractions were 5 minutes apart and they were very painful! My back was killing me but I was strapped into a seat belt and couldn’t walk around of course!

 By the time I got up to the check-in room in Labor and Delivery at 7:15 pm, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. My husband called for the nurse and they hurried me to a delivery room. There were two doctors there that night and both were in the OR at the moment for emergency situations. 

I was getting a bit nervous because the nurse said she would deliver the baby with the resident doctor if they couldn’t make it. I’d had her as a nurse before for one of my other babies and she was very nice but I could tell she was a little stressed. I learned later that about 10 different things were happening at once in L&D when I got there and everybody was running around.

I had hoped to have my doctor but she was not on call at the time. They called her on the phone but it was obvious that she wouldn’t have been able to make it in time because I was getting very close to pushing. 

I won’t lie, the contractions were incredibly tough and transition came out of nowhere. Suddenly I was sweating and shaking and walking frenetically around the room just to manage the pain. My husband put counter-pressure on my back, which was great, but by the last few contractions I didn’t even notice it because it was so painful. He put an ice cold washcloth on my forehead several times which helped. I also kept repeating one specific Bible verse as I went along. It was on one of my “Pregnancy Scripture” notecards that my friend Sarah had designed and given me:

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV

Another thing I kept telling myself was that I just needed to make it through the current contraction. “The pain will not last, it’s not forever, I can do this.” Those were the thoughts I had to force through my mind in the midst of working through the contractions. It was very hard to wait until I was fully dilated to push. But when it was time, it didn’t take long!

The surprising thing was, when the doctor who would help deliver Lydia came in just a few minutes before I was going to push, it was the same doctor my chiropractor had talked about just the day before! He had run up from the OR and I was definitely ready for him!

 He was incredibly calm and told me to just do what I needed to do. In a day and age where many hospital births equate with being hooked up to lots of equipment, pushing flat on your back with lights blinding you and lots of strange people in the room, this doctor was happy to let me carry out my birth plan. 

 By the grace of God, I delivered my baby in my nice dim room, no big lights at the end of the bed with the doctor just sitting on the end of the bed ready to catch my little girl. I laid on my side because that was the only way I could get comfortable. When I was ready I pushed twice {with a couple of primal screams to boot} and she was out! 

 

Only 40 minutes after we arrived at the hospital my little Lydia was born! The natural delivery I was scared of but wanted anyway happened and I’m so thankful it turned out the way it did. I think God was really in it, even bringing along things I wasn’t expecting would be to my advantage, like a different doctor.

Right away I had skin to skin contact with Lydia, waited until the cord stopped pulsing, and fed her right away: all the good business that was in my birth plan. I later found out that the doctor I had delivers water birth babies, but I didn’t have time to make it there {one of the things I wanted to do was labor in the tub}. 

Exhaustion overtook me after her birth and I was simply able to enjoy my new baby, reveling in her sweetness, her dark hair and already chubby cheeks, as she was born at 9 lbs, 10 oz!

The bottom line about my non-medicated delivery is that it really was a God-ordained experience, as natural as it could have possibly been in the hospital with a very supportive doctor, nurses and husband. God truly took care of my needs in that there was no trauma and I was able to walk around quite soon after the birth. 

Laboring at home was great too, because I didn’t want to show up at the hospital and scare myself out of natural labor if I stalled out. It was really amazing what the Lord did to help me stay strong with my decision.

So there we go! A few months ago, I never would have thought it was possible but I’m really thankful that Angie came across a post I had shared on Facebook and sent me her book. It was something I’d considered in the past but Redeeming Childbirth had a good way of explaining the way that God wants to be so involved in our childbirth, and I hadn’t thought about it to such a degree before.

What a joyous experience to have all the pain and effort result in getting to meet my sweet little girl!

If you are considering trying a natural delivery with no medication, let me encourage you to trust the Lord to fulfill that desire. He is so beyond able to redeem your experience, no matter what has happened in your past births or what your friends and family have said about natural labor. 

I love these Scripture passages and they are some that have always spoken to me, especially in this version {the NKJV}:

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Ladies, spoken from a woman who never thought she could….you can do this! Feel free to email me if you have any questions at all. {thepurposefulmom at live dot com}

P.S. Please know that I don’t condemn anyone who doesn’t have a natural delivery. Nor am I against epidurals–I had three of them! This is just something I’d always wanted to try.