My Mother’s Day birth story - FTM, 8 hour labor
I’m so excited and grateful that I had the unmedicated birth I wanted. I gave birth at a private birth center staffed by midwives and midwife assistants.
I think I was in early labor since Friday. My feet were so swollen and nothing was helping. Saturday I spent the entire day crying and very emotional. My hands also swelled for the first time on Saturday as well.
Around 5am this morning I tried to get up to go pee. My cat was in the way so I bent my legs weird and I felt a sudden rush of a small amount of fluid. I thought I peed myself so we changed the sheets and I tried to go back to sleep. Around 6am I started feeling period-like cramps on my right side. I got up again for the toilet and instantly felt pressure in my butt. In hindsight I knew what was happening but I was definitely in denial. The cramps were 5-8 minutes apart lasting 45-60 seconds long, with not much of a relief between. At this point I emailed my midwives with an update.
As the cramps got stronger, I got into the hot shower. Now the ‘cramps’ were spreading around my hips and to my back. I started my ‘labor song’ aka groaning through them. I got in and out of the shower from 8am through 12pm, called the midwife twice and in between I tried to sit on the toilet and I also kneeled on my yoga bolster as my husband did counter pressure on my back and hip squeezes. The counter pressure made the contractions slightly more bearable, highly recommend.
Throughout my pregnancy, I had been visualizing myself in the birth tub and getting through the worst parts of active labor and transition at the birth center. This all went out the window around 11:45am. I had been walking laps around my apartment to keep moving as a distraction from the insane contractions that were staying at my hips. I started telling my husband I couldn’t do it and I wanted to tap out. I called my midwife for the final time at 12:30pm telling her I was done. She recommended to meet at the birth center at 1pm for a check.
I was 9cm dilated when she did the check! At this point the instinct to push was becoming extremely strong. It seriously felt like the worst constipation of my life, and I couldn’t stop the urge to push. I labored on the toilet for a bit while the tub was prepped. Once in the tub I continued pushing hard, but I wasn’t making any more noise. I was facing the midwives and my husband as I leaned over the side of the tub.
I started to feel a sting as I was pushing and the pressure slightly switched from my butt to my vagina, and I thought maybe I should reach down to feel or tell someone what I was feeling, but I didn’t lol. I did a couple big pushes and my baby came right out into the tub at 2:07pm!!!! My midwife dropped everything and announced “we have a baby!” then scooped him out of the water.
I was in complete shock. 8 hours of labor, 30 minutes of pushing. I was just staring at everyone and repeating “oh my god” as I held my new baby in the water. The birth of my dreams had just happened!!! He weighed in at 6 pounds 6 ounces, 18 inches long. We spent another 3-4 hours after the birth in the room while I learned to breastfeed and they did the newborn exam on the bed with me. We got home at 7pm, just six hours after arriving to the birth center.
Thank you for reading💙