Paul Thomas - Birth Story:

I went into labor around 6:30am on a Saturday morning. At first, I wasn’t sure I was in labor because I’d had Braxton-Hicks contractions in the past, but after I cleaned the refrigerator shelves, washed two loads of laundry, picked up the house, showered, and washed my hair by 9am, I knew I had to be in early labor. I was doing ok by myself laboring with the birthing ball, and I let our doula know I thought I was in labor. She told me to let her know when I needed her and she would come over. By about noon, I could feel that the contractions were getting pretty strong, so I called her and she made it to my house about 1pm. We took a nice walk around the neighborhood to get some fresh air, and she brought me some warm red raspberry leaf tea to drink. She and my husband helped me get through the contractions and made sure I had some fruit and cheese to eat. Around 4:30pm, we decided it was probably time to go to the hospital. The contractions were getting harder to handle, and our doula thought it was probably time to go. We got checked in around 5pm and the doctor came in at 5:30pm. She told me I was 6-7 cm dilated and offered to break my water. I wanted to try to progress on my own as much as possible, so the doctor said she would be back in a couple of hours to check on me. We walked and labored on the birthing ball, but I could tell that the hospital setting was making me a little nervous and my labor wasn’t progressing as fast as it was when I was at home. At 7:30pm, the doctor returned and told me I was still at 6-7 cm and she strongly recommended having my water broken. I told her I wanted to talk it over with my husband first, which seemed to irritate her. Over the next two hours, we worked hard to get into various positions to progress, but in order to reserve my strength for the pushing stage, we decided to have the doctor go ahead and break my water when she returned at 9:30pm. By that time, I had progressed to 7-8cm, and since I was having my water broken, I would now be confined to the hospital bed to be monitored. I labored on my side, which was really hard. It hurt a lot, and I started to think I wanted an epidural. The nurse even tried to convince me to have one! But both my husband and doula knew that I could do it. I kept thinking that I was almost there. Within 2 hours, I had dilated to 10 and was able to start pushing. I wanted to push and give birth using the squat bar, but the nurse was not amenable to that so I had to lie down for the pushing. I pushed for about 10 minutes before the doctor came. After the head came out, I had one more push and it felt like our son just slid the rest of the way out! They put him on my belly, and our doula helped me breastfeed right away. I did have one second-degree tear, which I do attribute to being on my back during the delivery, but otherwise I was fine. Of course, I was exhausted and shaky after the birth, but I think I recovered pretty quickly over the next day or two. And I look back on that shakiness as a good thing. I felt alive and like I had really accomplished something. Our doula told me that after having a child naturally, I would feel like I could do anything. And that’s exactly how I felt after giving birth. I feel much more empowered as a woman and as a mom.

I feel very fortunate to have had a completely natural birth. Even though the doctor broke my water, I didn’t have an IV, drugs, or other interventions. I attribute all of this to our doula and to a supportive husband. Without the two of them, I may have caved and had an epidural because the last stages of labor do hurt. But that pain is so minor compared to the joy of seeing your baby and of knowing that you’ve brought this little baby into the world.