Positive Birth Stories
Women can overcome the fear surrounding labor and birth by hearing or reading Positive Birth Stories. I have asked a number of my Bradley Method® and Prenatal Yoga students to write their experiences down to share with other couples. Most of these stories on my blog http://prenatalyoga.wordpress.com are stories of natural birth. A couple of them are not, but these mothers were able to turn their baby's birth into an empowering experience and bring their babies into the world in the best, safest, and gentlest way possible.
"Women need to hear positive birth stories. Sadly, women who have positive, transformative, challenging but amazing births usually don't tell their stories. They may think it's not normal, or may not want to make other women feel inferior. Women need to share their birth stories, both positive and difficult, and when they're difficult, we should examine why and what could have changed. These stories have the power to transform how society looks at birth, to dispel the myths and relieve the fear." Debra Pascali-Bonaro
Labor and Birth: No Poopin’ While Pushin’?
So many pregnant moms have a big fear of pooping while pushing out their baby. This is such a common fear, and it is so easily avoided if it's that big of a deal.
Really, you won't even notice if you're pooping while pushing, you will be so focused on the job at hand-birthing your baby. But in case you want to avoid the pooping while pushing, when you're in second stage labor, order a twin pack of Fleet enemas and as soon as labor begins, give yourself an enema. If your labor has to be induced for a medical reason, give yourself an enema before you go to the hospital.
It isn't the most pleasant experience and it could possible stimulate your labor a bit. But I guess you have to decide which experience is more unpleasant, having an enema in the privacy of your home, in the very beginning of or before labor, or pooping while pushing at the end of labor with no privacy.
The choice is yours! Stock up now:
See More Articles By Liza Janda
Tags: baby, enema, labor, labor and birth, poop in labor, pooping while pushing, second stage
Posted in Labor and Birth Advice |
A Successful and Joyful VBAC
After walking around for an hour, my demeanor completely changed. I couldn't really walk through a contraction anymore and could not help myself from making a guttural moaning/groaning noise while hanging off of Ryan and swaying. After doing this for an hour, we headed up to the labor and delivery floor. I burst into tears–I'm not sure why–it wasn't because of the pain, but perhaps the whole emotional-ness intensity of it all.
In triage they discovered I was 8 centimeters dilated and progressing quickly (the walking made a major difference, I think). They sent me to my delivery room at 3:15 pm and at 4:44 pm Ingrid was out in the world.
They wanted the continuous fetal monitor on me the whole time, so I stayed on the bed, but I kind of made my "nest" there and didn't want to leave the bed anyway. I found being on all fours to be the only position I could tolerate, but I kept arching my back the wrong way (opposite of a C)–for some reason it was hard for me to round it out. We finally brought the birthing ball up on the bed and I was able to round my body out on the ball–which was a HUGE help and I birthed the baby that way.
I thought pushing was by far the hardest part. Transition was intense and I was certainly making animal noises and half crying through that time, but pushing was the time when I thought I was going to give up. There were a few times where I just didn't push through a contraction because I needed to gather myself together and take everything. But finally I resolved to do it and pushed Ingrid out. Pushing lasted for, at most, 30 minutes. I had no tears, no stitches, no episiotomy. They brought Ingrid to me right away, allowed the cord to finish pulsing before clamping and cutting, and I nursed right away.
All the nurses were impressed with the birth; which was nice. We're thrilled to have our little girl in the world. She was born 6 lbs 9 oz, and 18.5 inches. Her APGAR scores were really high and we were discharged from the hospital less than 24 hours later.
Tags: baby, back pain, Back pain in pregnancy, birth, birth ball, birth center, Bradley Method, breathing, C-section, Cesarean section, first stage, full term pregnancy, hospital, in labor, midwife, natural birth, natural childbirth, pain in labor, pushing, relaxation in labor, second stage, UCSD, UCSD birth center, unmedicated, VBAC, yoga
Posted in VBAC |
Fiona
Fiona was due on December 20th and it had already been a week past her due date. We were looking at different options in order to induce the labor naturally (nipple stimulation, spicy food, sex, and we even set up a couple of acupuncture appointments). The night before the labor, we ate some pizza and some pineapples, my mom believes that pizza started her labor AND it looks like mom's theory worked out for us too. 
Anyway, on December 28th, 2AM: Fiona woke me up morning to tell me she was having contractions. I rolled out of bed sleepily and we started timing her contractions. They were about 5 minutes apart, so we just gave a call to the birth center to see what they wanted to do. We were supposed to give a call at 5-1-1 in order to get antibiotics because Fiona was GBS positive. We really woke the midwife up and she seemed like she wanted to get a little more sleep, so she asked us if we wanted to come in or just wait a little bit longer. We decided to just keep waiting at home. 4PM: Throughout the day, the contractions varied from 7-8 minutes apart till around 2 in the afternoon. We called up the midwife again, and she asked us to come in at around 4pm. We get into the birth center and get checked up. The contractions seemed to stop as soon as we walked in the door. Fiona was measured at 1 cm and we were told that we were going to have a LONG labor. She advised us to get some rest and that she could give us some medicine that would allow her to get some sleep. In order to get the medicine we needed to run some tests on the baby's heartbeat. The baby's heartbeat was baselining at around 170 and peaking at 180, the day before it was baselined at 130, so the midwife was concerned. She tried giving our backup doctor a call so that they could run more analysis on the baby. While she was making the call and waiting for a response, she told us that we could go get some food while we wait, 630ish PM: Midwife gives us a call while we are out getting some gyros, and tells us that we need to head over to UCSD Medical Center. Our backup doctor called it an urgent issue and that we need to get there immediately. I start driving back down from Clairemont to downtown and on the freeway, Fiona says "MY WATER BROKE! I'M RUINING THE CAR!" I throw a jacket at her for her to wipe up and sit on while i still am driving down the freeway. I never have been to UCSD Medical Center before and got LOST on the way down there 7PM: I finally found my way to the front of the doctors office and grab a wheel chair to put Fiona in and walk her upstairs. The people check us in there and monitor the baby, and the heart rate was PERFECT! there was no issues of it being elevated. We get checked and Fiona is still sitting at 1 cm and the doctor starts urging us to take some pitocin in order to speed up the process. The nurse talked to us and knew that we were coming from the birth center and told us that we can wait. We decided to wait it out while we continue to be monitored. 915PM: The nurse tells us that we can transfer back over to the birth center if we wanted to. Fiona starts thinking about it, but tells me that she cannot make decisions at this time. The contractions were starting to get a lot worse and Fiona was starting to ask for some drugs. I told her to wait for 30 minutes at around 9:45 and we can talk about it again. I also called up the birth center to see if the midwife could make it over, since I didn't want to have that temptation of drugs around us. The midwife at the birth center starts talking with our nurse and Fiona is rustling around trying to jump in the shower. She takes off the baby monitor and starts heading for the bathroom. With the nurse and midwife on the phone, Fiona starts yelling "I FEEL LIKE I NEED TO PUSH!!!" It is around 9:45 and the doctor comes in and says let's check you out. They check Fiona and she is completely dilated! RIDICULOUSLY CRAZY FAST, and I had couldnt believe it. The doctor could not even believe it, she had to check TWICE to see if she was really completely dilated. The doctors start setting up the room for the delivery. We ordered some doulas to help us out when we first walked in and they walked into the room just quick enough to grab a leg. Fiona starts the pushing process and baby Caleb was ready to rock on out! 11:18PM we deliver Caleb Ernesto Padaon… 8 pounds 5 ounces and 21 inches long without any tears. Once again, the doctor was shocked that it went so quickly that she had to check twice to make sure that there were no tears and we were able to stay away from the drugs… WHEW The next 2 days was spent at the hospital and was an annoying process. If we delivered at the birth center, we would have been able to head back home within 6 hours. Instead, we were at UCSD and had to stay for a couple of days with doctors and nurses and lactation consultants running into our room in what seemed like every 20 minutes. just a little annoying and tiring. Baby latched on really well and being a dad is pretty awesome! Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight Proverbs 3:5-6
Tags: baby, birth, Bradley Method, first stage, lactation, midwife, natural birth, natural. labor, obgyn, pitocin, pushing, second stage, UCSD birth center, unmedicated
Posted in Natural Birth Stories |