If you haven’t already heard, the Pace family has a new addition! Our beautiful daughter, whom I will call “Baby Girl,” born on Oct. 4, 2013. Here is her birth story…
*WARNING! The following blog post contains information and language pertaining to human birth. If that makes you uncomfortable, I’d recommend you watch this video of puppies instead of reading it:
It has been said that the “best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.” Well, I’m not a mouse or a man, but I’ve found the idiom to be true all the same. When we found out we were pregnant with Baby Girl, I began my scheming immediately. This birth would be different from the last; I would make sure of it! To give some context, my son’s birth didn’t go as planned either. We were going to have a beautiful and private waterbirth at the birthing center where we did all our prenatal care. Tyler and I had worked hard preparing for a natural birth using self-hypnosis. From our hours of classwork and reading, he learned how to be my birth partner and “hypno-guardian” (yes, that’s seriously what the curriculum calls his role). His job was to skillfully guide me through the process of labor and help me use my hypnosis for the pain of birth. After an uneventful and completely uncomplicated pregnancy, my son surprised us by coming a month early – while my husband was in another state. I gave birth in a hospital bed, surround by A LOT of people I’d never met. No privacy, no birthing tub, no hypnosis. It was not ideal. Nonetheless, I still got my natural birth…and Tyler was able to make it for the last few hours of labor. Our son was healthy…and that was enough. Still, I felt disappointed.
This time, I researched and I planned. Though I couldn’t do much to prevent a preterm labor – since there was no “reason” for Firstborn’s early birth, I was going to prepare myself as best I could. Because of the options available to us, we had to forgo the birthing center and opt for a hospital again. Fortunately, the hospital had a midwifery program and the director (a nurse-midwife) agreed to take me on as her patient. At first, I was sad about having another hospital birth – especially because it meant no birthing tub. However, after meeting with my midwife and discussing my desires and preferences for the birth, I had high hopes. The hospital, she assured me, had everything a birthing center would (minus the tub). They were fully equipped with birthing balls,/squat bars, large showers, and an accommodating staff who would support a natural birth. To give you an idea of what I had in mind, here is a copy of my birth plan:
It didn’t seem (to me) that I was asking for much, and the midwife cheerfully “approved” my requests. The plans were laid. My birth preference sheet was copied and place carefully in my chart, and I was excited. I knew this birth was going to be awesome. Then at 34 weeks, when I started having contractions, the plans went “astray.”
To be continued…
thejoyfulhearth 