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[starfish]

I am so mad because I had written a really long post and it got eaten because my connection timed out  .  Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I thought it might be nice/helpful for all you experienced parents to post your birth stories.  Since mine just got eaten, I will post it again later.  I have to go to bed now.
Vicky

[starfish]

Here is my first birth story:
It went really well.  If it hadn't been for the annoying and distracting hospital procedures, it would have been almost perfect.  I was getting ready for bed one night when I felt a squirt of water in my underwear.  At first I thought I had peed myself, then the light slowly dawned: my water had broken.  I'd been having what I assumed were prelabor contractions, but when I started timing them I realized it was the real thing.  I called the hospital and was told to come in, then I called our doula and told her to meet us there. 

It took us about an hour to get to the hospital because I had to pack.  As soon as we arrived I was hooked up to the electronic fetal monitor, a torture device made especially for pregnant women.  I had initially requested intermittent monitoring, but at my check-up the week before it was discovered that the baby's heartbeat was irregular.  90 percent of the time it doesn't mean anything, but just in case I had to have constant monitoring.  For a while, there was a constant stream of people coming into poke and prod me.  Someone offered me a hand warmer to put in my bra (nipple stimulation makes contractions stronger).  I was only three centimeters dilated and they were trying to hurry things up.  The hospital only allows you to be in labor for twelve hours after your water breaks. 

Finally I was left alone with my husband and the doula.  I had refused the hand warmer because the contractions had started to get a lot stronger and closer together.  I was glad that I had practiced relaxation, because it was becoming more difficult to force myself to relax.  I thought, "If it gets any worse I'll ask for pain relief."  Fortunately it didn't get any worse.  At one point I threw up (a sign that the pushing stage is imminent).  The fetal monitor was really digging into my stomach and I tried to spend as much time as I could in the bathroom.  It felt so good to just sit on the toilet.  Finally the nurse called, "We need to get Baby back on the monitor."  They eventually had to send my husband in to get me.  I felt a slight urge to push.  Was it my imagination? 

Reluctantly I allowed my husband to lead me back to bed so they could put me back on the monitor.  A few contractions later I barked, "I need to push!"  They checked me, and sure enough I was fully dilated.  It was a relief to finally be able to push.  Everything was fine until the baby's head crowned.  Then I felt the worst pain I had ever felt in my life.  I had torn .  Fortunately it wasn't a bad tear; once the baby and placenta were out I was stitched up good as new.  Then I got to hold my new little girl in my arms  .

[yarrow dreamer]

Then I got to hold my new little girl in my arms  .

After that, the rest didn't matter so much, huh? 

Nothing like birth to erase any shyness we have about bodily functions.

[tsuchi akurei]

I will see if I can't get my wife to post her birthing story, but I will say that being there and holding her leg( her mother held her other one) and then cutting the cord was the most intense experience of my life. Our son has completely changed our lives,in the best ways imaginable.

[starfish]

Yarrow Dreamer,                                                                                                   
Exactly!

Tsuchi,
Perhaps you could post the story from your own perspective?

Now I will tell of my second birth:

I really wanted a home birth for this one, but couldn't.  I woke up in the middle of the night because of feelings of pressure in my cervix.  There was no pain, but I couldn't sleep.  I sat around, not sure what to do with myself.  I took a bath, brushed and flossed my teeth, wandered around aimlessly.  This time I felt determined to labor at home for as long as I could.  Partly because my last experience had disenchanted me with hospital birth, and partly because we live alone without family nearby.  Friends of ours had agreed to watch our daughter during the birth, but I still felt funny about calling them in the middle of the night. 

At 5 A.M. we decided not to wait any longer and called them.  The contractions were starting to get stronger and painful.  we dropped off our daughter and headed to the hospital. 

No sooner did we get there then complications arose.  When we had had the hospital tour with our childbirth class we had gone in the front entrance, but since the hospital day had not officially begun we to had to enter through the emergency room.  We registered uneventfully and person at the desk offered me a wheelchair ride to the maternity ward.  I said no, thank you.  I could still walk and I refused to let anyone treat me like an invalid.  The minute we left the emergency room we realized we had no idea how to get to the maternity ward.  As we wandered the halls, the contractions became much more intense and close together.  I leaned against my husband and sobbed, "I don't want to walk anymore!"

Ah! the elevator revealed itself and we got on.  Suddenly, I had an overwhelming urge to pee.  The elevator door opened.  Just across the hall, the bathroom waited.  I ran in and locked the door (because that's what you do in a public bathroom).  I sat on the toilet with a feeling of relief and my water broke with a huge splash.  I felt the baby's head move into the birth canal.  I felt really scared, then because I knew there I could not get off the toilet.  I pushed the button to call the nurse's station, but of course they couldn't get in with the door locked.  I heard voices outside calling, "You have to open the door!"  Somehow I found the strength to stagger two steps and open the door (I know that sounds lame, but YOU try walking around with a four inch thick object in your vagina!). 

They transferred me to a wheelchair, covered my lap with a sheet, and rushed me to the delivery room.  The nurse said, "I see baby hair."  I shouted, "The baby's coming!"  They tried to tell me not to push because they wanted to screw a fetal monitor into his scalp, but soon they gave up.  He came no matter what.  I tore again, but it all happened so fast I didn't notice.  The person who stitched me up acted like a real bitch.  It took ages to finish, but finally they left My husband and I alone with our son.

I've never written a post in e-prime before.  How'd I do?  I miss the imperfect tense  :'( .

[msaraann]

Reading other women's birth stories was one of the most important things I did to prepare for birthing. My own mother, who had given birth to 4 children, couldn't answer my questions.

My 2 birth stories are published here, http://clanmcgrath.blogspot.com/2005/10/birth-stories.html, as well as a list of books, to whose authors I felt grateful.

[dandelion]

Not mine - but I really enjoyed this birth story:

http://birthecology.squarespace.com/journal/2006/10/11/mamas-body-is-babys-earth.html

[Crash]

My oldest son was born in a canvas dwelling I made. We had no running water or electricity, but there was a creek right outside the dwelling of clean water. We were .5 miles off the nearest road and an hour from the nearest hospital. No midwife but there was another woman there with birth experience. Everything went off without a hitch. His name is Stone Dreamer

My youngest son was going to be home birthed without a midwife but her bag of waters wouldn’t break and I had never done one on a human so we went to the hospital and had it broken and I caught me son Camas.

I knew the history of the past births, there were prenatal visits with professionals to make sure there was nothing really out of the ordinary, I was/am an EMT, and I had managed an organic dairy where I had dealt with 100’s of live large mammal births so I was pretty studied on the subject.

Done right, a birth can be as beautiful as the act that started the pregnancy and indeed closely resembles the same act.

[heyvictor]

Hey Crash, guess who.

My youngest was born in a tipi 5 mi. up a 4x4 road in N. Idaho on Oct. 30.  She lived in the tipi for her first year including all through winter with a week of 35 below. 

We had two older kids so my wife was experienced and there were a couple of experienced women there to help.  I was busy stoking the fire and heating water and taking care of the older kids and  other visitors when one woman asked me if we had a plastic sheet ready to put on the bed so it wouldn't get all bloody.  I said yeah.......Then she said well don't you think it's about time to get it out and put it on the bed?  45 minutes later we were holding our daughter.

Now she's 24.

[Crash]

Tis a small world....

[starfish]

Those stories are beautiful, you guys!  I love births.  I'm glad that you had a positive hospital birth experience, Crash.  Just FYI, the amniotic sac does not have to be broken.  Being born inside the amniotic sac is called being "born in the caul'.  It's suposed to be a sign of greatness or something .

[heyvictor]

This is me with my youngest daughter who's birth story I told a couple of posts up the thread. She was about 6 months old here. She will be 25 this year.

[yarrow dreamer]

Aaawwww! 

[BlueHeron]

Yeah, and she looks like a sly little stinker too.  Is this the daughter who used to climb trees and nearly give you a heart attack, Billy?

[heyvictor]

Yes, she is that same kid.