My labor & delivery story; (practically) pain free
About 3 days before I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl Samarah Elizabeth, I was laying in bed scrolling through Facebook and I come across this ad from this page called Mighty Mama Movement. The ad was promoting this online course called (Practically) Pain free birth. The course was about how to have a practically pain free birth with little to NO intervention. All I could think was, pssh YEAH RIGHT! This has got to be some sort of scam! I read on and saw that they had a free class that was going to start in about 20 minutes. I decided that I was going to check it out because even though I wasn’t convinced I still was very curious. I logged into the class and was PLEASANTLY surprised. The teacher, Rachel Moises, who is a mother of 8, shares step by step methods and secrets to having a practically pain free birth and she got me!
I honestly couldn’t wait to put forth some of the things I learned in the free class alone! It was legit. I didn’t really have a lot of time to practice the methods considering I went into labor 3 days later but I tried. Here’s my labor & delivery story.
Sunday, November 29, 2020
9:00 pm
My husband and I are at home, I’m about to get in the bath tub meanwhile, he was cooking dinner. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions all day so I was looking for relief. I thought, why not run a hot bath? Hoping this would ease some of my discomfort and pain, I got in the warm bath trying my hardest to relax. After About 20 minutes or so I decided that I needed to get out because this wasn’t working. All day I had been contemplating whether or not I should go to the hospital. Being that we’re in a pandemic, I didn’t want to have a covid test only to get sent home. So, I got out of the tub and I recognized that something was off. The pain and discomfort I was feeling was different from what I was previously feeling. I sit on the floor because I felt that if I moved anymore, she was going to come. I immediately yell out to my husband who is downstairs. He comes up to the bedroom, “You okay babe?” He asked. “ I think I’m going into labor!” I replied. I started feeling contractions again as soon as I said that. “You don’t know?” He asked. I must’ve looked at him so crazy because with our son I was induced. “NO I DON’T KNOW, I WAS INDUCED WITH JACOB I DIDN’T GO INTO LABOR!” I exclaimed. Needless to say, that question irritated me. We sat there for a minute as I let the contraction pass. “Do you want to go to the hospital?” He asked. I told him yes so we packed our bags and about an hour later we set off to labor and delivery.
Side note, our 2 year old was already with his aunt so we were free to go to the hospital whenever we needed to.
The drive from our house to the hospital is approximately 37 minutes away so we get there somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00 pm. We parked on the wrong side of the hospital so it took us a minute to find labor and delivery. I’m just glad that I wasn’t in active labor. By the time we get checked in, tested for COVID and settled in our room it’s a little after midnight so it’s officially November 30th, my due date.
They set me up on the monitors to track the babies heartbeat and contractions. The nurse I was assigned for the night came in, asked me how I was doing and checked my cervix. I was only 4 cm dilated and I told her that despite my contractions, I’m feeling fine. Now before I say more about how my labor and delivery actually went I need to mention my birth plan.
After being induced due to eclampsia in my first pregnancy, I wanted to experience the labor & delivery process as drug free as possible. I wanted to go the more natural route so that’s what I opted for. I told all my doctors I don’t want to be induced in any way. In fact, I was scheduled for an induction a week before my due date for no real reason except for the fact that they wanted to have “control” if things get to be too much for me. Basically, because I’m in a wheelchair and they’re not used to delivering someone like me… I digress.
The nurse begins to inform me on what I can expect. The first thing she tells me is, “we need to give you an IV so that we can give you Pitocin to speed up the labor.” “Okay but I don’t want or need Pitocin, I’m trying to go as natural as possible.” I replied. She then said they just want to speed up the process and again I declined. She asked me to get an iv for fluids and if I need some type of medication through it later, the iv would already be ready. I went ahead and got the iv but I told them no Pitocin. It turns out I didn’t even need it because my labor was progressing on its own. By 4:00 A.M. my contractions were much more painful. The nurses were having a hard time tracking my contractions externally so they had to do the invasive procedure of inserting a catheter to attach this tracker onto my uterus. Fun. I was so exhausted, all I wanted was to sleep. They offer me a small dosage of a narcotic to help me get a little rest. Honestly, I was hesitant but I was so tired I told them okay. So they gave it to me through my iv and I almost instantaneously get drowsy but I don’t go to sleep. I felt a little loopy but I was completely coherent and aware of what was happening around me. I was in the room by myself because my husband had to run to the car. While he was out, two of the nurses walk in and start discussing something quietly by the door. The main nurse comes up to me and says. “Hi Bredonda, we want to go ahead and give you Pitocin, is that okay? We want to make sure you’re not in pain too long.” Mind you, I was loopy and drowsy. They knew exactly what they were doing. See, what they thought was that they were going to get a drowsy compliant answer out of me but they didn’t. I said “I’m so drowsy, I cannot answer any questions without my husband present. Please come back when he comes back from the car.” I could not believe they really tried that. They were really pushing Pitocin on me.
My husband walks in the room as I was dozing off. “Babe, they tried to give me Pitocin again. They were very sneaky about it, they waited until I was drowsy to ask me. They’re supposed to come back because I told them that you’re my advocate and I can’t answer questions in this condition so when they ask tell them no.” I told him. I felt so blessed to have my husband there to be my advocate, I definitely needed that. So, of course they come back and my husband tells them no and they let me sleep for an hour or two. The narcotic starts to wear off and my contractions feel more intense than ever. By this time it’s around 7:00 A.M and active labor begins. At this point we don’t know how dilated I am and I had been enduring these contractions like a boss. Still in a lot of pain, I remember the techniques I had learned in the Mighty Mama Movement practically pain free birth course that I had been doing throughout the night. I was imagining myself on a beach surrounded by peace and tranquillity. The sound of the waves crashing back and forth on the sand whilst the seagulls were flying around. The feeling of the sand in between my toes put me at ease. Though I can still feel every contraction, the pain was not nearly as bad as it once was. As my labor went on I made the decision to get the epidural because the pain intensity was beginning to be a lot. The anesthesiologist comes in with the epidural and begins to assess me to figure out how they’re going to insert the needle. By this time my contractions were less than a minute apart. For some reason it took them half an hour to finally give me the epidural. After they inserted the needle into my back the nurses decided to check my cervix and saw that I was 10 cm dilated, it was time to push.
The delivery process was not so bad but still sort of hard. My daughter was 8 pounds so she was on the bigger side. The nurses were preparing for Samarah to arrive while getting me situated in the position I was going to push in. It was time to begin. I’m pushing and breathing, pushing and breathing, pushing and breathing, she’s barely moving and her heart rate slowing down. “Bredonda, you’re going to have to push harder so that she can come out, if you don’t push harder you’re going to have to have a C-section.” The nurse said. I look at my husband who’s standing next to me holding my hand “I don’t want a C-section!” I cried. “Well, you have to push babe, PUSH YOU CAN DO THIS!” He responded. So I push about 5 more times and by 9:08 AM, Samarah Elizabeth was born.
I had done it! I gave birth to my daughter with little intervention. I felt so proud of myself and so accomplished. When I had mentioned to people that I was going to TRY the more natural route, some thought I was crazy, some believed I wouldn’t be able to because of my disability and only a select few actually believed that I was capable of doing it. Not only was I proud of myself but my husband was super proud that I had stood my ground with the doctors and pushed through. I thank God for the strength he’s given me but I also thank Rachel Moises and the Mighty Mama Movement. She helped me and gave me a sense of empowerment that I didn’t know I had. After that birth I feel like I can take on the world!
If you’re interested in learning more about the Mighty Mama Movement or taking the course you can click here
You got this mama!
