My Natural Birth Story - Part 1…

Giving birth to my baby was the most awesome experience of my life and I almost wished it had lasted longer so I had time to really savour it! There were a few twists and turns along the way but ultimately it was completely natural, enjoyable and resulted in a beautiful and healthy baby. Here’s my story…

From the time I knew I was pregnant I wanted a home birth. I felt it would be the most natural way to give birth, in the environment that had nurtured the entire pregnancy. I tried to get a midwife who would be willing to support us at home but despite much searching none could be found. My doctor was not in favour of the homebirth for a first time baby and neither were many of my family. I did a lot of research into completely unassisted birthing and I was told and read some very powerful and inspiring stories. Even though I ‘knew’ I was going to have a very simple birth I was not totally convinced that I wanted to be completely unassisted in my first time around.

In my seventh month of pregnancy I was blessed with the arrival of Karina, a medical student at Ross University who has been an assistant at her mother natural birthing centre in California. She was quite willing to assist me but did not have any monitoring equipment and with the mounting pressure from all angles, I agreed to my doctor’s request to birth in the hospital. There were times over the next few weeks that I expressed disappointment for not being more adamant about having a homebirth but Karina gently assured me that it was my state of mind that was the most important and not the location.

I already had a birth plan and with Karina’s help this was enhanced to be a simple but detailed document that was clear that I should not be offered nor would I accept any medication or intervention unless it was absolutely necessary to save our lives. My doctor put me in touch with a midwife who would assist me at the hospital and I met with her to discuss my birth plan in the context of what could be done at the hospital and I felt very at ease that the process would be smooth sailing.

I had calculated my due date in two ways: from the date of conception and from the date of my last period. The latter calculation was based specifically on the knowledge that my cycles were 36 days and not the standard 28 days that the pregnancy wheel usually calculates it with. The date was 11^th July which became 10^th July with the fact that it was a leap year.

My Mum arrived in Dominica on 5^th July and I was all ready for baby to come any time after then. We were all getting excited even though there were no obvious signs that baby was going to arrive soon. I did yoga and on 6^th July we went for a nice sea swim and I was remaining active as usual.

On Tuesday 8^th July I went for my usual check up and was informed that my doctor had calculated my due date at 3^rd July rather than 10^th. She proceeded to tell me that if I had not given birth by the following Tuesday I would have to come in and be induced. I was shocked as I knew my due date was not so early and felt that having an inducement at that time would be an invasion into the natural process that was unfolding. As I left the office I decided that I would only consider being induced if I was 2 weeks beyond the due date as I had calculated it. Even so, that night I had a medley of dreams about going into labour and the next day I decided to step up my daily walks and listening more intently to my Hypnobirthing CD to encourage baby to arrive on time.

Join me in the next few days for Part 2 to find out what happened next…