Thursday March 1st 2018 at 8:00 pm 42 weeks pregnant. I Went to the hospital to get prostaglandin gel because I just wasn’t progressing on my own and was still trying to stay away from Pitocin. I started contracting just a tiny bit, nothing that was painful but Ryker didn’t like it much. He had a couple of dips in his heart rate so they decided to keep me and induce me, I got induced at around 4 am on Friday March 2nd and was having some serious back labor.
The Dr. decided to break my water and seconds after, my back labor became more severe and then I started to feel contractions all over, I could hardly sit still. I decided on the epidural Friday March 2nd at 12 am, which I was nervous to get, the worst part was just trying to stay still during the contractions. Other than that, the epidural I thought was a breeze. So I went to go push at about 11:00 pm Friday night March 2nd, I pushed and pushed for 2 hours. I had to stop pushing because little ones head started to swell due to my vaginal canal being too narrow and his head was bumping into my pubic bone. At this point it was too risky for me to keep going, my biggest fear came and they said I had to get a C section. My heart dropped, , I was so incredibly nervous but so ready to finally meet my little guy because at that point it felt like it was never going to happen. I was taken into the operating room at about 1:30 am March 3rd & Ryker was born at 2:45 am March 3rd 2018
( I typed this birth story on March 10th 2018) and felt I wanted to share as is without judgment or explaining in between what could have been different if we did this and so on, but this was my story. When my husband and I started trying to conceive our second son, I knew I wanted to rewrite my story.. not just to have a different outcome but to have an emotional and empowering connection to my birth. My first pregnancy and birth was without any preparation, no birthing classes no birth doula or a consistent nurse in the room with me to let me know I can do laboring positions even with an epidural, no one to explain the process of the c section before I went into it blindly, no idea what I was doing to heal in my postpartum journey. There was a lot of sadness and a lot of what ifs after and no one deserves to feel this way.
I then finally became pregnant with Kasen and to start, this pregnancy was the complete opposite. Filled with nourishing foods everyday, consistent movement everyday and I know that played such a big role in the way I felt throughout my pregnancy mentally and physically! I didn’t do any of that to control the outcome of my weight, I wanted to feel strong and empowered and I did just that!
My 2nd Birth Story (trying for a Vbac)
I had my weekly prenatal appointment on my due date and at this time I was in early active labor and ended up going to the hospital that day. I was 3.5 cm dilated and was doing a lot of movement in the hospital to try and progress things along without an induction but ended up started on pitocin only working its way to a level 3 and broke my water, ended up at 10 cm very quickly. Kasen ended up being sunny side up (just like Ryker) while pushing, my OB attempting to turn him face down for me.
2 hours later of pushing, Kasen was stuck at my pelvic bone (like Ryker) I looked at my OB and said “lets go ahead with the c section” and his response was “ i’m so sorry, but you’ve done so amazing you should feel so proud” at the time I, I was so proud, felt so empowered by my experience and really implemented a lot of things I wanted to.
My cesarean experience was truly 100 times better than my first and felt instantly connected with Kasen and felt so thankful I was able to feed him immediately after. Postpartum recovery was a testament to everything I did in my pregnancy and the lifestyle I adopted prior to! Mentally I was so clear and truly loving and leaning into my postpartum.
I was out of the house getting lunch with family only 5 days postpartum all while really listening to my body and knowing when it was time to head back to rest. I never rushed my postpartum experience or felt like I needed to “get back to it all” . I really leaned in for a full year and my body really thanked me for that.
There’s a lot of things now as a birth doula I would have done differently in both of my birth stories, one major one being having a birth doula in the first place. I know it would’ve helped me tremendously on a lot of decisions that were made that I was unaware of or just not educated on. This is why being a birth doula is my passion, my purpose in life is to help mothers have a story of their own that they can fully and wholeheartedly honor their journey, whatever that may be!
Eunoia Wellness by Breanna Norton
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