Last week I gave birth to a healthy happy baby boy. He weighed in at 8 pounds 5 ounces. I was nervous about giving birth, so I attended classes, read books and watched videos in preparation for the most intense experience of my life. Funny thing is, I ended up doing something I never thought I would be able to do… a natural birth!

I had a birth plan, a doula and a labour coach. In the end I asked my labour coach to give up her spot to my hubby who was a very supportive partner during the whole experience. In my birth plan I stated that the most important thing was the healthy birth of our baby boy. I did make concessions for medication and said if really needed a caesarean was ok. However none of that ended up being applicable.

Here is what happened during my birth. I felt contractions at 11 pm on Thursday evening and went to the hospital and was advised that although soft my cervix was not dilated and it could happen any time. I had heard the advice to labour at home where one feels most comfortable (unless there were complications or a lot of pain) so we did, we stayed at home. I got some sleep that night occasionally interrupted by painful contractions, then in the morning had food and watched a movie with my husband. While watching TV saw a commercial for Babybell cheese and decided that we needed some for the hospital stay. So we walked to our neighbourhood market to get the cheese, and startled an 18 year old checkout girl during one of my contractions who panicking asked “why are you shopping during labour?” to which I replied “we have to eat”. Well it also turned out that a local radio station was doing a cross promotion with the grocery chain and ended up asking us to take a picture for their website, so there I am with my husband a bag of groceries and in full labour posing for an adult contemporary radio station’s website.

We continued our walk once we dropped off the groceries and on the way back noticed that my contractions were closer together. We called our doula and once she arrived we went to the hospital where we found out that we were five centimeters dilated. Over the course of five hours I used the ball, breathing techniques, and shower to get through contractions. I discovered the gas when I was 9 cm dilated and was only allowed to use it for 15 minutes before they took it away. This was a big surprise to me when I started being in real pain and I asked for morphine and the nurses said “Morphine? Honey you are way past it we give that to women who are 4 cm dilated.” Oh said I “how about the epidural?” to which they replied “you’ll have the baby before the anaesthesiologist gets here”. It then set in I was going to do this au natural to which I said “I am having a natural labour… I feel like such a granola mom!” But I did it, did not think I could but our son was born after 29 hours of labour and he came out screaming.

So I offer these tips to any labouring woman… but before I go on. I must say PLEASE CONSULT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL; this is from personal experience and is not meant to substitute medical advice. It is just what worked for me.  Please note this is not medical advice, consult with your doctor nurse or midwife for best labour practices. This is a few pointers of what worked for me personally and may or may not work for you.

·         Find a good support team. It may be your partner, parent or a friend, also may be a doula a birth companion who will assist you in comfort techniques.

·         Go to the place you feel most comfortable during labour. If you want to go to the hospital right away do so, however if you feel comfortable in your own house and want to labour at home (barring any complications) it is a good thing to do.

·         Know when you can ask for medication and intervention if you choose to have it.

·         Focus on your breathing during contractions, you can monitor them on a clock, visualize a happy place, or even focus on something else entirely. Towards the end of my labour I focused on eating a fruit salad. I would get through a contraction take a couple of bites of fruit and then wait to get through the next contraction to take another couple of bites. Important part to note is that once the contraction is over it is done, let it go relax take a breather until the next one. Don’t wait in anticipation and anxiety for the next contraction. This will wear you out.

·         Take an iPod with your favourite music, some visual aids and some food and drink (coconut water is amazing for labour) for those breaks in between.  Also take some extra food for after labour hospitals provide you with a minimal meal, but it is not enough for you and your partner and you may want different options then the ones provided by the hospital.

·         Know that you can do it! It is hard work but very rewarding in the end.

Career:

During labour you are likely not focused on your career goals. So give yourself a break for a few days. After that evaluate when you will go back to work. We will discuss some work options in the next post.