Wednesday, March 10, 2010

ANOTHER FIRST BIRTH EXPERIENCE

Recently I attended a birth with another first time family. The mom later posted her birth story to her childbirth group. With her permission, I'm posting it on my blog - one more story to say birth can be an amazing journey! Enjoy the story:


"I went into early labor around 2 am Monday the 8th, but it just felt like period cramps to me, so I went on with my day, continuing to cook, going to the grocery store (where the clerk told me that during my contractions, someone came up to him and was worried that I was going to "pass out." He replied, oh, no, she's just pregnant (I'm there every day so they know me), and all the other silly things I scrambled around doing in the weeks leading up to the delivery. By about 10 pm, things got serious and by midnight, I called my mom and doula to come over. Thanks to my husband, mom, and doula, Cyndi Whitwell, I labored at home as long as possible, so when I arrived at Sutter Davis at 3:30 am, I was 7 cm dilated. They immediately filled up a birthing tub for me - oh - that warm water felt so good! My husband got in with me and just about exactly 3 hours after I arrived at the hospital, I gave birth to our son in the birthing tub, with his bag of waters still intact, at 6:29 am. I scooped him up out of the water and held him, with his eyes locking in with my husband's behind me and his little finger grabbing on tight to my husband's finger, for about 20 minutes until the umbilical cord stopped pulsing.
We had a magical experience at Sutter Davis, and I must thank Vickie for opening my eyes to natural childbirth, the power of having a doula, Sutter Davis, and the Sutter West midwives. All the preparation I did paid off -- without it and my support structure, I would not have been able to reach my goal of natural childbirth - and would not have been able to do it without the birthing tub! For your next birth, do whatever you have to do to hire Cyndi Whitwell as your doula and deliver at Sutter Davis. I couldn't do it again any other way."