A birth…

By on Nov 18, 2012 in Birth Stories, Uncategorized Comments: 0. Tags:

In addition to thoughts and information regarding all things pregnancy, birth, and family, I have decided to use my blog as a space to write down birth stories for the families I work with. I won’t use the actual names of my clients, but I’m sure you will know who you are! This particular baby was born just over two years ago on Halloween.

Stella’s water broke late at night. Because she was GBS+, she decided to head to the Bryn Mawr Birth Center for her first dose of antibiotics. I arrived before contractions had really kicked in. Stella joked about a discussion we had had a few weeks earlier. She didn’t believe me when I told her that oxytocin could cause feelings of being high and that labor didn’t necessarily have to be excruciatingly painful. After spending four hours without consistent contractions, my client decided to down some castor oil… Two hours later, active labor began – rather definitively. She suddenly went from moderate contractions that required walking and swaying to intense contractions during which she leaned back hard against her husband as he pressed on her lower back. These contractions involved incredibly voluptuous hip-shaking and some lovely moaning sounds. Between contractions, she rested against her husband’s chest; they kissed, nuzzled. The intimacy was strikingly beautiful. (And the oxytocin was certainly flowing!) At one point during this stage, my client started crying – not because it hurts, she said, but because it is so intense.. (Yes, of course tears came to my eyes too!)
As she progressed, she became more and more vocal with even fuller movement. Between contractions, she had deep laughter and said that she felt almost high. The two of them spent a bit of time in the shower – my client was marching and explained to her husband that she was on a hike they had taken in the Grand Canyon. She kept marching and started laughing really hard about some experience they had involving tuna fish, soda, and kids. While in the shower, the vocalizations she made during contractions really portrayed her progress. They were loud and beautiful and exactly what she needed to get through.
One very intense hour later, a beautiful baby boy was born.
This birth was definitely at the top of my experiences so far. It was thoroughly fun. And I really mean – fun. My client had a difficult first labor and birth. Throughout this experience and many times within the first hour postpartum, she said – this is so much better, this is so much better.
I love being a part of such beauty and intensity…

Here’s to oxytocin being good at what it does!

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