Unassisted home birth experience:
Beautiful. Amazing. Epic. Forever my favorite moment. No regrets.
A few words I would use to describe my labor/birth experience.
This is my story. This was my birth. This is my moment to claim forever. I trusted my body, I used the tests and information available to make an educated and prepared decision.
If people (midwives/doctors) would have given me #1 a water birth option and #2 a damn say in how I was to be monitored during labor, I would have been in the hospital because that would have been my best available option (not enough midwives to have a home birth in this area).
How I got labor going:
Thanks to a fb friend I found out about black cohosh and used it to kick start labor.
It started for sure at 4:30 Saturday morning. After only 4 hrs of interrupted sleep (about every 1/2 hr I was woken by pain) I couldn't sleep anymore, contractions were 30 min apart.
I did some walking, ate some toast, still thinking it might be prep not active labor I had a shower to see if it would pause it and let me sleep. No such luck. Contractions were now 20 min apart lasting 40 seconds. It was 8:00 am.
At 12 contractions were 10-13 min apart lasting 1 min. At this point I thought ok. This isn't prep, this is the real deal.
I couldn't get comfortable, didn't matter what I did, lying down - in any position wasn't comfortable at any time, walking was ok in between but not ok during. The birthing ball helped for a bit but eventually the only place providing relief besides the shower (couldn't stay in there forever) was the toilet. Good thing too, at 4:30 pm I ran to the bathroom at the start of a contraction (5-8 min apart lasting 1 min) and felt the urge to go poop and POP my water broke and it even splashed from the toilet to my legs & floor. The color was clear with white stuff in it. Perfect color :)
Soon after that the pool was ready. This is where I just chilled. My contractions stayed around 5 min apart lasting from 1 to 2 min (near the end). That pool was my haven, when I felt the urge to push and could feel his head I was so surprised THIS WAS GOING WAY FASTER THEN I THOUGHT! I wasn't even in that much pain and it wasn't unbearable!
Thus began the slow work of stretching my perineum. I knew I didn't want to rush this if I would, I would tear bad. I had only done the stretches with evening primrose oil once (noted for next time).
I'm thinking I did this for a half hour, I pulled him straight out of the water, he cried almost instantly and it was the best moment EVER! Abe behind me with tears in his eyes helps wash him off, we waited until the cord stopped pulsing and he clamped and cut the cord.
I delivered the placenta (after waiting for the gush of blood to signal detachment from the uterus). It was beautiful and whole. Then I drank a ton of raw lemon juice to prevent too much bleeding.
I was able to breast feed Colby for a half hour and then he stayed up for hours. It was the best time.
The next day:
Due to pressure from family members Abe called in and let them know what happened and it being a Sunday, got us to go to the ER and get checked out. Just our luck we got an ass hat of a doctor. Admitted Colby for low blood sugar (2.6) which is the low side of normal after he hadn't eaten much in the last few hours because he was being entertained by adoring family members... This began our stay in hell. I got only 1 hr of sleep. The wards blood sugar testers weren't working so every time before I fed him they pricked his heal and had to squeeze out a vial tiny vial of blood, I cried every time because it was all unnecessary. Even the ward doc was good with how Colby was doing. Said we would see my family doc in the morning (which was my plan to see her as soon as possible, had an appointment booked for the 11th just in case). Well my awesome doc discharged us because his levels were normal through the night.
The ass hat had written we had come in worried about him being tired and lethargic. Out right lies. He will never be seen by me or my son and he only told us his first name. He put us through hell to prove his point which apparently was home births were dangerous and I could have killed my baby. Ignorant jackass ass hat. All the other doctors and nurses treated us great and were happy with how both of us were doing.
Things I regret:
Not waiting one day to see my family doc
Not taking the newborn blood sugar to shove in the asshole doctors face.
Not doing my research on newborn blood sugar levels so when the doctor wanted to keep us for an blood sugar that was end of the normal spectrum after not eating good during the last few hours (due to visitors and cutting his feeding to come in) that I could have said no with an educated reason and not have put all of us through that horrible night at the hospital.
Notes for next time:
Do perineum stretching.
If everything goes well with pregnancy/cf do the exact effin thing (and take blood sugar).
I trust my body & baby/cf monitoring way more then a chained to the bed hospital birth.
