“Unmediated”- continued.

My steps on how I managed a natural unmediated birth!

Some people call me crazy, almost every person I talk to doesn’t even understand how I did it.

Let me answer some of the questions I receive on a daily.

Yes I feel pain!!!

No I’m not completely crazy!

And lastly,

The only person I was trying to prove to was my self! (And all the people who didn’t think I could handle it)

In my respective point of view was that having a natural unmediated birth, is something you have to be passionate about to be able to continue with it. Along with that I started to become educated with the idea of a natural birth. I invested my time with mental technics to be able to focus the pain I was about to encounter.

My first step!

I came to realization that the pain wasn’t anything I’d ever felt before! To me I trained to believe it was all mental. That if I wasn’t in pain my baby wasn’t coming. Though being in tune with my body I learned to relax myself in numerous ways to deal with the pain. I studied up on hypno-birthing, which is a process that includes meditation , special breathing, and visualization.

While studying hypno-birthing I came to a better understanding of how labor works. Everyone from your mom to the old lady down the street wants to tell you about how terrible and painful child birth is. They give the younger generation fear of having a natural birth because we are scared of the painful horror stories we were told. Whether they were trying to scare us from pushing out a full grown watermelon or they were right it definitely made this generation want to take ahold of the epidural.

My second step!

Some people will say when you have a back up plan that’s when you fail. I for sure knew that the epidural was not on the table for me or should I say puncturing me in my back. Then you got some old folks sharing graphic stories on how the epidural needle is a footlong and is stabbed in your spine. Not only that they said if you moved a tad bit you could become paralyzed!

THAT’S FALSE!!!!!

A local anesthetic is used to numb a small area on your back. The epidural needle is then inserted into the numb area on the lower back. After that a small tube or catheter is threaded through the needle and into the epidural space.

Sounds actually effortless and no one should be scared about getting a epidural. However in this case I wasn’t gonna try it out for myself to find out if it was actually effortless.

My third step!

Stick with your birth plan even when you think you can’t take it anymore. The pain comes in waves, its not constant. Many people have that idea that the pain is invigorating throughout the whole experience. It’s not ladies, it comes in contractions that rise, hit a peak and falls. The peak is less than 10 seconds and it’s over. While I was knee deep into my contractions I was speaking out loud saying.

“My body was made for this.”

This statement helped me push through because I knew having a natural birth wasn’t impossible. I knew it COULD be done!!!

My fourth step!

Gravity was doing the works for me because I was walking up and down the hall ways. The only time I was laying in the bed was when the nurses had to check to see if Paighton’s heart rate was on track. I walked through all of my contractions than when I started to get tired I began to slow dance with Peyton. I never stopped moving because I knew it was helping paighton get into position to meet this new world. At times it was tough but not once did I think I wasn’t able to accomplish my goal. I had peyton by my side throughout the whole thing and I knew I had the confidence.

The last step!

When it comes to pushing, just know that you are moments away from meeting your baby!

When I put my legs in the stirrups I felt no pain. It’s like everything just became calm, the moments leading up to paightons birth was all in slow motion.

Push through the pain, you will feel a burning sensation but it’s nothing like it’s portrayed to be. Once you start to feel the “ring of fire” that’s when you know your babies head is near. Remember to keep low tones and not to scream. Screaming will just lose your focus and the pain won’t disappear as you would like. My nurse told me that during labor pain if you rub the inner corner of your thumb, that’s a pressure point to relieve pain. I can say from experience that it helped more than I thought it would.

The step for your significant other!

In this process be encouraging, and don’t be scared. At this moment you have to realize that you will see your loved one in the most pain she has ever felt. The vibes you send off will do a lot for her during this process. I can’t explain enough on how supportive you have to be. During the whole time I was slow dancing, Peyton was whispering in my ear explaining how great of a mother I was gonna be. He told me how proud he was that I’ve been pushing through. Every word that came out of his mouth was something positive and kept me driven. Having supportive people in your room is the best thing.

Side note: ladies don’t get scared when people say that first time labors last longer. Mine only lasted less than 6 hrs! It’s just how your body works will predict the time you stay in labor!