Beautiful Births #4 - Samantha's Hospital Birth with Epidural

I love reading birth stories! After sharing my own two very different birth experiences [emergency c-section and natural VBAC] I decided to ask other mums and dads to share their wonderful birth stories with me too. I’m absolutely delighted that so many people want to share with me! If you’d like to share your birth story, send me an email or get in touch via Twitter or Facebook.

This week Samantha from Bohemian Mummy is sharing her beautiful birth story as a first-time mum planning for a natural birth.

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How old are you? I’m 30, and April was born when I was 25
Is this your first baby? Yes she was, so it was specially exciting yet very overwhelming and scary as she was a surprise baby
Was your baby early, overdue, or right on time?   She was born when I was 40 weeks and 4 days
What type of birth did you have? I had chosen an au natural birth with as little medical involvement as possible, but as it happens sometimes it was not all possible. She was a natural birth but they did give me some epidural (10 minutes before she actually arrived). My legs were numb for ages afterwards and I had to be dragged to the loo as my legs would not cooperate for me to walk there!
Did you use pain relief? I was 8cm dilated before I decided to go to the hospital, the only pain relief I had was breathing and relaxation techniques until they decided I needed the epidural (there was a complication and one of my contractions would not ease, I was about to faint and felt nauseous and she was getting distressed). The midwife was with two assistants, a funny story was that one of the nurses started to feel queasy and almost fainted. When I asked if she was ok she felt very embarrassed and ran off. When she came back she was adorable and she said something I will never forget: “Thank you for allowing me to be part of this special time, It has been magical and you did amazing" she had tears in her eyes… it was a student hospital where they did their training, turns out it was her first birth.
What did your baby weigh? We expected her to be a huge baby! just because the size of my tummy was THAT big! but in reality she was 3kg 600 grams which is pretty average for a healthy newborn.
Did you have a boy or a girl?  We had a beautiful baby girl despite everyone’s predictions of a boy, and my mother-in-law being extremely sure that no matter what the scans showed April was definitely a boy! She came to the world in a "super girl" position: fist first, true girl power.
Was it straightforward or were there any complications? The only complication was that one of my contractions would not ease , I was about to faint and felt nauseous and she was getting distressed, so they had to break the sack and gave me an epidural. If I have another child I would love to have a water birth with a doula and have no medical intervention if possible.

Tell me your beautiful birth story…

This was my first pregnancy to term, despite all the fear and insecurities I carried during pregnancy. It was a very lonely time in my life, we had to move to the UK after the recession hit Spain hard. My partner Jay worked very long hours and we lived far away from his job at my cousin's Ross apartment while he was away for work (forever grateful). I was away from all my friends and most of my family and I didn't have a clue of what to expect. I spent hour online watching birth videos (worst thing to do!) and read up all the books and blogs I could find.
 
When I was 6 months pregnant I decided I really wanted to be closer to my family and friends and we went temporarily back to Madrid and chose to give birth there, I do not regret the decision.
 
I woke at around 5 am and instantly knew I was in labour, surprisingly I was very chilled and looked forward to holding our little girl soon. I rang my partner who was on his way to a tattoo convention and luckily got hold of him just as the bus had started to pull away, by the time he got home I had showered, had breakfast and was chatting away to a friend on Facebook.
 
At 8-9am I called my parents who drove us to hospital where they confirmed I was in labour and already 8 cm dilated. I was very upset when a nurse put her hand in me and turned April’s head I’m assuming to speed the process (I do not agree with this practice and I had made that clear in my birth plan that I had given them months before). I started to bleed a little and a few minutes after I felt extremely nauseous and about to faint, cold sweats and all. 
 
The hospital staff came to check on me and decided they needed to break the sack and gave me an epidural.They had estimated I’d start to push in an hour or so and asked me to do a test push and in that moment realised there was no time to wait as she was ready to meet us!
 
The lovely midwife, who turned to be the older sister of a college friend, asked me if I wanted to feel April's hair. I refused at first and as soon as she left the room I changed my mind and it was amazing. They even placed a mirror so I could see and I was more excited and mesmerised than in pain, though I did break a few molars I did not scream. Jay was incredibly supportive and found it all very interesting specially the minute her head came out.
 
I was allowed to help her come out and placed her on my chest, the sensation was indescribable. I never felt such joy, she had her first feed and perfect latch and that moment all my doubts, insecurities dispersed. I was her mum and felt absolutely in control, finally it all was as it should be and we became a Family.
 
I can't wait to do it all again… broody much?
 
I am feeling broody too after reading that! Simply lovely. I wish I had reached down to feel my baby’s hair during the birth, it’s one of the things I regret not doing. Thank you for sharing your beautiful birth story with me, Samantha!


You can read more beautiful birth stories here.


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1 comment

  1. For a long time I couldn't read birth stories as my last one was really tricky but I've just about started to be able to realise that some births really can be beautuful again.

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