My Natural Birth of Owen Joshua - Part 1

I've fallen in love all over again. I gave birth to my handsome prince, Owen Joshua, on Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 at 12:30 a.m. He weighed 8 lbs 3 oz. and was 21 inches long. He was born with a head full of medium brown hair and the cutest chubby cheeks ever seen. I had him completely natural and it was, without a doubt, the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life. I've had a few people ask about why natural and how things went so I decided to explain in detail my natural birth of Owen Joshua.

When I gave birth to Jozlyn and Haylie Jo, I did the very minimum of preparing for labor. I focused more on what would happen after I had them, the feeding, diaper changing and such. I thought I couldn't handle a natural birth and decided an epidural was right for me. Everyone I knew had epidurals and seemed to have wonderful labor experiences. So, I had epidurals. I laid in bed the entire time, numb from the mid-back down and needed a catheter and internal monitor for the baby's heartbeat. My labor slowed so they gave me pitocin to speed things up, which made contractions more painful which made me need more epidural. Baby's heart rate would drop with every contraction so I was put on oxygen. With both of them I could talk and laugh my way through labor not feeling a thing. They were both born with complications and have turned out to be happy and healthy girls.

With preparation for little Owen, I was the complete opposite of when I was pregnant with the girls. I spent hours looking at pregnancy information and signed up for an application on my iPod called Babybump. In that app, there are forums where you can post questions or discuss pregnancy information. I went into the natural birth forum and found so many women preparing themselves for labor. Someone suggested watching 2 documentaries, The Business of Being Born and Pregnant in America. Pregnant in America was pretty biased but I loved The Business of Being Born. It was explained how one medical intervention lead to a cascade of medical interventions that all increased the likelihood of needing a cesarean section. I went to the public library and checked out a book by Ina May Gaskin, who is a certified nurse midwife interviewed in the documentary. It was called Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. The first half of the book was birth stories of women who went to Ina May, the second half was information about natural labor. She explained things like proper breathing, different laboring positions, and how to let gravity do most of the work. She also explained the benefits for the baby during natural birth. I won't go into too much detail here but babies born naturally have better heart rates during labor are born more alert and take to breastfeeding usually right away. I would suggest looking at both documentaries and the book for more information.

I decided that giving birth naturally would benefit baby and me. I would bond with him during labor and be able to fully bond with him right after he was born. The pain and hardship I would feel would be symbolic of the way I would mother him; sacrificing all that I had for his health and happiness. I started to gear up for natural labor. I made a relaxation playlist on my ipod, I practiced breathing techniques (having so much false labor gave me good practice here), and I made a list of aides I could ask for at the hospital. I chose to deliver at EIRMC and toured their new Women's Center. If going natural, you are able to move around as you please. You can walk halls, take a shower, use a birthing ball (which is basically an exercise ball), and ask for a push bar (I'm not sure if that is what they are actually called but they know what you mean when you ask for it). FYI, a push bar is a bar that goes over the bed that you can hang on, push or pull against, and any other acrobatic things that might help you. They will monitor baby's heart rate for 5 minutes every half hour or so. I felt as ready as I could ever be for the birth of my little boy.