A Long-Overdue Birth Story

**I wrote this well over a year ago, but life with a newborn and a one-year-old got crazy for a while there.  Here it is, now.**

I gave birth to another beautiful child.  A nine pound, thirteen ounce child.  Seriously.  It kind of makes me sad that having a nearly ten pound child naturally is rare these days.  But it also sort of makes me feel like a superwoman.


Billions of women have given birth billions of times throughout history, and yet, somehow, it's still amazing every time.  Mothers hold their babies for the first time and cry, and laugh, and can hardly breathe.  They feel joy, and relief, and fear, and pain.  And oh! how wonderful the miracle of life!

I woke with labor contractions at 6 AM the day after my due date.  They were welcome and met me where I was.  Where was I?  Afraid, impatient, exhausted, disappointed after the year I had had and after women around me gave birth before I did.  My body virtually never stopped hurting since the month that I conceived.  So as I took each contraction by the hand and asked it to enter and do its work, I was glad and assured.

My doctor had said, "Don't come to the hospital until you begin to hate Matt every few minutes."  I love my doctor.  He had encouraged me with every visit of this easy (though painful) pregnancy that I would do fine, and that things looked good--we seemed to be beating the high-risk odds.  I had never felt a contraction until I was about 6 cm dilated in my last pregnancy and had never even considered hating Matt during that labor.  But, I took what he said into consideration and as I got some last-minute things ready, I learned some interesting tidbits about myself during the more intense contractions.  I knew almost instinctively that this was the day, that things would go smoothly, and that it would happen quickly.  And I wouldn't hate Matt through any of this.

At the hospital, around noon, the nurse discussed a few things with me and said, "We want you to deliver about five o'clock."  I nodded my head, but inside, I laughed.  A lot.  Did she, a labor and delivery nurse, really think that I was going to cross my legs for the next four centimeters and ask my child to wait?  I already knew then that baby girl was going to be here way before five o'clock.

I settled onto my bed, sitting up, and got busy with labor.  I was so in touch with my body that it was incredible.  I felt my daughter moving down, turning into position as she went, felt the remaining pressure at the end of one contraction that ruptured my membranes, and felt the intensity of each wave as I kept my rhythm through each contraction.  You should know that HypnoBirthing is bomb dot com.    It made my labor easy and I know how easy because I've experienced what happened when I lost my rhythm. When I tried imagery, positions, or thoughts that didn't work for me and that I had not practiced, I did not handle things well.  The nurses and doctor talked about how amazing it was that I could breathe quietly through my whole labor.  I love to talk about how fearless and beautiful labor can be if you work out a method personalized to you.

My outstanding husband knew and met my every need.  It went so quickly there was hardly time to get discouraged, but when I did, he knew it and he silently bore back to me the strength to carry on. When things got more intense, the nurse (who really was great) told me I could have an epidural if I wanted.  I almost laughed, thinking, "Don't you realize this child will be born in the next ten minutes?!  You wouldn't even have time to make the call to the anesthetist!"

Twenty minutes later,  (about 3 hours after arriving at the hospital) I gave a few pushes and there she was!  And she had a lot to say about it! Relief like I've never felt flooded through my body and this child I'd thought many, many things about, every day for the last nine months, was at last breathing air and cuddled in my arms.  I had that flood of love you hear about come over me and I'm not sure how I wasn't overcome by it all.

She has her own little personality and she whimpers like a little puppy when she's not happy.  She has brought us so much joy and has filled a hole in my heart that I didn't even know existed.  God knew what He was doing when he gave her to us. (I, on the other hand, had absolutely no clue and thought He must've finally cracked!) But how thankful I am for this little life that has blessed ours with hers!