Madelaine's Birth Story

My water broke at about 3:30 AM on July 23 and because I have certain medical problems I was told to head for the hospital as soon as I took a shower. We arrived at the hospital at about 4:30 AM with mild contractions that were about five minutes apart. Eventually they stopped all together and I was threatened with Pitocin if I hadn't progressed by three in the afternoon. After two horrible labors with my other children, I knew that I didn't want anything but totally natural childbirth unless medically necessary, and I don't believe that just because I'm taking a little bit longer to give birth that it's justified to speed things up with drugs.

My midwife showed up (thank God!) and told the doctor that we wanted to take things at my own pace and suggested that I try nipple stimulation since that releases oxytocin and causes contractions. Boy, did it work! My contractions kicked in at about 2 PM and I was two centimeters and about 80 percent at the time. I used the relaxation that I was taught at my Bradley classes (which worked so well I couldn't believe it) and everything was going pretty smoothly.

My midwife kept leaving the room and I couldn't figure out why and later she told me it was because my husband and I were so in-tune with each other and he was helping me so much that she felt like she was in someone's bedroom while they were being intimate! I took a shower which helped tremendously. That got me back on track once I started to lose control in transition. My husband jumped in with me, shorts and all and the skin-to-skin contact of laying my face against his chest during contractions really helped.

By 8:10 PM, I was complete and ready to push. I began to push standing up and my baby almost crowned after one push and all of a sudden I was so exhausted that I couldn't go on standing, so I got into bed and Madelaine Baylee was born at 8:16 PM totally naturally. She was six pounds, 12 ounces and 19½" long. Because we had the lights dimmed in the birthing room, she had her eyes wide open from the moment she came out. About five minutes later, our other children (ages four and five) came in and we said a prayer and sang Happy Birthday to Maddy. It truly was a beautiful birth!