Having a home birth was something that was very important to me. When I found out I was pregnant, I knew that the most important moment of my life would have to take place in my element where I was comfortable. -Where I could be in my own atmosphere. I have always hated hospitals and modern medicine. medicine should be natural and directly from the earth. Synthetic drugs haven't been around long enough for us to see the full effects yet.
The woman's body is made to feel and handle birth. I am a true lover of psychedelics and the psychedellic state that a woman's body goes through while giving birth is like no other. I wanted to experience this. epidural smepidural.
Labor came on early tuesday morning, nov. 14. I awoke with what felt like some intense gas. (hey, i'm tellin it like it is) It passed and I was like, sweet. I still had 2 weeks left until my due date so I wasn't expecting real contractions. I told myself it was the cheese I ate the night before.
10 minutes later.... the same bloating gassy feeling. hmmm. I tried to go back to sleep. This went on all day. Not extrememly painful, just uncomfortable. Like a crampy period. By that evening, I started to think, "I could have a little baby soon... nah, this isn't happening until Dec. 1st." Then I realized that there were only 5 minutes between the "cramps". uh oh. I began to get a little iritable. I wasn't ready. I wanted 2 more weeks! My house wasn't ready. We had just moved in. Our buddy was couch surfin in our living room that night. i wondered if he would stick around or not. I called my midwife to tell her what was up but to also tell her that I wanted to chill for the rest of the night and I'd call her if things really started to get serious. I got about 4 hours of sleep that night. How could I sleep? I was so exited and curious. I awoke the next morning with the same cramps. They were 45 seconds long and still 5 minutes apart, getting a little more intenese every time. At 10:00 AM, I called my doula. Now they were starting to hurt. I could still talk through them but I knew they were way too regular to be cramps from cheese. My doula was amazing. I suggest any woman who is pregnant to have a doula weather your having your baby in the hospital or at home. Doulas are a birthing mom's personal attendant. Midwives and doctors are there to moniter and make sure everything is going right and that mama and baby are healthy. Doulas are there to comfort you. When my doula, Jess, came over, we went on a 45 minute walk which really helped get my mind off the pain of the contractions. It's good to have someone to gossip and chat with during prelabor. Every once in a while i'd kneel down on the side of the road to get through a contraction. When we got back home, Jess gave me acupressure to get labor going. She could tell it was time. It wasn't until this time that I finnally accepted that this was it. My partner Phill filled my birth tub with warm water while Jess gave me a massage. My midife Caroline arrived to see how far dialated I was and was pleased to announce i was already at 4 centimeters. I was relieved. That was good progress. Time didn't exist any more but I could tell it was late afternoon by the position of the sun. Phil was wonderful through the whole thing. -Supporting all my weight in his arms while I rocked though contraction after contraction. I was getting exausted. We decided it was time to get into the tub. Even if you don't want to have a water birth, having a warm tub of water to soak in is a definate must for natural pain relief during labor. I just bought a 20 in. deep inflatable kiddie pool off the internet. Everything about it was great except that it ended up puncturing 40 minutes before my baby arrived. We were in such a rush to get the birth room ready that we didn't sweep the floor before we put the tub down and a staple poked through the floor and water started leaking all over. Thank god for the shop vac. Total buzz kill but I think the incident acutally got labor moving along faster. The warm water is sooo comforting but It does make contractions slow down. It's a good way to let the mama rest if she's getting tired. By now, my other midwife, Nicole had arrived so luckily there were 4 poeple in the house to handle the tub situation while I got out and went to the bedroom. Contractions were excruciating. I'd experienced more intense pain before but not in such repeditive strides. They just kept coming with no breaks. They were about one minute apart and 3 minutes long. I remembered to voice my pain in long, low, deep moans instead of fast high pitched screams. This helped alot. Deep, full breaths in, long low exhales. I was also one of those mamas who sings in labor. I had all my favorite music on shuffle and sang my way through alot of the contractions. It's good to have familiar music playing during labor. It's another way to occupy your mind. After I had been out of the tub for about 10 minutes, I knew that baby was almost here. I could feel his head inside me. I decided to squat at the edge of my bed. This is how the Lakota women gave birth according to a book I read called Water Lilly. Caroline on one side of me, tracking the heartbeats of me and the babe, Phil on the other rubbing my back, Jess in front of me holding my hands and Nicole next to her monitoring everything. Time to push. Pushing is the hardest, and most painful part. I wasn't afraid to give it all my strentgh. Caroline put a warm cloth soaked in garlic and sitz bath on my parineum to prevent taring. The garlic causes the blood to rush to the treated area making the tissue streatch easier. The sitz is a natural pain relief treatmemt. 3 pushes and a lot of screams later, little Solas finally crowned.(by now, I was like "fuck the low chakra tones, I'll scream how ever I want to). I was lucky. I only had to push for 20 minutes. Before I knew it, a wiggley, slippery little babe was in my arms.
My sweet baby was here. 6lb 8z. 19 in. blonde hair, blue eyes, papas nose and hair line, my mouth and chin. Solas Koupal O'connor. My little man. Born at 10:30 PM, Wednesday night, Nov. 15.