Pauline is a woman I respect and admire. She's a beautiful African-American woman, DONA-trained doula, and mother of six children. When I am around her, she radiates kindness, peace, and inner strength.
Pauline's birth stories include two medicated hospital births, an emergency c-section, a planned c-section, a VBAC at home attended by a midwife, and a home-birth without medical caregivers assisted by her own family. She's amazing! She recently sent me her unassisted home-birth story so I could include it here:
"On February 27th, at 41 weeks and six days, I started having some contractions around 4 PM. I'd been having them on and off for days so didn't think too much of it. At around 6 PM, they hadn't stopped, and I noticed that I'd also developed a leak. I went along as usual, and the contractions started to pick up. I had my husband fill the pool in the hope that I might have the baby faster than my last or at least have some pain relief as things got more difficult.
While in the pool around 10 PM, I got a big gush of fluid. I have several more gushes over the next few hours. One caused my oldest child to stay away. (He thought I peed myself, LOL!) I labored all night and through the morning until about 11 AM. At this point, my contractions slowly tapered off and spaced to about 20 minutes apart after a couple hours.
I stalled in my last labor at around this time, so I thought it was just normal for me. After about 4 hours with no progress, I did ask my husband to have a quick feel to see if I had made any progress at all--and I had. I started to wonder after about 5 hours, so I called a couple friends and got online. After a while, I realized I wasn't sure I wanted transition to come. I'd had some worries about how things happened in my last labor. I was worried about the pain as well as the lack of an urge to push. Although I thought I'd put these feelings aside, they were still there. I asked my friend her opinion and she was blunt and honest. Her words were what got me through the hardest part of my labor.
She told me I needed to decide now if I wanted another major surgery (i.e. c-section) or if I could put my fears aside and allow my body to do what it needed to do. My contractions were back before our conversation ended. I knew the hospital was not the place for me, but if I didn't allow my body to continue, that is exactly where I was going to end up.
My labor was back in full force by 8:30 PM. I labored on --with a little help from Bob Marley's music-- without too much problem until around 9 PM when I got this pain. It wasn't like any others adn didn't come with every contraction at first. I knew I was well into transition because this was the exact way things happened when I had my last homebirth. I was still hoping to get the urge to push, so I did what I could to get through them.
Soon it became apparent that I was losing control. I screamed, begged and prayed for this pain to stop! It's odd; this kind of pain for me is like the urge to push. Once I literally couldn't get through them, I knew I had to push, and my baby was born in less than 15 minutes at 10:32 PM on February 28th--his brother's birthday!
I pushed in my bed, which is new for me. I was able to guide his head out by using small pushes with no tearing and hardly any hint of the ring of fire, but my husband caught. I don't think I've ever seen him more proud of himself. All in all, it was a great birth, and I'm so happy that my little one is here now. My oldest son (age 10) cut the cord. He was a little nervous and worried about hurting the baby at first, but he did a great job! My seven-year-old daughter clamped it; my husband coached her through. My two-year-old was the best little labor partner. He kept me laughing during times when I didn't think I could! My eight-year-old slept through the birth she tried so hard to see. She's quite the little midwife already. She was up with me half the night doing anything I asked from pouring water on my tummy to passing me drinks without so much as a word.
After things settled, we got the new baby weighed and checked his length. He weighs 9 pounds, 2 ounces, and is 22 inches long. He's my largest baby. He's nursing well so far and is quite a demanding little guy!"
Thank you for sharing your story, Pauline. It is such a blessing to me. I know it will encourage and empower many other mothers, too! <3
