Birth Stories

   Here's a place for birth stories- mine, my clients (privacy protected) and any you would like to share! I have had 3 pregnancies and 4 births ;), these are my birth stories.

   Baby Girl 1 was a hospital/OB birth, episiotomy, trouble breastfeeding. She was (is) beautiful and amazing, but the episiotomy was brutal to recover from and breastfeeding went less than ideally- initially. My sheer pig-headness kept me nursing through poor latch, bloody nipples, colic and engorgement. Eventually, we found our way and she self-weaned at 3. However, lactation support- especially early on- was very hard to come by. Her birth and breast feeding led me to explore other options for my next birth and to begin seriously thinking of ways to help other moms avoid the nursing problems that we faced.

   Baby Girl 2 was also a hospital birth but with midwives...and a doula. She taught me to respect that babies come when babies are ready. I tried, unsuccessfully, a variety of unpleasant "natural" ways to speed the arrival of labor. Her birth was very quick- as second babes often are- I went into labor around 9:30pm and she was in my arms by 11:47pm. Her birth was unmedicated, uncut and empowering. Thanks to all her sister had taught me, breastfeeding was never an issue and she self weaned around two.

   Baby Boy 1 and Baby Girl 3 were supposed to be Baby 3 at home. However, at about 33 weeks, I began measuring high for my dates and my fantastic midwife sent me for the first ultrasound of that pregnancy and I found out I was having twins. The downside was that I couldn't have them at home due to Florida law- I wasn't going to let my midwife risk losing her license to catch them but she did become my doula. They were born at almost 36 weeks via piticon induction due to "high blood pressure". I wish I knew then what I know now; I would have declined that intervention. The twins were born naturally, caught by a midwife, and both perfectly healthy. The labor was brutal thanks to piticon,  the epidural made pushing an impossible feat and my back hurt at the injection site for months. Breastfeeding went fine for baby Boy, but baby Girl was taken to the nursery "to be warmed up" (again, to have my current knowledge!) and she was given- against my written requests- a bottle of sugar water. After that bottle, she had a hard time getting the hang of nursing again- even though she had been nursing just fine before the staff gave her the bottle, but eventually she did relearn it. They self weaned at about two and a half.

How about your story?