GregoryBrand.com

I’ve been reading a lot of birth stories recently, as I’ve been doing my homework for my Doula Certification (I’m going to be a doula – did you know that?).  Anyway, this one story brought a wave of memories back from my own birth experience, just over 8 months ago.  These are a few I didn’t share in the birth story I first posted on this site.

I’ll share them with you after the jump…

This woman was progressing through a natural labor and she writes that she was almost positive she was going to die and I had to laugh out loud because I remembered feeling the same way.   What Greg saw was me passing out between contractions… literally.  My eyes rolled up into my head and everything, he says.  When I was “asleep” those few seconds between contractions, I was thinking to myself “I’m dying.  I will be one of those women who die during labor.  I can should say goodbye to Greg.”  But then another contraction would come on and the nurse would bring me back to reality saying “PUSHPUSHPUSHPUSHPUSHPUSH!!” And I would hear everyone in the room (because there were quite a few people in the room at this point) would go “THEREYOUGOKEEPPUSHING!” and then “Oooooohhh” in a sigh of dissapointment.  I could piece it together that Lloyd was peaking out further and further with those pushes, but then sucking back in after the contraction ended.   Man what a bummer.  

Anyway, the end of the story is obviously that I didn’t die and Lloyd was born.    The birth story I read also mentioned the most amazing thing about a natural childbirth: the hormonal rush you experience afterwards.  One of the major downsides of pain medication during labor, as I’ve recently read, is that it actually interferes with your oxytocin hormone release post-birth.  What this mother and I were lucky enough to experience after birthing our babies was this crazy wave of energy and lovelovelove.  I had thought I was going to be crazy protective of the baby after I birthed him and wasn’t going to let anyone touch him for several months… that didn’t come until later.  In the hours following labor I couldn’t have been proudcr and I wanted everyone to marvel at him.  Greg passed out after a couple of hours once everything was settled: I couldn’t.   Lloyd was born at 6:04am and by about 10pm I eventually asked the nurse for a sleeping pill because I had been way too excited to even nap at all the entire day.   I could have moved mountains.  I could have carried Greg, Lloyd, and the car home.  It was a miraculous experience and I hope, as a doula, I can guide some other mothers through it.