I’d like to encourage some mamas with my positive, natural birth experience.

Let me tell you how I did it: hypnobirthing!

If you have no idea what that is (like I didn’t) just look it up on youtube and google.

- I should point out that I have absolutely nothing against epidurals or any drugs, and I always considered having them should I felt like it was necessary. The only reason why I thought about going drug free was because hypno birthing inspired me to embrace labor and birth as a wonderful experience. It taught me to believe that my body is made for this and that my birth experience is directly associated with how my mind deals with my expectations. I know it sounds very hippie and I am not like that at all, but it was the first time that I saw women portray birth as something that doesn’t have to be terrifying and absolutely horrible. So I wanted to give it a try.

* Interesting side note: my baby decided to breech on week 36 and I had to schedule a c-section for the 39th week. Funny enough, when I went in for the pre-op at 38w5d, I found out he had turned and was HEAD DOWN. So I waited to go into labor. My due date was on December 9th.

——> Monday morning

(December 10th) I woke up with mild contractions. Started timing them, 5 mins apart. Called the hospital and they told me to come in. I get there, only 1cm dilated, they sent me back home. I labored at home for the whole following day and night, contractions were consistent between 5-8 mins. The whole time I was very focused on breathing through the contractions. I was not able to fully sleep that night because contractions kept waking me up.

—-> Tuesday morning (December 11th), I had my weekly obgyn appointment. Contractions still every 5 mins, they checked me, only 2cm dilated. My plug came out. Went back home.

By 7pm I was really tired due to the lack of sleep and my contractions had gotten much stronger and were coming every 2-4 mins. So I got ready and headed to the hospital again. Got there and they checked me, I was 3cm dilated.

The midwife said that I needed to be 4cm to be admitted, so she allowed me to walk around the halls in the hospital to try to get things going.

I walked and did SQUATS for the whole hour I was on those halls, and God be praised, I dilated to a 4cm.

Was admitted to the hospital at 11pm.

Contractions were pretty strong and I started laboring on the bath tub. Since I’m not a big fan of hospitals, I tried my best to make it a comfortable environment for me.

So I had calm music on a bluetooth speaker, lavender scent on an oil difuser, low lights on the room and I kept a positive mindset through the entire time. I was not focusing on the pain of the contractions, but rather facing it like I was getting closer and closer to meeting my baby.

* 02:00am MY WATER BREAKS. Within minutes, my contractions were way stronger and coming every 2 mins almost to the dot.

From that point on, I put myself on a bubble.

I knew that I had to listen to my body, so I closed my eyes and only focused on breathing, nothing else. I didn’t talk to anyone unless I absolutely had to. My husband prepared for hypnobirthing with me, so he knew to support me in whichever way I needed, whether it was cheering me on or simply holding my hand in silence. He was by my side the whole time and I couldn’t have done it without him.

So at around 3:30am I started to feel the urge to push, so I got off the bath tub and somehow, made it to the bed. I felt delirious when the contractions came, because they were really intense. Midwife checked me, 9cm dilated. I didn’t see how many nurses were in the room, but I could tell there were a lot because it got noisy and that was bothering me, so I told my husband to quiet down the room and that I only wanted to hear the midwife’s voice. The room became quiet and I was able to focus better on breathing.

Then the midwife said it was time to start pushing. She was on board with my choice of a natural delivery, so she followed my wishes and didn’t keep yelling at me to push (like in the movies), she simply allowed me to listen to my body and push when I felt the urge to do it.

It was intense and definitely painful but I kept telling myself over and over that I could do it.

Pushed for about an hour and a half (which sounds like a really long time, but in reality I didn’t even know how much time had gone by because in between contractions my body basically shut down so that I could have the energy to push in the next contractions, and so I lost track of time).

Close to the end, I felt like I wanted to give up because of the pain and because I was having trouble concentrating, but the midwife encouraged me telling me that I was really close and that I could do it.

So I kept going!

❤️ At 05:02am, On December 12th, my little man was born, 6lb 8oz, 21.5inches!! ❤️

As soon as he was out THE PAIN WAS GONE, just like that!

I did have a 1st degree tear, but I wouldn’t even know it if the midwife hadn’t told me. Got a couple of stiches that didn’t hurt, just felt like light tugging. Those healed super fast, like 2 weeks later I didn’t even feel like I had given birth.

Apparently natural births are way harder for 1st time moms because of how long labor can take.

But if that’s something you feel you’d like to try, you can definitely do it!

I wasn’t sore or in pain right after I gave birth or in the following days. I was discharged 24hs after my baby was born and I had an easy and speedy recovery 🙏🏼

I enjoy looking back at my labor and delivery and I don’t feel scared about having another baby naturally. It was emotionally tiring, but so worth it.

Oh yeah, and what they say is true, NOTHING COMPARES to the feeling of holding your baby in your arms ❤️

Thanks for reading!