First time mom, birthing at birth center.No meds or tearing!!

Before I tell my birth story I want to make it clear I'm not saying the way I had my baby is the way for everyone. Everyone has a journey as a mommy and all of our birth stories are amazing because in the end we deliver our beautiful babies. So that being said, I hope this story encourages any mommies who are thinking about doing a birth without any meds to know they CAN do it and so much of it is in our heads and changing the way we think of birth. We see movies and tv shows showing these poor woman screaming in pain and we hear horror stories from friends and family. But we dont have to think of birth like that, think of it like a marathon, it's going to be physically exhausting and you been training for this, thier may be pain and sweat but at the finish line theres something way better then a trophy, a precious baby.

With a program called gentle birth which uses meditation and looking at birth in a different way and the assistance of a doula, my amazing boyfriend and a midwife birth team we brought little Piper Felicity into the world on April 26th at 838am. She weighed 8lbs 2oz and 21inchs. Ok, now the details:

On Thursday April 25th I had my 39 week appointment with my midwife in the afternoon but at 5am my water broke. At first I thought I sat up too fast or something and wet the bed. It wasn't alot at first so I cleaned up went pee then back to bed. I started talking to my boyfriend about what the heck just happened then I sat up and a Ton of fluid came out, there was no denying it our little girl was coming sooner then later. We text the doula and called the midwife. I knew the next step was to labor at home for as long as possible. The surges (contractions) were very light and 20 minutes apart at first. I went about my day like normal, took a nap too. As the evening came they came closer together and more intense. Still I knew it wasn't time yet. My mom came over around dinner time to watch my two adopted daughters. After the girls went to bed the surges really picked up and I was sooo tired with no real break in between.My boyfriend helped by using a app called full term and count down the surges , telling me when I was at the half way point and almost done, this was a Huge help made it feel like I could get through each one. We called the doula around 11pm and she came over. About 1130 we knew it was time and called the midwife to tell them we were coming to the birth center , which was about 30 minutes away. On the way there I had about 4 or 5 surges in the car. Once we got there, they checked me out and I was 7cm and 90% effected (sorry sp) .we got our bathing suits on and got in a giant birth tub. I labored there for a couple hours and start pushing. Switched to a birthing stool and the toilet and the bed then back to the tub where we finally started to see her head and hair. I was so exhausted but I knew we were so close. I would be standing squatting in the tub pushing then lay back in my boyfriends arms to rest till the next push then jump back into position, the midwives said they never saw someone move so fast lol. Finally after almost 8 hours of pushing but an hour and a half of the last pushing phase our baby girl was coming out. This part did sting, not going to lie but not as bad as the back labor sensations(pain) I had when pushing . Then on the bed she was born! I did have trouble delivering the placenta so I did have to get pitocin to start cramping and to get it out. The placenta was huge and weighed 5lbs! They checked me after and said I had no tearing. The Tub I think helped Stretch and soften things and the long time of pushing, 8 hours, also gave my tissue some time to stretch. We went home later that afternoon and midwives came out to the house the next day to check on us. I would do it all over again. I had a amazing experience and feel like i accomplished a huge goal . 19 hours of home labor and 8 of pushing! It's been almost two weeks and my bleeding is almost gone and baby girl is doing great. Also I'm a first time mom, well kinda, and im 37. Mommas, you can do this, our bodies know what to do we just have to listen. Ask any questions you like. I'm here to encourage not shame anyone.