I’ve seen some women with questions about advice on how to have a natural birth.... just thought I would share my positive story. 🙂 this is coming from someone who has panic disorder, anxiety disorder, and emetophobia (fear of nausea/puking which triggers my panic attacks), and I have a little to NO pain tolerance. So if you think for one second you can’t or have doubts about having an all natural birth, you are 100% wrong!!! If I can, ANYBODY can.

My baby girl was born on January 6th @ 10:01 pm. My labor was 4 hours long. My body pushed baby out itself and it only took 10 minutes and give or take 4-6 pushes.

I began having what I assumed was Braxton Hicks at 10:30 am Sunday morning. I had been having them for weeks so that’s all it felt like to me. They lasted like 30 seconds and were 20-30 minutes apart for a couple hours then they stopped completely for a couple hours. But when I wasn’t having them, I felt a little crampy but still didn’t think anything of it. Me & my husband began cleaning up the house, we washed dishes, swept, and mopped. After we got done cleaning, it was about 3 pm, the “braxton Hicks” returned. This time they felt a little more uncomfortable than regular Hicks. We began timing them. Some were 5 minutes apart, some were 12. Some were even 15 minutes apart. Some lasting 30 seconds others lasting 60. They were so inconsistent. At 4 pm we made some chicken patties for lunch. The “Hicks” weren’t lasting long but they were starting to feel more uncomfortable. I told my husband if by 5 pm they hadn’t stopped then we would go to the hospital just to be safe. By 5 pm, they were still coming. So we loaded up the car and took our 5 year old to my mammaws house. By this time the “Hicks” were 7-12 minutes apart, very consistent, and lasting 30-60 seconds. I knew these had to be more than just braxton Hicks. We got to the hospital at 6, they began to hook me up to a monitor to look at my contractions but I had to pee really bad so they unhooked me real quick and as soon as I stood up to pee, I had a really strong contraction. It hurt so bad I couldn’t even pee. I laid back down and they checked the monitor and my contractions were coming closer and closer together. They checked for dilation and I was already at a 5. It was happening. They told me they were going to go ahead and get a L&D room ready for me. I began crying and shaking because I was scared. It was all happening so fast. My husband called his mom because that’s who I wanted my support system to be. I told the nurses that I was planning on having an all natural birth. Surprisingly they were very supportive about it. They just told me if I wanted to get the epidural, not to be afraid to ask. It was about 30 minutes later before they finally got our room ready. When I got to the room, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart. The nurse checked again for dilation and I was at a 7!!! I went from a 5-7 in maybe 30 minutes! I knew from my research that once you’re dilated to a 7, this is the final stage of labor, the transition stage. So I feared of how intense the contractions were going to get at any moment. I had my husband run out to the car to get my birthing ball....it honestly made my contractions hurt more. Idk if it was causing the baby to drop more therefore causing pressure but it didn’t help at all. So I stood. Because lying down or sitting was so uncomfortable to me. Through every single contraction, I breathed. I took deep breaths until the contraction was over. I didn’t take any birthing classes. I just read about a lot of other mommies talking about how breathing is key. And they were right. My husbands mom finally got there and that’s when the contractions were 1-2 minutes apart lasting 60 seconds. But the pain was not that bad surprisingly. It was very manageable. My husbands mom held my hand and breathed with me which was a huge help. At a point I finally sat down on the bed and when I got a contraction we would rock back and fourth together and breathe deep in through my nose and out my mouth.

An hour after they had last checked me they checked again for dilation and I was at an 8. I was dilating so fast. The contractions were still not that intense. I was confused. Don’t get me wrong, they hurt, but not so bad that I couldn’t breathe or think. Some of them I was even texting my mom during them. Lol Anyway, so after they checked me for dilation, they called my Dr who only lived 11 minutes away. They said once he got there he would break my water. My contractions were a lot more intense and about 45 seconds apart. Some of the contractions were causing me to feel like I was about to puke a few times but once the contraction was over, the nausea went away with it. I was still thankful I was getting a break in between. That’s something that helped me also, was knowing that there would eventually be a break. At this point, I asked if it was too late to get the epidural. And not because the contractions were that bad but because I started thinking about how fast everything was going and I began to get anxiety about how painful the pushing would be...but my nurse was so encouraging and told me I was doing amazing without the epidural, why stop now? My husband was also amazingly encouraging!! He said he was so proud of me for making it that far and said he was completely amazed at how strong I was! That seriously made me feel like Wonder Woman!! I highly recommend having someone there who can encourage you. Having a good support system is very important.

My dr showed up about 15 minutes later with his wife who works with him as a midwife. He checked me again and I was at a 9 already!! The contractions at this point were very very intense and close together and I was feeling a little nauseas and hot. He told me if I let him break my water, the baby would be born in about 10 minutes but I was so scared to let him because my contractions all of a sudden were so intense that I knew once he broke my water they would be worse. But his wife explained to me if I just went ahead and got it over with, the baby would be born soon and the pain would go away. She said the pain would not last long. But my anxiety was kicking in a little so I told them I wanted the epidural. They told me it was too late for that. So I let him break it. 10 minutes later, I felt the urge to push. My contractions at this point were not letting up, I had maybe a 10 second break in between each one. He checked me again and it was time to push. I will say this, everyone said pushing would be a relief but it was the worst part for me. The contractions were back to back and that’s when breathing got hard. I couldn’t take slow deep breaths like I had been doing, so my drs wife (she works with him as an assistant) made me pant like a dog. I had to keep breathing. She would not let me stop breathing. The labor itself was easy. The pushing was painful. I didn’t even push. When they say your body takes over, it really does. It began pushing baby out, I felt her head start to crown after the 3rd push. It hurt so bad so I literally sucked her back in 😂 everyone kept telling me to push, but I said I can’t it hurts too bad!! My dr just sat back and said “she doesn’t have to push if she doesn’t want to, the body will push the baby out either way”. About 2 pushes later and her head was FINALLY out and it was such a relief!! I knew the worst was over. The shoulders didn’t even hurt as bad as the head did. After the shoulders came out, she pretty much slipped right out and I felt my stomach deflate and every bit of pain instantly stopped just like they said it would. I did rip a little but only had to get 4-5 stitches. (They numb you for this).

I couldn’t believe that I done it.

Baby was getting checked out and I was getting stitched up. My mouth and tongue were so numb which turns out was from hyperventilating (something I had never done before). I was so exhausted that I didn’t want to hold my baby for about an hour. I was so light headed and really nauseas too. They checked my vitals and everything looked great. My boyfriend reminded me that I hadn’t ate in over 4 hours so they checked my sugar and it was 64 so that had a lot to do with why I felt so light headed and nauseas I think. I started nibbling on some chips and drank some sprite and was not light headed or nauseas anymore. The numbness in my mouth and tongue went away after an hour. I was stil really tired until they took me to my post delivery room. Once I got in there I was still tired but not like I had been. I finally wanted to hold my baby. My body was aching really bad the first night, so bad it kept me from sleeping. My back and legs hurt sooo bad. Felt like I had been hit by a train. But the entire experience itself was amazing. My body completely took over and new exactly what it was doing!!! I HIGHLY encourage every woman to give birth naturally just so you can see God made us carefully and perfectly! 💕❤️🥰 Women are amazing

I also want to add that with my first child, I was induced at 40 weeks. This time I was 39 weeks and 1 day and I was not induced!!! There is a HUGE difference in pain. When I was induced, the contractions hit me all at once and were intense and back to back without a break at all. This time the contractions were not intense until after my water had been broken and even then it wasnt as bad as the pitocin from induction. I don’t think I could’ve done it if I was induced. So I think that had a huge factor of why I took the pain so easy because it was a walk in the park compared to being induced. 🙂