After trying for 3 years we had finally conceived our little baby giving birth November 7th.

Throughout my pregnancy everyone from close friends and family to strangers would tell me horrible things about birth. I choose to block them out. For me just being pregnant was a blessing - I had a healthy pregnancy gaining a total of 23 lbs and kept in mind that yes birth is called labor for a reason. I would never let my mind go to labor=pain mindset. My mantra that I told myself daily was my body will only give me what my body can handle. Over 6 weeks I practiced a few different breathing techniques that I found on youtube for in between contractions, during contractions and labor - pushing stage.

The evening of November 6th I started getting very light cervix contractions and some very light tightening in my lower abdomen. At this point I was 40 weeks 2 days pregnant. I woke up in the early hours of November 7th to some lower back pain, nothing I couldn’t handle. Around 7am my contractions in my cervix picked up and the lower back pain was slowly getting more intense (similar to lower back pain during a period). Around 10 am I started timing my contractions as I knew I wanted to labor at home on my yoga ball, watching some of my favourite shows until it got more intense- then I turned on my hypnobirthing music and had heating pads on my lower abdomen and back. During contractions I felt best standing and rocking my hips back and forth. My husband made me my favourite meal and reminded me to breathe during the contractions. He had ran me a bath mid afternoon to relax in- anything with heat felt amazing. During this time we were in contact with our midwife she said to let her know when contractions were 3 min apart for 2 hrs lasting 1 minute in length. By 5pm we let the midwife know we were on our way to the hospital hence the 45 min drive. This was the most intense car ride I had ever taken - getting contractions in the car sitting was very uncomfortable for me so I’d try to lift my body up. My husband parked us in the handicapped parking at the front of the hospital and goes to find a wheel chair- yes the contractions were intense but between the contractions I was fine. I knew I couldn’t wait for him to come back with a wheel chair so I started to walk in when my last contraction ended and he came back telling me all the wheel chairs were taken🤦🏼‍♀️.

At this point I had contractions in the front lobby of the hospital, the hallway, 2 at the front counter of the maternity check in. The midwife met us at front counter to take me back to triage- she checked me as my water didn’t break. To our surprise I was 9.5 cm dilated. She looked me in the eyes saying your going to do this naturally. Even though this was my intention throughout my whole pregnancy I questioned her back. Do you think I can? She was confident looked me in my eyes and said YES you have done the hard part. Within 3 min we were in our labor and delivery room it was 6:10 pm. We did 2 practice push sets and by the third set it was the real deal my midwife broke my water and my body took over during the contractions. I started pushing laying on my back.. I kept thinking about all the videos I saw and books I read saying use gravity. My midwife jumped at this giving me options for different positions. I opted to push on the toilet for majority of the time. When she could see the babies hair she suggested we move back to the bed. I had 2 sets of pushes at the side of the hospital bed before laying back down. My husband was behind me at this point holding onto my hips tightly- I told him to push my hips harder!! This felt like heaven as I was pushing. I got onto the bed on all fours did another push or two. The midwife suggested I lay on my back the next push the baby was delivered at 8:10 pm.

My husband said so, we literally come to the hospital just to have the baby😌- pretty much!

After the labor I had to send him out to the car to bring in our bags.

I did have a hard time to deliver the placenta, however the dr was able to remove it by pushing on my stomach. I had a 1st degree tear and 6 stitches.

During my pregnancy I used coconut oil on my stomach and perineal area. No stretch marks on my stomach and I think it helped drastically down there as well.

The human body is truly amazing- I felt like a warrior women when I left the hospital.

Trust your bodies- birth is natural.

My intention for this post is to make women less frightened going into giving birth. Being that said there are many times our bodies need help when giving birth either via medicine or medical interception - all moms just want to ensure the baby is safe and healthy no matter what way they make their way into the world. ❤️