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My birth center experience

On Thursday, August 25th, my daughter decided she was going to come at 38w1d. I had been at the bank that morning and had to leave because they had to change one of my accounts and it was taking a long time so I said I would just come back in an hour. I was with my oldest daughter and grandfather and we went back to his house to meet my grandma. This was 11am. As I tried to get out of the car, I felt a slight trickle, but was stopped in my tracks by horrendous pubic pain. I had pubic pain in the last few weeks of my pregnancy but this was by far the worst. I just couldn't move. My grandfather helped me get to the porch, but the pain flared up again so I just sat outside. I told my grandparents my water may have broken, so I called my midwives and they said to come in so they could check. After resting a few minutes I decided to try and go in the house. As soon as I got up I felt a gush, my water was definitely broken. I text my husband and my mom and let them know. I had to go back to the bank, but had to stop at Walgreens first. The leaks continued but depends are a lifesaver (and clothes saver). When we finally got to the birth center, I met my husband and said bye to my daughter who went with my grandparents.

Once I got in at about 2pm, they checked my cervix which felt like death and I was 4cm. After my nonstress test and paying for nitrous oxide, I went and picked my birthing suite. I liked the blue one because it was extra calming to me. My contractions were just starting to come with regularity because of the cervical check. Before that I pretty much wasn't having any. At first I just labored on the bed, then I bounced on a birthing ball for a little while. I wanted a water birth so the midwife and nurse got the jacuzzi ready and got the nitrous oxide ready as well. The water felt good at first, but intensified my contractions. The laughing gas made the contractions easy to get through, but I felt high and thought maybe I'd drown in the tub so I got out. I labored the rest of the time in the bed on my side. By 5cm the pain was intense. The gas was getting me through but I definitely could feel the contractions. By the time I was 6cm I was crying and thought I was stupid to have a baby naturally. I was upset and in pain and felt like I couldn't make it. I kept using the gas and I told the midwife that even though I was only 6cm, I had to push. The contractions were painful and forced me to push. I'm easily embarrassed and I peed and pooped trying to get her out. I apologized so many times. By this time I was full out crying and screaming into my mask. Then they said they could see her head and to push hard with the next contraction. I pushed 2 or 3 times and she was out. It actually hurt more when I couldn't push. Pushing relieved a little bit of pain because I was working with my body. The gas kept me from completely losing it to the pain even though I didn't expect to scream and cry. I went from 6cm to having a healthy baby girl in 19 minutes. It's true, just when you think you can't go on anymore the baby is about to come out. It hurt but I don't regret anything. I know this was long, but it was truly an experience. Crimson was born at 6:26pm at 7lbs, 5.5oz. 💗