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The Birth of Sarah Grace
We arrived at the hospital and were staged at 7 centimeters dilated and 0 Station. This was 12:30pm and once checked into a room I found myself alternating between the commode and shower until about 1:45pm when I felt it might be time to work with the contractions and begin to push… John got the squat bar in place and helped me to the bed… I pushed for just over an hour and we were blessed with Sarah at 2:54pm, on Wednesday, January 15th. Throughout the process at home, we were totally comfortable with our knowledge of the stages of labor and monitored my blood pressure and Sarah’s heart rate. I continued to hydrate and keep my protein intake up until nearly 10:00am on her birthday! Upon arrival at Kennestone, we provided a copy of our birth plan to the triage nurses and were never questioned about a decision we had made. We were given a lot of alone time, with only periodic visits from a wonderful nurse, named Jean, to check on Sarah’s heart rate, my blood pressure and provide ice chips! Her birth was a truly natural and peaceful process, despite the fact that 15 minutes before her birth, they noted fetal distress on the Doptone, with Sarah’s heart rate down near 50 during contractions. They massaged her scalp and she quickly recovered… She was born with the cord wrapped once around her neck, but suffered no damage as a result and had 8 and 9 Apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes after birth, respectively. Thank you Tami and Ken for your excellent instruction! We look forward to our next opportunity for a Bradley birth! God bless you! Ann, John and Sarah H. of Smyrna, GA |
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For more information on The Bradley Method®, for an international listing of instructors, or to contact the American Academy of Husband-Coached Childbirth® directly, please contact: The Bradley Method®, Box 5224, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413-5224 - (800) 4-A-BIRTH or (818) 788-6662 - www.bradleybirth.com |
Well,
Sarah decided to begin her entry into the world at 9:00pm on Monday, January
13th, at which time, after a wonderful Mexican dinner, I began having
contractions every 10 minutes. This lasted with very little variation
(sometimes 12-14 minutes and other times 5-7 minutes apart), until 9:00am
on Wednesday, January 15th. Yep, not a typo, it was 36-hours of early
first stage! I spent a lot of time walking, sitting on birthing ball,
side-lying, pelvic rocking and even squatting. As you might have guessed,
John and I were pretty happy when things got a bit more intense at that
point with contractions coming every 3-5 minutes. At 11:15am, I felt very
nauseous and proceeded to vomit at the same time my water broke! Could
I already be in transition? Hmmm??? I got in the shower and my contractions
got even more intense, coming every 2 minutes… all the while lasting
at least 60 seconds. It was then that I suggested to John we might consider
a call to the Doc and, perhaps preparing for a drive to the hospital!
It was wonderful to be so calm, and to have John also as calm….
He assisted me in getting dressed and loaded me in the back of the SUV!
While on the drive to Kennestone Hospital, John called the doctor’s
office to let them know we were in labor and he continued to ask me to
tell him when contractions were starting…. He was surprised and
most likely began to drive faster when, after timing my contractions,
he found they were 90 seconds apart with no more than 30 seconds in between.
