Sophie's Birth Story

The apprentice was putting olive oil on my perineum between contractions. Amazingly, I had still not passed a drop of blood or fluid.

For the next 10 minutes, I grunted, groaned, and eventually screamed through continuous contractions. I realized that I was making more noise and was in more pain than in any of my other three births, including natural birth in the hospital.

I had really expected to have a quiet, low-pain birth because of all my mental preparation, information, confidence, and the freedom to move around and choose positions. None of that seemed to matter much during those last few minutes. I had fully intended to push in the squatting position, but was too consumed with coping to think straight.

Those 10 minutes seemed long and I remember some things that went through my head. I was wondering what I had against artifically rupturing the membranes. I reminded myself never to preach natural childbirth to women, because they would hate me at this point. And mainly, I just wondered why I was in more pain than with the others.

Finally, my water broke. What a relief! Mike noticed it and told the midwife. She checked for a cord, then stepped back aside. Within a minute, I felt the baby's head, then whole body slide out. The midwife started to tell me to stop after the head was out, but I wouldn't listen and just kept pushing.

I then realized the disadvantages of the hands and knees position I birthed in. For one thing, I couldn't see my baby. Another drawback is that I couldn't see my husband's face as he caught her into his hands. But within seconds, I could hear my baby cry and I could hear Mike say "It's a girl!" Even though I'd had no ultrasound, we almost expected a boy, but the excitement in his voice reassured me that he was just as happy and I thought no more about gender after that.

I was still too weak to move and the pains were still coming. They passed my baby girl underneath me and helped me to sit down to hold her. I pulled my gown off to hold her skin to skin. I heard the midwife say that she was coming down the birth canal with her fist turned sideways beside her head and that might have cause me more pain for those last few minutes.

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