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Birth Story By Janine Bear |
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Birth Stories -
Complicated Birth Stories
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Friday, 14 November 2008 14:59 |
My first pregnancy had gone very smoothly and I was all ready to have the baby. I was waiting for labor to start, not knowing what that would be or when to head to the hospital. We made a false run on Monday morning, only to be sent home with no baby and a nurse's advice: Don't come in until you can't talk through the contractions.
Well!! I wondered why I hadn't heard that before! With that advice there would be no more wondering if this was "it". I should just try to talk and if I couldn't, go to the hospital.
So all day Tuesday I had contractions and talked through every one of them. By then my parents had arrived and my husband was home from work - they were all sitting around looking at me and asking if I could talk. I could.
Tuesday night the contractions were strong enough that I couldn't sleep, my toes curled up through them, but I talked. I thought I'd take a bath to make them subside enough to sleep (advice from the natural childbirth teacher) and that was the kicker. As soon as I got out of the tub the contractions were constant. I phoned the hospital and was told to stay home another hour, but my husband knew we should go so we went, leaving my parents sleeping on the living room floor.
As soon as we got in the car my water broke, I was in transition and Jim was driving fast. We had a twenty-five minute drive to the hospital , and I knew we weren't going to make it. I didn't want to tell Jim because I just wanted to keep going. I remember at one point thinking, "Well, I'm going to have this baby in the car, so I may as well get ready." I pulled my pants down and just let labor go.
Right as soon as we hit the exit ramp for the hospital I told Jim, "Be careful around these bumpy roads - her head's out." He said ,"No its not" and reached over and felt her head, all the way out. A block from the hospital she was born completely . Jim pulled up to the front of the hospital and ran out hollering for help. I was sitting in the front seat holding Julia, wondering what to do. Nurses streamed out from everywhere telling Jim to take off his sweater so they could wrap her up, turn on the car's heater, drive around to the emergency entrance - lots of instructions.
A nuse got in the back and instructed us how to get to the emergency entrance. When we arrived there were about ten nurses waiting for us. Someone cut the cord and took Julia, two other someones helped me out of the car, which was difficult because my pants were around my ankles and my foot was stuck in a Kleenex box. They took us upstairs and did all the other stuff while Jim disappeared to vacuum the car. (Eeeewww)
We didn't truly understand the wonder of having a baby in the car until sixteen months later when we had our second in the hospital. Then we got to experience what usuallly goes in to having a baby. Then we began to wonder how on earth we did that!
We've had four kids and each one was a marvelous experience - nothing I would ever describe as awful or horrible or anything else some would have you believe. I truly had fun at each of my deliveries and am a little sad that those days are over.
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Complicated Births 
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