My VBAC Experience

I had a baby girl on January 18th, 2013. It was the most incredible experience I've ever had, since I felt cheated of my son's birth, of being "forced" into having a C-section with him. I was in labor for over 48 hours, and most of that time was not even in the hospital. On Wednesday, the 16th, I went for acupuncture, as I was already 41 1/2 weeks. That jump-started the labor. The contractions didn't start to get closer together however until Thursday evening. At that point, I dropped YE off with a neighbor, since Josh was still at work. I sat at home on my birthing ball and breathed through each contraction. I called my doula and she came at around 6. Josh got home at 7:30 and helped me down to the car, where my mother was going to drive me to the hospital. The contractions were 3-4 minutes apart by then. Josh was to watch YE and my mother and doula would help me labor. We got to the hospital (longest 20 minute car ride of my life) and went to the Labor & Delivery. We were told to wait until a bed in triage was open so they could check me. In the meantime, I bounced on the birthing ball and did my calming exercises from Hypnobabies. After a few minutes of this, my mother suggested we go walking to help me progress (another longest 20 minutes of my life). When we got back, a bed had opened up in the triage unit. As the nurse was checking me, my water broke. Thank goodness for that, because otherwise they were going to suggest sending me home since I wasn't as far along as they would have liked. After another half-hour, I was finally given a room. I labored through the night, using the bathtub with jets, different positions, and it just kept getting harder and harder. At one point, I was just whimpering "I can't do this, I can't do this" I asked for an epidural at around 3 I think and finally got one at around 6 am. After that I passed out and slept blissfully for 5 hours. When I woke up I had progressed to 5 cm. After a few more hours of easy laboring I realized the epidural was wearing off on one side. The pain was the worst I have ever known. I begged for something to alleviate the pain, and my wish was granted. At around this time, it was already about 3pm on Friday afternoon. We had no idea whether the baby would come in the next few minutes or after Shabbos had already begun. My mother stepped out of the room to call Josh and ask him to bring food and clothes (for her) for Shabbos. While my mother was out of the room, the doctor checked me again and said, "let's try to start pushing.." My mother came back to the room and abut 45 minutes later, my beautiful baby girl was pushed into the world. 5 minutes after that, Josh walked into the room with YE, and got to meet our amazing little girl. So did YE, although I don't think he had a clue what was going on.


I realize that unless you've gone through something like it yourself, it's not so easy to relate to, but I felt like I should put it out there. If only to remind myself from time to time of what an amazing experience it was. I should also add what my husband's memory of the experience was: " MAK goes to Hospital, and has a baby. The End"