Her water broke at 7am, and she called me, her doula, immediately. When I got to the hospital at 11, she wasn’t yet having contractions, and nurses and doctor agreed she could go home. Thank goodness! I massaged her in her bed for a while, and she fell asleep, so I went home too.

     Doctor wanted her back at 7pm, so I met them at the hospital again, and she was having dinner when I arrived, still no regular contractions. We watched silly TV shows, laughing, and walked a bit. Around 9:30, her husband and I got serious about spleen 6 and GB 21, ankle and shoulder points. I said, “On the number, every five minutes, we’ll press and you can invite the contractions to come.“ For the next 90 minutes we did, and they came right on time, every time except when the doctor or nurse came in to check on her and talk with her.  I've seen it happen like that before but it always amazes me how this works. 

     About 11:00, things started to get intense. Her cervix was checked around 11:30 and she was at 2 ½ cm. We moved her candles into the room with the birthing tub, and she spent about an hour in there, soaking and feeling the contractions intensely. It seemed to relax her at first, but she was feeling it strongly, and very uncomfortable.The nurse suggested she get out when she wasn’t handling things very calmly. She went back to her room, and laid on the bed, wanting very firm pressure on her sacrum, and starting to ask about drugs and beg god for help. She threw up and then was asking clearly for something to take away the pain. The nurse was hesitant about giving her drugs, since she had in her birth plan preference for a natural birth, but I was expecting it. She had spoken about her past birth experience and mentioned what a relief that brought.  She attributed the drugs to getting her through the labor, but she adamently was opposed to an epidural.   I understood that although she was very wary of the medical world's tests and procedures, she chose a hospital birth over a home birth because of the option of having something to ease the pain. 

      She was checked again, and I wondered if she had progressed a great deal, and thats why things were so painful for her, but she was 3 ½ cm. She got a shot of Fentanyl, which made her a little loopy, but she complained that it didn’t take the pain away. The nurse and I were thinking the same thing, trying to get her on hands and knees to rock her belly in the rebozo, which she liked at first, but the position was intense, and she wanted to lie down. We were thinking that her baby was in an occiput posterior position, and we wanted to help the baby to turn, so things could go easier. She was asking for more drugs, but had to wait an hour and a half after the first dose, which she got around 1:00. She sat on the toilet a while, needing intense pressure on her back to manage the contractions. When she got up, the nurse came in a said one of the other nurses had mentioned the belly lifting technique in the rebozo… I tried it with my hands.

     This was the incredible thing that happened. I stood behind her, and during her contraction, I wrapped my arms around her belly and lifted that baby up out of her pelvis. It was intense and painful fro her, and I felt that baby move! She collapsed onto the bed and with her next contraction was telling us she had to poop! She was complete and ready to push her baby out, just like that. The doctor rushed in, because the baby’s heart tones were dropping as she passed through the birth canal, and she summoned her power and pushed that baby out in just a few minutes. Totally Incredible.

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      Allison and Joe called at 12:30 last night to say labor had begun, and they wondered if I would be available to show up at the hospital as their doula, when they got there.  I agreed that they could have the nurse call me in, and around 2:30, I got a call and headed over.  They had arrived about an hour earlier, and she had been at 4cm. We got in the tub a little after 3:00, and she was already at 5cm, but a bit discouraged with the number, since she had been working hard all night.   I reminded her that the number really is arbitrary, things can go slow or speed up at any moment, unlike a car trip when you can measure distance divided by miles and average speed and figure out how long until arrival….  Between contractions, she was able to fall asleep, and so were Joe and I.  It seemed like a nice rhythm to awaken every five minutes or so to breathe with her.  She had a bath pillow to rest her head on and the room was quiet and dark.

      A couple of hours had passed, and Allison got out of the tub and spent a little time in the bed. Lying on her side seemed quite uncomfortable, but she was very tired and trying to rest.  Her sounds and face were quite tense at moments, and she was struggling with the idea of continuing this way.  She was at 5 or 6 cm when the nurse checked her. Around 6:30 or 7am, we took a walk in the courtyard to soak up the morning sun and fresh air. It was very rejuvenating, and she visibly relaxed a great deal. She got on top of her sound, relaxing into lower tones.  We walked around for a while taking moments to rest in the sun and squat or half squat or lean on the benches.  After half an hour or so,  she was ready to go back in and rest.

      The doctor was to arrive soon, and I prepared them for the likelihood that she would want to rupture Allison's membranes. I was guessing she might not yet be past 7 cm, and it would be a common suggestion from this particular doctor to "get things moving" by breaking her water. We talked about the possible pros and cons of this. Breaking her water could help engage the baby's head in her cervix, which would make the contractions feel more intense.  It is a possibility that contractions would also be more effective, as the baby's head would engage with the cervix more directly. It is also a possibility that labor would not speed up, but just feel more intense.  She wasn't sure what she would decide to do.

      When the doctor checked her around 8am, she was already at 8cm, and she never mentioned breaking her water.  I was pleasantly suprised, and there was an air of celebration in the room.  Allison was happy to hear that she had made good progress,  and soon she decided to head back to the birthing tub. After a couple of hours, she was starting to feel pushy, and by 10am she was almost complete with just a small cervical lip. She changed positions and squatted, circled her hips a little, slept between contractions, and when the doctor returned around 11, she was ready to push.

    She stayed about an hour longer in the tub, working hard to push her baby out. Her energy was getting pretty low, and although she had eaten some jello and crackers and was staying fairly hydrated, being in the water was not helping her to stay energized.  She got onto the bed and the nurse and I helped lift her legs, so that she was lying down with her knees up in a deep sqautting position.  Joe said something to her that brought a huge smile to her face and gave the strength to keep at it.  She was pushing for another hour before we saw the baby's head beginning to appear.  It was a gradual crowning and her tissues stretched around baby's head.  She was incredibly patient and strong through it all.  She was rewarded with a sweet baby girl at 1:30 that afternoon. 

 

 

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