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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        I was called at 3:30am, to come to the hospital and be a doula for Consuelo, a third time mama in early labor. She had been checked at 2cm, some time earlier, but her baby was suspected to be posterior,since she was having pretty bad back pain. Consuelo is from Mexico and speaks mainly Spanish, but understands English fairly well. I got over my shyness and got to practice my Spanish with her and her partner.

       Her husband slept for a few hours when I first arrived, so I helped by pressing on her hips and sacrum, and massaging her shoulders.  The nurse and I rocked the baby in the rebozo, and I attempted the baby churn with my hands to try and encourage the baby to turn.  Baby seemed to shift some, and Consuelo said it eased the back pain a bit, but that didn't seem to last.    She dilated at about 1cm every 2 hours, which was steady, but a bit discouraging, as her last labor, eight years ago, had been only 5 hours long.

        Around 7am, I suggested she get in the tub, since labor seemed active and strong by then, and she was getting pretty uncomfortable. I went down the hall to turn on the water, and when I returned, the nurse was there helping her to quickly get on hands and knees. There had been a drop in baby’s heart rate that lasted a couple of minutes and was quite alarming, but it soon returned to normal. We decided to wait on getting in the tub to see what the doctor thought, in light of this occurance. He soon arrived, and told her that if baby’s heart rate kept dropping like that, she would need a c-section. He showed her the monitor strip and said to be sure and call the nurse right away if it happened again, and no she could not get in the water. He thought it was just to risky. He said that later, when the next doctor's shift began, he might have another opinion and let her get in the water. I was suprised and disappointed to hear him talking in this way to her, as though she should keep her eye on the monitor just to be sure, as though a c-section was on the horizon.

       After he left, all was well, and there were no more heart problems. A couple of hours went by and the next doctor on call did indeed say that with contstant monitoring, she could get in the tub. Her friend arrived and stayed about half an hour. She was very comforting and assured Consuelo that the water would be very helpful, so she decided to get in after her exam. She was dilated to 5 cm.

        She stayed in the water for close to an hour, half the time with the jets on, and then got out and back into the rocking chair. She did try the birth ball and hands and knees briefly, but seemed most relaxed in the rocking chair with a hot pack behind her low back. Around 12:00, she seemed to reach transition. Contractions were coming on quickly and strong, and she was starting to have doubts about going on, asking for pain meds. Her husband was strong and so supportive, and together we held her and encouraged her and got her to move a little bit, getting back on the ball, on the bed, in the chair.  She had a little medicine to ease the pain, but was reaching the end of her hope.

        She soon was having a hard time not pushing, but was only 9 cm, so we kept asking her to relax, breath, and don't push, so her cervix wouldn't swell. It seemed really difficult in the bed, but as soon as she was back in the rocking chair, she relaxed some.   After another hour went by, she suddenly was pushing again, this time very seriously, and she told us she had to go to the bathroom.  I asked her to wait until she was checked, because I didn’t want the baby born in the toilet! Once she got to the bed and the doctor told her she was complete, she started pushing and her baby girl was out within 15 minutes!

 While Consuelo was in the bathroom and Rodrigo was calling the relatives, I got to hold the sweet little bundle…. Mmmmm…..

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