Zoey's Birth Story by Sonja Schumacher
Born on November 6, 2007

The cramps started in from Sunday to Monday and as they really didnt seem too strong, I thought these were now the "braxton hicks" and that I might be having our baby in the next few days. I went about my business on Monday and in the afternoon had my regular weekly appointment with my OBGY - she then announced, that I was 5 cm and 100% effaced and would be going straight to the hospital as we would be having the baby either the same day or the next morning at the latest! I then made my way next door to the North Austin Medical Center and my husband headed home to pick up my bags.

I was surprised how easy the laboring part was and managed to go all the way to 9 cm and not really even be bothered by the contractions. Just the baby didnt want to move down at all from the -2 position even after lots of walking and squatting. Finally, after some hours and at 9 cm my doctor decided to break the water at which point I opted for the epidural although all this time I had not experienced the pain that I had prepared myself for. But I was told that after the water breaks, things will get intense and I guess as a first timer I didnt want to experience what was going to come. Even with the epidural I was able to feel the contractions a little which helped me in the pushing stage. The pushing took a long time - the baby did not want to move down from the -2. At the end we opted for a little help from the forceps. Luckily my doctor was a genius at it. In a couple of minutes Zoey popped out without any scars or bruises to her head. The unexpected about this experience was that I really didnt experience any pain during the laboring part and then on the other hand I was not expecting the pushing part to be that difficult - I had assumed both to be quite the opposite.

Had I not had my doc's appointment that Monday, we might have had our baby at home, or in the car, or who knows where... AS we were told so many times about the 511 rule - and that at that point you most likely would not be walking or talking and would only be about 3-4 cm. That is what I was waiting for; since it didn't seem to be something that would happen anytime soon I didnt even bother to look at my watch to see how far apart the contractions really were. Next time I will know better and will be heading to the hospital as soon as I start feeling something.

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Email Lisa Taggart at lisat@yogayoga.com