The Birth of My Little Miracle

Labor is the worst thing, but the most rewarding thing you might ever experience. You will experience the greatest most intense pain known to mankind, but obtain the greatest reward, new life. On November 21st, 2020 after 18-hours in labor, I received the greatest gift of all. My beautiful and amazing daughter, Daniella Rose, was born. 

On November 20th I was coming from my weekly prenatal appointment when I started feeling contractions. It was 2 o’clock when I started timing them. They were not consistent at all, so I tried to ignore them by cleaning. Around 5 o’clock I decided to call my midwife and continued to stay in contact with my doula. My midwife told me to come to the hospital since my contractions were more consistent.

Despite that, they were still not close together or 2 to 3 minutes apart. By the time I arrived at the hospital it was 7 o’clock. I had to check in and do a covid test. After my test came back negative, my midwife checked me to see how dilated I was. I was at 6 centimeters. I was excited because that morning at my prenatal appointment I was at 4 centimeters. I was showing a lot of progress, so I believed that my labor would be fast.

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That was not the case at all. I labored all through the night unmedicated at 6 centimeters dilated. I did so many things to help labor progress, but nothing worked. Finally I decided to just stay in the birthing pool throughout the night to try to get some sleep and ease the pain. 

The next day, November 21st, my midwife told me that I am still at 6 centimeters and need to progress or I’d be sent home because I was stuck at 6 centimeters. I was at 6 centimeters for 12 hours! 

At that moment, I was deeply discouraged and just wanted to be done with it. I just wanted my daughter out, so I decided to get the epidural to help me progress. 

This was a very difficult decision because I prepared for an unmedicated birth and worked so hard for 12 hours without medication. Nevertheless, this was a good decision because 5 minutes after I got the epidural I finally progressed to 8 centimeters dilated. 

I was then stuck at 8 centimeters dilated for a few hours so my midwife broke my water, but I still wasn’t progressing so they decided to start me on Pitocin. After a few more hours and a few increases in Pitocin, I finally made it to 10 centimeters dilated and was ready to push. 

The pushing stage was the worst part of labor for me. I had the epidural, but it did not numb me for the pushing stage. I felt all of it. It was as if I didn’t get an epidural at all. It felt like a bowling ball was trying to come out of my rectum. I screamed and called for God. I even got to a point when I didn’t want to continue pushing, but I couldn’t stop. My daughter was crowning and was almost out. 

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After 10 minutes of pushing (but it felt like an hour), my baby girl was finally out!

I have so many feelings about this birthing experience. I had a birth plan and wasn’t able to do any of the things on there. I really wanted an unmedicated birth for so many reasons. I wanted to avoid tearing, I wanted to feel empowered, I wanted to have a quick recovery, and I wanted to have an immediate strong connection with my first (and maybe only) daughter. Those are just a few of the benefits of an unmedicated birth that I read about. 

It took me a while to be happy with and accept the birthing experience that God gave me. I was disappointed at first, but after a lot of processing and talking about what happened I realized that I received the best gift of all. A loving daughter who is the best baby of all time! She breastfeeds like a professional, she sleeps on her own, she only cries if she wants milk, she sleeps through the night (and I have to wake her up every 2-3 hours to breastfeed), she is awake for a few hours during the day, she is already great at tummy time, and she is very easy to soothe. I am so blessed!

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Even though her birth experience wasn’t what I wanted,  I was blessed with her. 

I also decided to look at the positives of my birth experience. I was able to go 12 hours without medication at 6 centimeters. I can’t believe that I actually dismissed that. The only reason I got the epidural was to make my labor progress. I truly believe that I could have done it If I had the opportunity. 

This experience has taught me three things. 

1. There is always something positive in every situation. 

I was able to labor for 12 hours unmedicated and completely dismissed it. I was able to get the labor that I wanted for those 12 hours.

2. God is truly in control of every situation. 

After I was given Pitocin and still was not progressing I was given 2 more hours before getting an emergency c section. Within those 2 hours, God intervened and I reached 10 centimeters. 

3. To accomplish anything difficult you must be in the right state of mind and don’t allow anyone’s negativity to influence you.