Comments on: Birth Story: “My labor journey was tough”

By: anna

anna — Thu, 17 May 2012 01:46:27 +0000

I haven’t read the thread yet, just your “novel.” Mine is a novel too, and i haven’t posted it yet. My boy was born on August 28th. My labor and responses to the interventions were similar. Thank you for putting this up, I needed to read it. Maybe I’ll post mine too.

By: Megan

Megan — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:48:48 +0000

Absolutely loving this thread! I adore prenatal yoga at Blooma, but very often feel disconnected as to date I’ve only known grief and loss with pregnancy. My naivete is gone after several losses, including one post 20 weeks.The idea of labor and delivery is more like “who cares!”, just bask in the gratitude of carrying a little child. However families come to be (adoption, medical intervention, surrogacy – whatever!) is empowering and sacred.

By: Kara

Kara — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:21:28 +0000

Hi Katie, I will be totally honest that the words you wrote in your first sentence are what led me to read your entire story. When you wrote “For months, about seven-and-a-half to be exact, whenever I see a new post about an inspirational birth from Blooma on my newsfeed, I scroll fast so I don’t have to see it.” , I realized that I am not the only person on this earth who has felt the same way for the past 8 months (my baby was born August 20th). Thank you for writing about your birth so honestly and beautifully. You are the first person who has given me courage to think about writing my story on the Blooma page. My plan/hopes for a water birth at an out of hospital birth center with no interventions, ended in a cesarean 44 hours later. I thought my story might come across as scary for new mamas, or negative for seasoned mamas. I thought it was too late to write my story since she is nearly 9 months old. Maybe it’s not too late. I hear that writing about birth can be very healing.
You did an amazing thing at the hospital and should be very proud of yourself. Congratulations on your baby boy and blessings to you and your family.

By: Katie Lichty

Katie Lichty — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:06:09 +0000

It is SO wonderful to hear about other women who experienced the same thing and who felt the same way. Thank you for your wonderful comments!

By: Jina

Jina — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:17:23 +0000

Can I “like” this

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 04 May 2012 03:23:58 +0000

I’m smiling because I had such a similar experience. Thanks for sharing, and I appreciate all the other comments too.

By: Erin Sugrue

Erin Sugrue — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:24:16 +0000

Thanks so much for sharing, Katie — and for publishing this, Alisa & Blooma. I had epidurals with both of my births and though I had fantastic side-effect-free experiences with the epidurals and they let my body relax and progress and allowed me to be focused and so present for the moment of meeting my babies, I struggled for a LONG time with feeling like I failed, like my births weren’t good enough. My husband finally said to me, “I don’t want to talk to you about this anymore because our children’s births were amazing and powerful and wonderful and you’re taking away from all of that wonder by obsessing on this.” Good point. Sometimes you need someone close to you to get you unstuck. I’ve had a hard time reading some birth stories in which moms say, “I had a fantastic natural birth — it was 4 hours long and I know going to all that prenatal yoga and being open to the birth experience was what allowed me to have this type of birth.” My response to that is, “No, luck allowed you to have that type of birth. Luck and some planning (doula, midwife, being educated about what you do and don’t want) and then a LOT of luck.” I’ve showed up at the hospital with contractions 2 minutes apart with both my kids and both times I was 0% effaced — and I did the yoga, the chiro, the Ina May, the doula, the Childbirth Collective — I just have a long cervix that doesn’t like to start effacing until it absolutely has to — which means, long and intense labors — and much gratitude for an epidural. C’est la vie.

I don’t think we’ve figured out yet as women how to challenge some of the assumptions about and practices in a hyper-medicalized birth, without then imposing another rigid set of expectations on each other that result in some of us feeling less than whole after our births.

So glad you’ve found peace and joy in your birth story now. Enjoy your little boy.

By: Leann

Leann — Fri, 04 May 2012 00:23:34 +0000

My birth story was so similar…down to the water breaking on the toilet. I also pushed for 3 hours and had to argue with the midwife (not my regular one since I was in the hospital for three shifts) that I could push my baby boy out and would not need a c-section (that she was leaning toward). In the end nothing was like I had expected, except a vaginal birth and a beautiful son. You should be so proud of yourself for what you did…birthing a child is a miraculous and wonderful thing, no matter how it happens! Thanks for sharing your story, it brought back all those wonderful memories for me (since I ignore the ones I did not like as much…pitocin, epidural, catheter, blah blah blah)!

By: Amber

Amber — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:20:06 +0000

Thanks for sharing mama! What a wonderful story of a strong mom and a beautiful birth!

By: Jina

Jina — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:13:36 +0000

Katie,
this is a beautiful birth story, I have tears in my eyes…you have to believe that everything happened exactly as it was supposed to. I had a very similar experience and I think the fact that I waited so long for the epidural made a difference in the outcome. I feel like now I know there are so many factors that go into childbirth that no two experiences could ever be the same. Thank you so much for posting this beautiful story, it is honest and uplifting. Congratulations on your little Everett!!