Not even an aspirin!

by Dolorea Anjelica Petrone
(Myrtle Beach, SC, United States of America)

This was my first time being pregnant and I knew I wanted to have the healthiest and most natural birth possible, so I contacted a Doula service. A doula basically is a women that is with the mother through their labor and delivery helping them through every contraction. Now I was walking around 1 to 2cm dilated for two weeks and having sporadic contractions, that was until 4am Oct.17, 2011. It wasn't till noon I went to the obgyn office to get checked and sure enough I was 4 cm. She told me to go straight to the hospital, but I knew I had time. I went home packed my bags and headed with my mom to the hospital.It was around 2pm when I finally arrived. My grandmother and brother was waiting too.
I got up to the room and they hooked me
to the monitor, I was only on for about 20 min and the contractions weren't that bad. I even brought my birth plan and a basket of treats for the nurses. They were very grateful and tarred me like a princess! Hours went by, after I walked the hospital a few times, bounced on my yoga ball, taking a shower, ave getting
my massages by the doulas, this went on til about 7 or 8 pm. I guess the doulas were getting tired because they kept having my mom and aunts helping with the makes and pelvic presses.
I the room with me were 12 women from my family, now I was fortunate that I was the only patient on the floor giving birth that night so the nurses were ok with that. My midwife even told the nurses that no ones leaving the room, that the abduct was to positive. 11:25 came around, and after three pushes, I was pulling my beautiful baby Celena up and onto my chest! This birth might as well have been a home birth! With the serenity and peacefulness of it all, it just made me feel so proud to have had a natural birth with out crying a tear! Now that was amazing but the next best thing happened, Celena laying skin to skin on my chest literally crawled over to my right breast and began to latch on herself. I saw this done on the videos our doulas showed us, but I never in my wildest dreams thought my own baby would do that, or that I would pull her out myself, or if I would even be able to make it to the point of not using medicine. I kept telling myself the while time, "this is start my body was made to do!" That's what got me through it, and I'm still breastfeeding to this day, it really makes a difference. Now I am 20 years old and a single mother, and I know if I could do it, then any one can, I strongly urge any new mothers to attempt using a doula for their birth, it's MORE than worth it!