My Almost-Natural Labor and Delivery: The Birth of My Son

It started around 7 one night in late September. The pains were mild and came about every 15 minutes. I thought they were just false labor pains as I had been having for the last few weeks. I had even been to the hospital the week before, positive that I was in labor only to be sent home an hour later.

I thought possibly my body was just to retarded to go into labor by it's self. I'd been induced with my first two pregnancies. How would my body know what to do or would it just be lazy and demand drugs to help it along? I hoped not. I did not want the medical intervention with this one unless it was entirely unavoidable.

Of course that was before I reached 39 weeks gestation. Before I got so miserable, I was tired of being fat. I was swelling up everywhere. My feet would swell so much it would hurt just to walk on them. Of course at this point I had already exhausted every natural method of labor induction I could come up with. I'd had sex, drank caster oil, done the bumpy ride, and even played hop scotch with my three year old which I'm sure provided some interesting entertainment for my neighbors.

I had even had my doctor strip my membranes. My cervix stayed at 2 cm and refused to budge. Sensing my disapproval of this my doctor suggested induction. I had rode that ride before and wasn't interested. Lying in bed all day hooked to machines didn't fit into my birth plan. This time I wanted to go all natural. Then he informed me he was going on vacation and not wanting another doctor to deliver my baby I agreed.

The only problem came when he looked at his schedule, he was booked full and didn't have space for me. Luckily there was a cancellation and he fit me in. I was scheduled to be induced at 6 am Monday October 1^st. I was kind of disappointed but at the same time I was really glad my doctor would be the one delivering me.