The most dreaded part of becoming a mommy for most women is probably the labor and/or delivery. No matter what manner your baby enters the world or what birth choices you make, the process of getting a baby from belly to world is an intense one.
For me personally, the delivery is the most intense part. The labor and accompanying contractions which most women worry about is the easy part for me. While I may be a screamer during the actual birth of my babies (see “A Birth Story”), I am unusually quiet and calm during my labors. With all three of my babies, I made hardly any noise until the very end of my labor as I neared the pushing stage.
As weird as I’m sure it may sound to many women who have been experienced labor, after three times I still do not find contractions “painful”. I’m not saying they’re enjoyable or something I want to experience regularly but I don’t experience them as a “pain” or “hurting” sensation. With Honeybun, once I was hooked up to the Pitocin drip, the contractions were debilitating. Despite taking a hypnobirthing class I was unable to breathe or relax through the intensity of the contractions. All I could do was suck my breath in and couldn’t manage to breathe out which is essential to relaxation (and life!). This feeling of losing control and having no labor support led me to choosing the narcotic pain relief which I found even worse than just bearing the contractions (see “The Best Laid Birth Plans”).
When I became pregnant with Sugarplum, I began a strict regimen of preparing for labor. Each morning while Honeybun napped, I practiced deep relaxation, listening to a hynobirthing exercise called the “Rainbow Relaxation”. At night when as I fell asleep, I did peaceful visualizations and practiced deep relaxation more. As the pregnancy progressed I added soothing music to my nighttime regime and a favorite scented oil to my day time relaxation. As I got closer to delivery I began practicing deep, relaxation breathing during my Braxton-Hicks contractions. All this preparation worked out for me. During my labor with Sugarplum I was able to easily relax and breathe through each contraction, curling myself around my sweet baby and then come back to normal between contractions, carrying on a normal conversation.
With Doodle I was not as regimented about practicing my relaxation and was a little worried I would not cope as well with my contractions but when my labor started, my body remembered exactly what to do and I easily breathed and relaxed through each contraction until the very end when I was ready to push. In fact, I managed my contractions so well that my midwife had trouble timing my contractions as needed because she couldn’t tell when I was having one.
While I’m sure every mommy experiences labor differently and many will disagree with my description, here’s the best comparison I can personally make for how labor contractions feel to my body: Imagine sitting with your leg tucked under you for so long that your entire limb from the knee down falls asleep. Then you have to get up and walk on it, causing the blood to surge back into the limb causing an intense, crazy tingling sensation throughout your entire lower leg and foot. While you know it will eventually die off and be back to normal, the intensity of the tingling makes you want to climb out of your body and run away from the uncomfortable sensation. All you want is for it to be done and go back to normal but there is unfortunately nothing you can do except wait for the feeling to pass. Then repeat every few minutes for several hours. (Can you tell I hate the sensation of an asleep limb reawakening?).
Me with the rubber duckie used to monitor the water temperature during my water birth with Sugarplum. I was 7 cm when I got in the pool and was all smiles between contractions.
