Our little angel is here and we are so crazy in love. Meet Harley Diane, 6.5 pounds and 20 inches. Every time I look at her, my heart feels like it is going to explode! This is my birth story…
I prepared right from the start for a natural child birth
When I became pregnant back in April 2016, I knew right away I wanted to have a natural birth and my commitment became even stronger after talking to several experts, reading many books about child birth, taking a natural birth course and talking to my doctor & doula about the risks associated with some interventions and drugs. Hearing all my friends and family’s birth stories, as well as reading and watching many online, there was one big common theme – there are no two births that are the same and things don’t always go as planned! So I decided to go into all of this with a very easy going attitude and not get too worked up if things did not turn out the way I expected them to go. I said to myself “whatever happens, happens, as long as I have a healthy baby at the end, nothing else matters.” And I also repeated the mantra “My body was designed to do this” to prime my brain to stay focused on the goal.
One of the biggest reasons I wanted a natural birth was because I know how my body reacts to foreign substances and pharmaceutical drugs – I don’t feel good after taking them and often feel the bad side effects for weeks. Not only did I not want those substances to get to my newborn baby, but I wanted to have the fastest recovery possible after birth. I also have undergone two different abdominal surgeries in my lifetime and know the recovery is not for the faint of heart. These experiences have given me a very strong conviction to do what I can in my power to avoid medical interventions. Feeling the way I do now – a week later – I know I made the right decision for me to focus on a natural birth. I remain in awe that everything worked out the way I envisioned it to.
I thought I would deliver early… but no!
The month leading up to the birth, I started to get Braxton Hicks contractions and at first they didn’t hurt at all, and then suddenly on Christmas Eve (38 weeks) they began to hurt. The entire day on Christmas Eve, I was having contractions and even contracting at my brother’s Christmas Eve party that evening. It was nothing too painful at this point, but I for sure thought I would have a Christmas baby (and my family thought so too!). A doctor friend at the party even wanted me to go to the hospital to get checked but I didn’t go and eventually on Christmas Day all the contractions fizzled out.
When you hit your due date everyone in the world starts calling and texting you, wondering when you are going to give birth. This can be stressful if you let it… but after she didn’t come early during the holiday break, I became super patient leading up to her birthday. “Babies are born on their birthdays” is one of my affirmation cards that I read every night and this kept me focused on taking care of myself, staying calm and relaxed before birth, knowing that my baby would arrive when she was ready. The extra week, gave me time to continue organizing closets and cabinets throughout the house – which I am so glad to have done now!
The week leading up to the birth…
I have been using acupuncture for years as preventative medicine, but when I became pregnant, I started to go to acupuncture almost every week. Not only did this help my pregnancy symptoms (just ask my best friend, who said I never complained during my pregnancy!) but it primed my body for the best birth possible. When I hit 39.5 weeks, I had 3 acupuncture treatments over the course of one week to get my body ready for big day. Acupuncture can help start labor if your baby is ready! After these treatments, I started a type of early labor on Tuesday and Wednesday – both nights I woke up at around 3am with painful contractions that hit every 20 mins or so but would tinker on and off throughout the day.
The day before birth…
On Thursday, the day before 41 weeks, I saw my doctor and we did a quick safety ultrasound check just to make sure I still had enough amniotic fluid and to see if the baby was doing well in there. As long as everything looked good, she was going to just let me keep going in my late pregnancy until the baby was ready. This was very exciting – I hadn’t seen my baby for over 24 weeks! Everything turned out perfectly! She also checked my cervix and reported that I was 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced, all that early labor was working! This put me at so much ease and I was relaxed enough to go to the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art that afternoon (even though I was still contracting!) to walk around and keep my body moving. We bought the baby an art book to remember the moment and eventually my contractions fizzled out again to relax a bit for dinner.
41 weeks pregnant! Last belly shot before the hospital…
The big day…
After 2 nights of no sleep, I finally went into REAL labor late Thursday night – actually at about 2:30am Friday morning. The contractions had sped up significantly to every 8-10 minutes all night long. At about 5:30am I texted my doula and she wanted me to keep her posted on progress and we kept in touch throughout the morning. I labored at home finding any position to get me through – hands and knees and bending over with my arms on a wall were the best positions. At around noon, I knew it was time for my doula to come over, it was getting intense and I was having contractions every 5 minutes.
What contractions feel like…
For those of you who have never given birth or experienced contractions, it feels like the worst stomach cramp you have ever experienced, and like a wave of sensation with a strong peak that you absolutely have to breathe to get through if you want to be able to handle the pain. It takes all of your focus and concentration during the contraction just to get to the next one. The key is to relax in between the contractions as much as possible so you can get through the next one.
Is it time to go to the hospital yet?
I had been in my bedroom all morning by the time my doula arrived. She got me up out of bed and said “take me on a tour of your house” and so we went through and walked my entire house – going up and down the stairs in my house, I contracted on each wall! I had to hold on to her or the wall and bend down for every contraction. After the tour, I thought it would be a good time to eat something, my doula suggested soup and my husband warmed me up some butternut squash soup I had made for our freezer meals after the baby was born. I ate that with some crackers and water. It was so good! I was starving! Then it was finally time for the tub. This was my doula’s “last resort” before getting to the hospital, getting from the stage of early labor to active labor so I would not be in the hospital for too long before giving birth.
According to many natural birth experts, if you get to the hospital too early, there is more time for interventions, so the key is to get there at just the right time to avoid that. My doula was very experienced in knowing when to go and without her, I probably would have left earlier… my husband was definitely getting antsy and a bit nervous at this point!
I had a ginger blackberry popsicle in the bath – it was delicious, but I couldn’t finish it – the contractions were coming too strong! The bath helped me get through them until about 5:00pm, and then I started feeling an intense amount of pelvic pressure that made me want to push.
When my doula witnessed this, she knew it was time to head to the hospital. My husband put the last minute things in the car, handed me my labor robe and nightgown to wear and walked me down the stairs to the car. I was worried about the car ride to the hospital, because even though we were close to the hospital, I was contracting every two minutes. I didn’t want to get out of the bath either because it was such an amazing feeling and the soothing warmth of the water was helping so much with the intense contractions.
We arrived at the hospital at 5:30pm…
Once I got to the hospital, I completed a cervical exam (my least favorite thing to do while being pregnant!) – I was at 6 cm and a midwife had to double check it because they thought I had broke my water already too. My doula and I were stunned that they said that I broke it because I didn’t feel anything at all! That same day, I had lost my mucus plug however, which I had been looking forward to seeing as a sign of labor. It was one of those things I was looking for every time I used the bathroom but never found prior to that day. As soon as we got settled into the delivery room, one of my first contractions broke my water. It was the loudest pop I’d ever heard inside my body and it brought on a flood of emotions (no pun intended!). It still baffles me that they thought I had already broke it!
My doula whispered to me, things are about to speed up, so let’s get the tub ready. The tub in the delivery room had these magical massaging jets that I didn’t have at home and I was really excited about that. My contractions were coming really fast and very hard in the tub. So hard that the jets no longer felt good and after a few minutes, I begged and screamed to turn the jets off. It got so hot, I thought I was going to melt. Thank goodness for the cooler of coconut water my husband brought to the delivery room – I think I drank about 4 bottles within just a few hours. And this whole time, my sweet nurse was trying to monitor the baby’s heart beat which for some reason really made me uncomfortable, the tiny bit of pressure from the hand held doppler on my pelvis was driving me nuts!
In transition, I was loud like an animal!
I screamed like an animal for a couple of hours (my throat hurt so bad the next day – so remember to bring some organic throat drops with you mamas!). Giving birth is such a primal experience, and I never thought I would hear the sounds that would come out of my mouth. I was in full gorilla ape mode! Leading up to my birth, I thought I would be a quiet birther but heck no! Making the animal sounds really helped me get through the intensity.
My doctor, who is a huge advocate for natural birth and very supportive of my birth plan, arrived at the scene. I was SO HAPPY to see her. I was progressing so fast and when I got out of the tub, I couldn’t believe it – I was fully dilated and ready to push about 8:45pm.
Pushing was very athletic!
I got back to the delivery bed and tried to find some positions that would be the best to push in. As many mama’s know, laying on your back is not really the most comfortable position during contractions or pushing, and my birth team had some other tricks up their sleeve. It ended up being that a squat bar and laying on my side were what worked best for me. So I used both of those positions throughout my pushing.
At this point, I had been laboring for about 18 hours and I was tired! But the pain was not that bad, nothing worse than what I had already experienced up until that point.
At first it took me awhile to get a hang of pushing. I had been breathing heavily through contractions, and my birth team really wanted me to push through contractions while holding my breath – the opposite of what I had been doing all day long! That was difficult for me and really stressed out my body. I felt intense pain on my chest, holding my breath and almost like I was drowning from the lack of oxygen!
I eventually got the hang of it and only pushed for an hour and a half before my daughter was born at 10:11pm.
The final pushes were really athletic and it took everything in me to focus – I felt the ring of fire, but it wasn’t as bad as I expected. When she finally came out, I heard the doctor do something (but didn’t really know what was happening at the time because I couldn’t believe I just pushed her out…) and then she checked to see if I tore, and said everything looked great – no tears to stitch!
In absolute awe…
I was so stunned and so in awe when my daughter was born… the sense of accomplishment… the excitement of seeing her for the first time… everything that you dream about. It is so magical and the feeling of relief is so instant that everything you did up until that point becomes a BILLION times worth it!
For every birth video I had seen since I became pregnant, I cried at the end when the baby was born. Even reading a birth story, I would cry at the end. But when my own baby came, I didn’t cry. I was just so happy and I felt my heart exploding with love! I will never ever be able to equate giving birth to anything else I’ve ever accomplished in my life. It is definitely my greatest achievement and was so thankful everything went as I had hoped.
After the birth, we waited until the cord stopped pulsating and my husband cut the cord, I got to spend a lot of time skin to skin with my baby and breastfeeding, but the baby nurse did take her away to weigh her, measure her, clean out her nasal passages and mouth and take a blood sample to test her blood sugar (which in hindsight – I wish I would have waited for). It felt like an eternity those few minutes she was out of my arms!
We spent about 36 hours more at the hospital before going home…
The next morning, I really just wanted to take my baby in my arms and say peace out, but I had to stay to monitor my blood pressure that was high after birth. Thankfully it has been treated naturally since leaving the hospital and is back down. They did prescribe me some pharmaceuticals for high blood pressure to take at home before I left (which I didn’t end up taking). I know my body, and knew it would be back to normal in a flash, if I rested and allowed my body recover from the lack of sleep and exhaustion! I also had a wonderful at home acupuncture treatment about 5 days later that worked like a miracle for my blood pressure and sore muscles.
More details emerge about my birth…
When my doula came over for a postpartum visit, I learned that my baby was born with the cord wrapped around her neck, this is what I heard my doctor taking care of, but didn’t see it when she was coming out. My doctor gently looped the cord back over her head before the rest of her body came out, and the cord was long enough that it didn’t pose any danger during the delivery, thank God! It was kinda scary learning about this days later, but it is a really very common thing to happen. It’s amazing that a safe natural birth is still possible in circumstances like this!
Having strong support is a must!
I know I couldn’t have achieved a natural child birth without the coaching of a doula, a supportive doctor, and a very positive and helpful nurse – I had the A Team for sure! Giving birth is like a marathon. At a marathon, at every water stop along the way, you have people cheering you on with motivational signs and encouraging you to finish. You need the same support while giving birth because there are so many times you think to yourself that you can’t do it or you’re not sure if it is possible or if something will go wrong and you are tired! You need that positive energy in the room to get you through it. There were a few moments during labor where I asked the team “can I do this?” and they would say “yes, you can do this”, and that really motivated me. Taking drugs, however, did not enter my mind once! I credit this to my daily practice of birth affirmation cards leading up to the birth.
I feel incredibly lucky I got to experience natural hospital birth, which I know is not often the case for many.
There were times when I thought I will never, ever, ever have another child while I was going through the really tough parts of labor (the point where my water broke to the point where I started pushing), but that thought went 100% out the window after meeting my baby and the high that I felt of accomplishing my goal of a natural childbirth. I will take 10 babies please!!!! Mr. Food Babe, are you ready? haha.
A heartfelt thank you to my extended birth team!
I want to thank my magical birth team: my dear husband who was 100% supportive of my decision to go natural and even more incredible now as a new Dad, all of the women in my life that shared their advice, birth stories and wisdom with me, Genevieve from Mama Natural for her amazing birth course and affirmation cards, Megan from Detoxinista, Latham Thomas from Mama Glow, my sister-in-law Judy who has given natural birth twice!, my trainers at Hilliard Studio Method and K.O. Fitness who kept me in tip top shape all the way to 40 weeks, Charlotte OB/GYN, Carolina Medical Center Maternity Center, my doula Melissa Fehr, my acupuncturist and prenatal massage therapist.
I’ll be sharing much more about my pregnancy and motherhood in future posts to come, until then… if you know someone who is pregnant, a mom or wants some inspiration for a natural child birth, please share this post with them and feel free to ask any questions in the comments below! I want to help as many mamas as possible achieve a natural birth, if that is what they want to do.
Follow me on @thefoodbabe over on Instagram for my daily adventures into motherhood!
Thank you for all the sweet comments and well wishes you sent this week on social media when I announced our daughter’s birth. I love this community so much and it brings me so much joy to share this very personal story with you.
Xo,
Vani
Congratulations to you both!
Your little Angel is precious. Remember to nurture yourself well as you are your daughters main food source for a few months. After I had my first child I felt that my heart grew even larger and felt deeper true love. Hope you feel that.
Congratulations and Mazel Tov, indeed! After I gave birth (with midwives and no meds) I thought about that Jewish prayer, a man thanking G-d that he was a man and not female. I expect you feel that way about your husband.
Any woman gives birth and has to be TOLD to thank G-d that He made her female–something is WRONG with that woman!
I don’t know how the men-creatures STAND it not being female, but I am VERY glad that they are male!
Congratulations to you and your husband on your baby girl! So impressed that you made it through natural child birth. I signed up for the epidural the minute I got to the hospital with both of my children. You are truly an inspiration.
I am sure rhat you hear this a lot, but in this case, it is true. You really have a cute baby. Feed her healthily and may she live for several hundred years.
So happy for you Vani! I cried at the end of your story! It takes me back to my own gorgeous natural birth last year. Enjoy your beautiful, sweet little one. She is so lucky to have you for her mama! Can’t wait to hear more about your adventures in motherhood. <3
Congratulations! She is a beauty!
Congratulations! it is special to share our birth stories. My baby just turned 35. Enjoy every moment..they grow so fast!
Vani and family, Congratulations and God bless your beautiful new family of three! This is the closest thing that we humans have to the love that God has for each of us! Treasure each moment, be gentle with yourself as you recover and let everyone who loves you pamper you. Oh, and now that you know the reality of the amazing and difficult work of birth, don’t forget to thank your mom for having you 🙂
Lovely story. I wish I would have known what you knew when I had my first baby 58 years ago. However I did have three more after her and they where all natural births. God Blesd the three of you. Marg.
Having a baby is a true miracle. Truley a precious miracle. It’s amazing that our bodies can carry and nurture a baby till birth. When I see a pregnant woman it’s the Most beautiful thing….. Congratulations!!! Your child will bring you so much joy you’ll want more, lol.
Congratulations! Great job Mom! Harley is absolutely beautiful! Sincerely, Debra
You are both beautiful!! Congratulations to you and Mr. Food Babe!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
I am so happy for you both!!!
Wishing you lot’s of love and joy!!!
Can’t wait to see your line of baby food!!!
Keep us posted!!!
Melissa 🙂
She is beautiful. She looks so perfect and peaceful.
Congratulations! My goal was all natural and we had contractions for a month leading up to birth. However, amniotic fluid was getting low and we were induced at 40 weeks and after 36 hours of labor and broken water at hour 26 we had to have an emergency cesarean. The cord was around his neck three times, he was too large for my birth canal, and he was turned the wrong way. Three factors that prevented him from “dropping”. A healthy and safe baby should really have been my only goal because things don’t go as planned and sometimes a safe delivery is really all that matters. I wish someone had told me that any delivery that makes for a healthy mama and baby is all you need to focus on.
Stephanie B–I felt the same way 27 years ago when I had my son. I did not end up with the birth story I had anticipated due to a C-section. I beat myself up about it for a long time, because women made me feel like I had not had the REAL birth experience because I had not pushed him out. Almost like I wasn’t a REAL woman! I felt bad about it for a long time. Finally I realized the IMPORTANT thing was having a happy, healthy baby–which I did. THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS! My second child was also a C-section, due to an infection. I didn’t stress about it that time. I was just happy that she had arrived safely!
CONGRATULATIONS! Harley is perfect…and beyond lucky to have you!
Baby is so beautiful. Blessings for her and the new parents
Congratulations to you both and your entire family!
Congratulations, Vani!! She is such a beautiful baby and looks very much like you. I can only imagine what a beautiful experience you just went through. I’ve never given birth & never will – so thank you for the vicarious experience! Much love to you & your little one <3
Congratulations to you and your husband on the birth of your beautiful baby girl!
What a great read, you made my day! As glorious as it was educational. Well now, you have a mini ‘Food Babe(y)’~!~ Sincere congratulations and Thank You for your devotion to all our health & nutritional concerns~!~
Wow, congratulations and hugs for all!!! Good job!!! I have never had children and am now 60, and I have never read such a wonderful recap. I felt like I was experiencing every move with you. Great job of conveying your feelings, etc.
Very happy for you to have this miracle!!!!!!!!!
Mazel Tov Food Baba Mama! Thanks for sharing your beautiful birth experience. I had two home births ( now 16 and 14 yr olds)! It’s amazing how empowering natural birth is and you did it!!! Enjoy all the fabulous moments ahead and thanks for bringing me back into the birthing experience via your story. Great way to relive the glory… without the pain!?
Congrats to you all!! I had a very similar birth story for my first and proceeded to have 3 more babies after(including a set of twins!) All amazing birth stories and all natural births! The accomplished feeling is like nothing else!! There is a reason it is called LABOR, right?!? So happy you had a great team, I can not agree more…my team was amazing as well!!! Support is key to have the birth you want, as well as good health and it is obvious you had both!! Enjoy the cuddle time…it goes by so quickly!! 🙂
Blessings and love surround you all from Tennessee. Thank you for sharing your beautiful story and yes I cried, cried and laughed. It brought me back to my delivery. What an amazing adventure you and Mr. Food Babe Dad have ahead, congratulations to you all.
Huge congrats Vani! Loved reading your story – I’m 33.5 weeks and we changed doctors last week because we were not feeling confident we were going to get the natural birth we were after. Can I ask did you Birth the placenta naturally? Also what are your thoughts on the Vit K shot or drops? In Australia there is a lot of fear mongering into Vit K. Enjoy every minute with your gorgeous family – such a special time xox
Yes I did, whoa forgot to mention that – will probably go back and add that detail. It came out while I was holding my daughter so I was pretty pre-occupied! 🙂 Also we declined the Vitamin K shot and opted for an oral option to be given at home. We followed the protocol offered by Stanford University and recommended by a member of my advisor council.
What a great birth story. I am a labor & delivery nurse and usually don’t care to hear them because they are usually focused on what didn’t go exactly right. Love how positive you are Vani, focusing on your goals, whatever they are and preparing. I never care what my patients want, I just want to support their choices and for them to consider the advice of the professionals they’ve hired when needed. It is also obvious that no matter what happened, you would have made the best of it. It’s impressive you waited at home instead of going too soon. I crack up when ladies show up after an hour of contractions and then tell me they don’t want the epidural, in fact they aren’t even in labor yet! You kept an open mind! That is SO important. And you also describe what I don’t hear enough, the overwhelming sense of accomplishment and love after having a baby. I felt like I had a natural high for about a month after having my kids! Thanks for sharing!
Makes me so happy you enjoyed it 🙂
CONGRATS! No one can express the love one feels for a baby until they have one. Some say it’s a love so deep that they never knew it existed beforehand. I totally agree and I’m sure you now know the feeling. Blessings for all.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I just loved reading it. Congrats to you and your husband on your beautiful daughter.
Congratulations!!!! She is beautiful!
Congratulations Vani,she is a treasure!Can’t wait for more pictures! She is lucky to have you as her mom!
Congrats to you and your husband. Hold on tight and enjoy every moment, the time with your children just seems to fly by. Those were the best years of my life. Thanks so much for sharing.
Congratulations , glad to hear everyone is doing fine. This is the most precious time of your life . Enjoy every moment . You have been so good to all of us that I will share a best kept secret from Nova Scotia, Canada. We live in Green Bay Nova Scotia , the only Beach community that I know . People come from UK, States , and
Local . There is a Beach Canteen that opened in 1929 and the same family still run it
Your children can experience a beach vacation like camp fires , wood stoves , local crafts , Lahave Bakery( organic) , Fireman’s Breakfast every Saturday morning .
Check out Lunenburg , Mahone Bay, Chester , Peggy’s Cove , all within 30 minutes.
If you ever want to visit, we offer our leg work for your connivence and you will have a stress free vacation on the Beach. I forgot to mention we are 2 minutes from Crescent Beach that you can drive or walk 1.5 miles long
Keep this info within the next 2 to 5 years you may want to travel . Our girls are 12 and 14 years old and we have never had a babysitter. Again real happy for you and your husband very special time.
Charles & Val
Congratulations Vanni! I loved reading your birth story. I remember mine very well even though it’s been 28 years since that day come April. Enjoy every minute of babyhood and take lots and lots of photos. It goes by so quickly. Your daughter is so beautiful.
Wow what a birth story! So wonderful to hear that everything went as planned! Your daughter is precious & you look great! The love & joys of mommyhood is like no other, your life is forever changed! God bless you & your family!
Wow! What a beauty just like her mom. My baby is 20, but it seems like yesterday I gave birth to her. From now on, you will be totally smitten! Enjoy!
Congratulations! Four natural birth mama here! It is completely doable with the right mindset and great medical staff! My first was my most difficult and longest labor, each subsequent child was shorter labor and much less challenging as I knew I could do it. Fear is a birthing woman’s enemy. The more fear she has, the less her body can relax and do it’s job. Great work mama!
Congrats on your bundle of joy!
I would love to know which books you found to be most helpful!
What a glorious, precious gift!! You are truly blessed and I thank God that you have a healthy beautiful little one to love and cherish all the days of your life. I told my hubby today, after he told me you were a mommy, that now your focus and determination would change. Thank you for making our country and lifestyles safer and healthier…I love that Panera has taken a more healthy attitude towards serving us. Keep up the GREAT work…Love to you and your awesome family!
Congratulations to you and your husband. Beautiful baby!!
Congratulations! I agree – natural child birth was awesome and it’s incredible how fast your body recovers afterwards! Enjoy your little bundle.
Congratulations on the birth of your beautiful daughter! Thank you for sharing your experience with us!
Thank you for sharing your childbirth story. My firstborn child is 54 years old…yet I never tire of stories of the miracle of birth. My warm regards to you and your husband and beautiful daughter!
Wow, thanks for sharing. Congratulations!!!!!! You’ll never be the same and never know another love like this. Glad you’re ready to do it all over again.
Congratulations to both of you! Harley Diane, is just beautiful! She looks like a precious little angel!! Your story brought back so many wonderful memories when I had my daughter twenty seven years ago. Hats off to you! It is tough going through labor and delivery natural without any medications. I opt out for an epidural. I have to say I went three weeks early. The day I was in labor my husband and I went to a wedding and a party that night. I had no idea I was in labor. When we got home I was sitting on the couch and your right the sound of your water breaking was very loud and water everywhere. I have to say they had a little hot tub filled with hot water which really helped with the back pains and I too felt like I was going to melt in there. I did the same as you I wrote down everything I experienced with being pregnant and labor and delivery for my daughter. Enjoy your precious little girl! Before you know it you will be having tea parties with her and playing with dolls etc. Can’t wait to read your next posts on little Harley! Also thank you for all the tips and info I really like Thrive Market! Sincerely, Carol ?
So happy for you all ! What a true testimony of who you portray. Staying strong to the food babe way through pregnancy , having 6 of my own , I can attest to the difficulty of the temptations . Congratulations what a beautiful baby
I am thrilled for you!! Best wishes
Congratulations and God Bless your family. Thank you for excellent advice and servivee
Valgha Valamudan,Congrates, you and your baby are special in this world.We are welcome your child to our wonderful world.God given to your child healthy and prosperous life.