Natural Birth Advice from Katie

Natural birth is so different for everyone and I am no expert. I think the more positive input and encouragement you receive when planning a natural birth the better. So I asked a few of my fellow nurses and friends who have been through natural childbirth to email me their "best advice." Here is Katie's "best advice" for all you natural mamas. She is a labor and delivery nurse with me and also went "natural" with her second baby even though she had to be induced for medical reasons. Enjoy! Email me if you want to see your "best advice" here.- Abby

The reasons I chose natural childbirth were: to know what my patients were going through during labor, it was something I had always wanted to do and I wanted to see if I could, and I knew the recovery would be much easier.

The thing that helped me the most during labor was just keeping my body completely relaxed. I had done a lot of "pratice" while on bedrest with my braxton hicks contractions. Even though they weren't painful, it did help me to imagine what "real" contractions would be like. I didn't really start "preparing" until late in my pregnancy. Next time, I am going to do more preparation for sure. I did gather some music that I like and was relaxing to me. I did pray about it, because this was something I REALLY wanted to do. Two of my "nurse" friends (one being Abby) had delivered naturally and both were being induced or augmented. So, I knew it was possible.

As we all know, one of the most important parts is having a supportive nurse. I had one of my best friends Nina there with me. I could not have made it through it without her! Things we did that helped a lot were keeping the lights out, having relaxing music playing, and keeping visitors out. It was just Nina, Bobby, and me. I continuously reminded myself that God was in control and my body knew what to do. I just needed to relax and let m body do its job. Nina "gently" increased my pitocin. Our goal was to have my contractions strong enough and close enough together to make cervical change, but we weren't on anybody's time clock but our own.

Transition was very hard for me. From 8 cm until I finally felt the urge to push was terrible pain. But, I honestly believe that had I not begun fearing the contractions and doubting my ability to do this, then I wouldn't have hurt. I hadn't hurt up until this point. In the end, I made it, it might no have been the "prettiest" picture...but we did it!! Huge thanks to Nina and my husband for supporting me through this. Now, it is Nina's turn. I just hope I am as supportive to her as she was to me!!