I found Gentle Birth Options when I found out I was pregnant with my second child. My son was 8 months old and had been born at Eglin afb. I had dreamed of an amazing peaceful natural birth but as a first time mom I had given into the pressure and was induced at 41 weeks 2 days only 12 hours after my water broke I had tried very hard to make it through the intense painful pitocin induced labor but after 13 hours my body was giving up. I ended up getting an epidural that I had fought so hard to avoid. My son Tavin was born an hour later healthy but I was disappointed in my body. I knew next time it was going to be different. I never wanted to set foot in a labor and delivery unit ever again. This time aroud we decided to be surprised and not find out the babys gender. I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy so I will start my birth story off here... After 2 and a half weeks of prodromal labor and a couple false starts I was awoken at 4am by a surprisingly strong rush of intense sensation. Not believing it I laid in bed for a while longer, after 3 in a row I couldn't lay down comfortably anymore and I was quite hungry so I got up make myself a shake whilst still having strong rushes I was having to stop what I was doing and breath through them. I decided then that this was the real thing and quietly started getting things together that I needed to take with me to the birthing center. I didn't yet want to wake my husband in case it wasn't really happening, but after a couple hours I'm going to say it was around 6 am that I decided to let Joseph(my husband)know that I was pretty sure it was the real deal and to give my birth team the heads up. Oddly enough he was awake with Tavin (they had slept upstairs to give me some peace and quiet. He said Tavin who never wakes up early for anything had randomly woke at 4 am and refused to sleep.) Joseph called my midwife let her know. she said if they needed to they would be able to be at the birthing center in 30 mins I decided to wait a little bit longer and we said we will call when we are ready for sure. He got up and helped me finish getting packed I let my friend who said she would watch Tavin know that we would be dropping him off. Joseph was going to make the 10 minute round trip over there and come back and get me but as he was about to walk out the door I had a very intense rush that made me involuntarily blurt out PLEASE HURRY! Thats when he made the call because he clearly knows me better then I know myself as I was secretly still in denial that this was actually labor. He quickly loaded me up as well and we headed out. My rushes spaced out in the car which didn't help my denial and I was nervous that we were headed in too early. However they promptly picked back up. Car contractions are really not fun! We arrived at GBO around 7:30. Christina met me outside to help us in. I was bent over the back of the car, I looked up with a big smile and said HI! I could tell by the look on her face(which she later confirmed) that she she was thinking it was going to be a long day! The Birth team got me checked in and then left us alone to settle. Labor picked up pretty quickly and after a particularly intense rush I decided I wanted to get into the tub. Joseph started the water which got my birth teams attention because like I had already tried to tell him he needed to let them know to come fill the tub. My midwife Carla then performed my one and only cervical check and said I was at about 6cm able to stretch to 8. Then it was time to get in to the nice warm relaxing water. It was like heaven! I was not in there long I had to pee and got out. Peeing was extremely difficult because every time I needed to I would be having an intense rush and sitting down was near impossible I settled back in the tub but a little later thought I needed to poo and got back out. Joseph said that's probably the baby! Don't poo that's that's the baby! I was pretty positive it was just poo but Christina rushed in and blurted out "don't you have a toilet baby!" Which got me laughing and contracting while trying to sit which was already pretty much an impossible task and I'm sure quite the sight. They however were very right and I headed right back to the tub. About 2 rushes later there was a pop and a gush and I felt the baby decend pretty rapidly. My body decided it was time to push. I made deep primal growling noises that I have never made before in my entire life. My body was on auto pilot. I was reminded by my midwife to relax a bit and when I did my instinct told me to lean backwards and in doing this the baby's head popped out! My body then rested which seemed like forever but it was really only long enough for Joseph to say why don't you push the rest of the baby out? and me to respond with because I'm not having a contraction! until another contraction hit and then the rest of the baby emerged. The cord was around the neck so my midwife quickly unwrapped it and just like that it was over and I was holding my sweet precious baby GIRL! I was so surprised I did a double take and and even asked for confirmation that what I was so seeing was actually girl parts. Miss Skyler came into this world at exactly 9 am. It was over with so quickly. I was grateful that I listened to my husband and left when we we did because we were only at the birth center for an hour and at half before she was born. I DID IT! I accomplished my goals. I had trusted my body and birthed my daughter without fear. My husband had been the exact support I needed. My birth team was awesome, we had some good laughs and I felt at home with them. I was able to relax and let my body do all the work. It was exactly what I needed to overcome the disappointment in my body that had haunted me. Skyler J'Ann Mabry was welcomed into this world on 6/17/2014 @ 9am at 40weeks 4 days gestation. 7lbs 9oz 20in long.
Cindi Denbow
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