Marissa's (almost) Natural Childbirth

Marissa called me when she was 34 weeks pregnant with her second baby. Her first delivery had not gone the way that she had hoped and she REALLY wanted this delivery to be different. The problem was that she had NO supports for her birth. The father of her baby was incarcerated and she was not close to any family members in the area. She hoped that I could help her achieve a better birth experience this time around. When I met with her we discussed her previous delivery and why it had been so traumatic. Marissa explained the chain of events that led to the delivery of her son six years ago. Apparently her water had broken spontaneously but her contractions never began. Hours later she was advised to come into the hospital for a Pitocin augmentation. Every fifteen minutes the nurse would increase the Pitocin dosage and a few hours later she had such intense pain that she asked for demerol (although she had wanted a natural childbirth). Hours later she was still contracting and making little progress and the demerol was wearing off...that led to the epidural. The epidural futher slowed the labor and now she was unable to walk to bring the baby down faster...36 hours later she pushed out her baby boy. Although she was happy to have her son, she was so exhausted and drugged that she could not fully appreciate the moment and bond as much as she had hoped to. This time she wanted no Pitocin and no pain medication and hoped that I could help her stay strong throughout her natural childbirth journey.


A week later I met Marissa at her tiny apartment. She was clearly trying to make the best of an extremely poor living situation and I was immediately glad that I had agreed to be her doula for free. She really needed the help. Marissa introduced me to her 6-year old son Edward who was very outgoing and sweet. After seeing all of Edward's coloring books, Marissa and I got down to talking about her delivery and her hopes for the birth of her daughter.


I met with Marissa one more time before her delivery and we became very comfortable with one another. I could tell she really trusted me and was ready to work with me during her delivery. We talked about her concerns and her hopes for the delivery. We discussed her ideal birth and her worst-case scenarios. I baked her a bunch of cookies and she and Edward enjoyed those as he practiced his spelling homework with me. She said that she was more nervous this time around than her first delivery but she was ready to have her baby girl.

About a week later Marissa called me in the middle of the night. Her water had broken and she had just called the midwives at the hospital to see whether or not she should come in. The midwives told her to wait until she had contractions and to hydrate, eat and rest. I reassured her that this was the right thing to do and she agreed although I predicted that she would not be getting too much sleep that night. Sure enough when I called her at 9am the following morning she told me that she had only slept 1 hour the night before. There was just too much anticipation! She still wasn't having any contractions and I could tell she was nervous that this delivery would be like the last. I told her to walk around a lot and just try to get things moving and to call me when she was ready to go to the hospital. I was out shopping when she called at 1pm. She was frustrated. Still no contractions and the midwives were asking her to come into the hospital for a Pitocin augmentation. Over the phone I tried to reassure her that just because she was getting Pitocin did not mean this birth would be the same as her last. A bit before 3pm I arrived at the hospital where she had just been admitted. Her midwife had just checked her and said that she was 3cm and they wanted to start the Pitocin in the next 30 minutes. We both got settled and then the Pitocin drip started. Slow at first but increasing every 15 minutes. Luckily we were given a monitor with a remote tracker so we were able to walk around the labor floor to help move the labor along. We walked and walked and walked. Between walking she rocked in the rocking chair and I massaged her. She tried sitting or laying on the bed when she became really tired but the pain was much more intense when she was laying down. So we walked some more. The midwives and nurses switch shifts on the 7's so the new midwife came in around 7:15pm to check on Marissa. She said that things seemed to be progressing well but that she predicted we still had many more hours of labor left so she would come back around 2-3am to check her dilitation. I was surprised because it seemed to me that Marissa was entering transition and as a mulitp would probably deliver shortly thereafter. The midwife left the room and Marissa and I continued our routine...less walking now and more swaying during contractions. Marissa was very uncomfortable and said "I think I need the epidural." I reassured her that she was doing a wonderful job and she was doing everything she could for her baby. Although she asked a couple more times for the epidural, I could tell she didn't really want it. An hour later she said that she needed to go to the bathroom. I led her in there and asked "are you sure you don't have to push?" She said no, she was sure that she just needed to use the bathroom and I left her to it. Five minutes passed and I heard a yell from the bathroom, "the baby is coming OUT!" I got the nurse and the nurse got the midwife and we moved Marissa onto the bed just in time. Shaelyn was born a few minutes later pink and vigorous.

Marissa had done it. Shaelyn was born naturally (if you don't count the Pitocin) and I was so proud. I could tell she was pretty darn proud of herself too.