I especially love this story because it really supports what I'm learning in my Hypnobabies classes. And I love how Crystal was supported in her journey to a natural birth by other women around her. Feeling that support, feeling a part of something greater, and larger than ourselves is so important. We are only one in a long chain of strong, empowered women who have accomplished the same great miracle that is bringing another life into being.
I played college soccer. I could out run everyone on the team. I excelled at physical endeavors and mentally approached everything as a competition. When
I became pregnant, all of that was preparation for the task at hand,
a healthy and joyful birth; to make it the greatest moment of my life. I knew I could do it. When people asked, I told them, “I plan to have a natural birth.” Followed by, “Yes, without an epidural.” This was usually met with an apologetic look and, “Well, that is what my sister/cousin/friend/wife said and…” Months of this and I too, began to doubt myself.
Three weeks before my due date, I was downtown in a tiny shop. A woman probably a decade older than me, whom I did not know, approached me. She smiled and asked my due date. I told her. She leaned in and gently said, “It really doesn’t hurt.” “What?” I asked. She looked at my slyly, “When I gave birth, it didn’t hurt. I don’t know why they say that, ‘pain.’ It is such a false description; it is more of an intense
pressure, a very intense pressure. But it feels good; because your body knows what to do.” We chatted more. She told me her name, Margot, and her child birth preparation teacher, Ruth, the very same woman as ours.
Two days later, I could no longer deny the fact that I was in labor. I went to work, I ate lunch, I called the doc. My husband and I spent our last hours as just the two of us together walking our yard. My water broke as I tried to sit in the swing. We went to the hospital. They were full. I paced the halls as they found a room for us. I rocked on a birthing ball and my nurse put her hands on my knees. She looked me squarely in the eyes and said, “What do you think?” Although I could barely speak and we had only just met, I told her the first thing that came to mind, “I want to do it naturally.” She replied, “Great. I know you can do it.”
We walked, we paced, I bounced on the birthing ball, we showered, we hit 10cm two hours after arriving at the hospital. There was intense pressure. An hour and a half of pushing later, our baby girl was born, beet red and healthy. She was placed on my chest. I sobbed tears of joy, my husband sobbed tears of joy. Our nurse cried. We named her Margot. I sipped the only substance I was administered since I had been admitted, a cranberry and ginger-ale “cocktail.” It was perfect.
My daughter’s birth was the most AMAZING experience. Two women I had never met and who did not know me, believed in me. They knew something many of those close to me doubted… that I could birth on my own terms. I could have the birth that I wanted. I will remember it vividly as the most powerful and awe inspiring moment in my life. And you can too. I know it.
