Vegan Birth Stories

Please read our collection of birth stories. If you'd like to submit your own, please submit your story here. Vegan or vegetarian birth stories are welcome.

Cory's Birth Story

When I was pregnant with my 4th child 3 years ago, I became fascinated with the idea of homebirth, but my situation at that time would not allow it. I ended up with another less than wonderful hospital birth, and was left with a belief that my body didn't work right, and couldn't be trusted to do what it needed to do.

I went to bed 2/16, my due date, feeling some mild contractions, but they were nothing I was going to get excited about, because I'd been having a lot of contractions in the week and a half before. I was beginning to feel frustrated at having all these contractions that were going nowhwere, I thought for sure it would be a repeat of Cassie's birth. I was convinced that my body wasn't going to know how to go into labor on its own after having had pitocin for my two previous births. I was kicking myself for my past birth experiences, and my worst fear was that my water would break, and I wouldn't go into labor on my own. I didn't even mention these contractions to Larry, because I didn't really believe they would go anywhere.

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I went to bed about 11pm. I woke up an hour later to go to the bathroom, and I was still having contractions, but they weren't strong enough to stop me from going back to sleep. I woke up again at 1 with a stronger contraction, and that's the point where I started wondering if maybe this was it. During one of the contractions, I could almost feel the hormones overtaking my body, and I thought, "I bet these are real" but didn't trust my body enough to actually believe that. I couldn't get back to sleep after that, even though the contractions weren't all that strong.

At about 2am I got up and started to time them and they were about 9 minutes apart. I was still unsure what was going on, and not really trusting that I could actually be in labor. I got in the shower, because the shower had been doing an excellent job of making contractions that were going nowhere stop. This time, they got stronger. They started feeling different, down low, how I remembered them feeling when I was having Cassie. I got out of the shower, it was about 3:30, and as I was looking at the clock, the contractions went from 5 minutes down to 3 minutes. I was starting to need support through them, so at about 3:45 I started grabbing on to Larry's shoulders as I was having a contraction. Might have been nice for me to wake him up first, huh? :) When he woke up, I told him I thought it might be time for us to call Mary, the midwife. By the time I finally decided to, it was a little after 4am.

Mary said to get into the tub for 20 minutes to see if it made them stop, and then to call her back. I got halfway into the bathroom, and decided forget the tub, we needed her to come. I did a quick check of my cervix, and could feel the bag bulging and Cory's head behind it. This was definitely it! I wasn't totally sure until that moment. It was such a cool thing to feel first hand just how the cervix works - amazing!!

I called Mary back, and then Larry called his sister Lisa, who was going to be taking pictures. Lisa was a little concerned because she was having a hard time finding someone to cover her shift - she's an NICU nurse. As we waited for Mary to arrive, we straightened up the house a bit, and I made the bed with the plastic sheet and extra sheet on top. Every time I had a contraction, I'd crawl on the bed on my hands and knees, and I was able to cope very well. I was coherent and had somewhat of a sense of humor throughout, up until pushing. During the contractions, listening to the sound of the wind blowing outside was very calming to me. The contractions spaced out, but I could tell that the sooner Mary got here, the better it would be.

Mary arrived at about 4:45am, and upon exam, said I was 7cms with a bulging bag. She said once the water broke, it would be very quick. Larry called Lisa back, and said if you want to be here, you better come now. She said she'd be on her way. Lisa made it here about 5:15, and Mary broke my water. This is when it got rough. At first I really didn't feel the urge to push, and then even when I did, it hurt. Mary was holding back a little rim of cervix left while I pushed, and that was excruciating. I think I pushed through 2 contractions, and then Mary told me to stop pushing, to just breathe, because the baby was coming whether I pushed or not. She said "I am neurotic about tearing, and I will not permit you to tear. So stop pushing!" I just kept saying "I can't, I can't&quto; and let out a pretty big yell as Cory's head was born. They weren't kidding about that ring of fire thing. Yeowch. How did I miss this in 4 previous births?

After the head was born, pushing his body out felt fantastic, and I helped lift him up to my chest. No tears!! I couldn't believe how great his color was, and how clean he was! Barely any blood on him at all, and no vernix. His one-minute apgar was 9, and I never thought to ask about the 5 minute. He was absolutely beautiful, skin so soft and silky... I was just amazed at the whole thing... again... Larry had his arm around me and held me as I held our baby, the whole thing fulfilled every fantasy I've ever had about the perfect birth. I was just overwhelmed with emotion, both for my newborn son, and his father.

Cory latched on after just a few minutes and nursed like an expert. Mary went on with seeing about the placenta and other stuff, while Lisa took pictures, and I fell head over heals in love with my new son. Lisa left at about 6:15 - she was able to be there for the birth, and get to work on time :) Mary did the newborn assessment, cleaned up the mess, and was gone by about 7:15am. Connor and Chad woke up to hearing a baby cry at about 8 or so... heh, they went to bed and I was pregnant, and when they woke up, there was a baby! Cassie was just absolutely enthralled with her brother, and still is... She keeps saying "he's beautiful!"

All in all it was pretty perfect. Everyone made it in time, I was able to deal with the pain, the kids slept through the whole thing, and Cory is heathy and gorgeous. And I again have a little faith in my body, and the miracle of birth.

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