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.

Xico's Birth Story

In May of 2003 my husband and I found out that we would be expecting our first baby. This was our first pregnancy and we were bound and determined to pop out a healthy little vegan baby. My husband and I are the 1st vegans on both sides of our families, and with his being a traditional meat eating Mexican family and mine being a heavy meat eating family you can only imagine how skeptical both sides were on how healthy our child would be. But we were vigilant and researched my nutritional needs extensively. People would tell us that I was going to have a small baby ( this based on the fact that we are vegan and because I only gained about 25-30 pounds throughout my pregnancy, all tummy too.) I was bound and determined to have this baby come out as healthy as possible to prove that a vegan diet can give a person everything they need and then some.

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On Tuesday, January 13th at about 11pm I began feeling some mild contractions. They were 20 minutes apart, this continued all through the night and through the next day. They began to come closer together on Wednesday until finally that evening they were coming 5 minutes a part and were so strong I could hardly walk through them. My husband drove me to the hospital at 9pm that night.

When we got to the hospital we found that I was already 4 cm dilated so they put me into a labor room and let me walk around a little bit. They had also found that I was really dehydrated (I hardly drank any water the day before), so they had to put an IV into me. Word to the wise for all you pregnant moms out there: drink your water! Having to be attached to an IV going through labor pains is no fun! You can't move around comfortably! I also highly recommend pre birth and Lamaze classes. The breathing techniques really help you get your mind off of the pain. Since I wanted no narcotic intervention during this pregnancy they helped me a lot.

At about 2am that night I was dilated to 7 cm. I was progressing really quickly for a first time mom. The pains were hard, and if my husband, Angel, hadn't been there to hold my hand through it, I don't think I would have gotten through it as I did. Finally I dilated to 9+++ cm. The last little bit would not move to allow the head to come through. I tried pushing, but the cervix was becoming swollen. After 5 hours of labor I was becoming exhausted. I hardly had enough energy to keep my mind off of the pain. The nurse said that perhaps if I took something to "take the edge off" that it would allow me to rest and allow the swelling to go down. I was heart broken. I talked it over with my husband, and we decided to take it because I was becoming very fatigued and I wouldn't be able to last through the pushing part of the labor. Well God must have heard my prayers because right after that when the nurse came in to check me before getting the pain killers I had finally dilated to a full 10. Then the pushing began.

This was probably the hardest part of the labor. Apparently my pelvic area was smaller than the baby's head. Getting the head pushed around the bone and out was extremely difficult. I pushed and pushed and pushed and the baby's head would always almost get there and just slip back in. After about an hour and a half of this the baby was finally ready to come out. I then had to push the head completely out. Well that wasn't working so they had to stick a suction cup on the baby's head to help me out. Well that did it and at 4:55am on Thursday January 15th our little boy was born.

We named him Angel Xicomozomah Dominguez, and he weighed in at 7lbs 2oz. He was completely awake and alert checking everything out. He got to breast feed right afterward and boy did he know what he was doing. He took to feeding right away and still eats like a little piggy. Xicomozomah (pronounced "shee-co-mo-zo-ma")is Nahuatl for "courageous like a bumble bee". The name suits him very well, like a bumble bee he's calm and keeps to himself, minding his own business, but if you pester or make him angry-Watch Out! We call him Xico for short, and he is now the light in our lives and makes our little family complete.

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