Birthing Luca completely natural became a goal of mine long before my pregnancy with him. Because of my lifestyle choices and values, I could say preparation for a natural birth really began years ago, but when it came to birth I knew that no matter how much I planned or researched Luca would have his own plan. With that in mind, I shifted my focus to the things I could control- my mindset and continuing to make healthy, holistic choices to have an enjoyable pregnancy.

As soon as my partner Hugo and I decided we wanted to start a family, I began reading up on natural childbirth. I stumbled across the Mama Natural Week by Week Guide to Pregnancy & Childbirth by Genevieve Howland and immediately started listening to the audiobook. I meditated, continued my daily Pilates practice and began taking prenatal vitamins and red raspberry leaf tea to get my body into optimal shape. I was doing everything I could to welcome a baby into my world and I was elated.

It didn’t take long for us to conceive. After having my Skyla IUD removed and about two months of trying I finally got a positive test result. I knew I was in great health but it was a mix of emotions for me because I didn’t anticipate it happening so quick, mostly because I wasn’t sure how having an IUD would affect the process. Two days later I shared the news with Hugo. I still remember the look on both of our faces- it was a mix between happiness, excitement and shock. This was it! There was no turning back. We were going to be parents!

Early on I made visits to birthing centers and Hugo and I discussed the possibility of having a home birth. With Hugo being from France where most births occur in a designated maternity hospital under the assistance of a midwife, the idea of a home birth was completely new to him, and it was an idea that he wasn’t quite comfortable with. I had a little bit of apprehension myself. The idea of a home birth sounded wonderful to me, but I wasn’t convinced I could pull it off. We ended up deciding on birthing at the hospital under our insurance. The great thing was this hospital had a birthing center and a team of midwives to facilitate the natural birth I wanted.

My pregnancy was pretty normal and I was enjoying being pregnant. I felt pretty confident that everything was lining up and debated on whether or not Hugo and I should sign up for any birthing classes. We chose to go with a Hypnobirthing course in hopes it would help us work better as a team and it seemed to be aligned with what we wanted for our baby’s birth day. After the course we felt even more confident and more prepared for birthing our baby naturally. We were ready to be parents!

In the days leading up to our due date (June 20th) I began holistic methods given by the midwives to induce labor, I had also gone for an acupuncture treatment the day before in hopes of getting things going however our due date came and went but we knew this was typical and we stayed positive that labor would happen spontaneously. The following day after Hugo came home from work we decided to go for a long walk around the neighborhood. At this point, apart from the Braxton Hicks I had been having since 28 weeks, nothing felt out of the ordinary. We knew our baby was in a good position- head down in a left occiput anterior but chose not to be checked for dilation or the effacement. Knowing that labor could happen any day now, Hugo stayed by my side the entire weekend. We continued our long walks and by Sunday night he began timing my contractions. At this time my contractions or “surges” weren’t painful but they were pretty consistent. We went to bed thinking we were getting closer and by morning I had a feeling we were closer than we thought.

I woke up Monday morning with a strange feeling in my lower abdomen. It felt crampier than what I had been feeling with my Braxton Hicks. We had a midwife appointment that morning and I was almost positive this could be the day, for this reason I requested to be checked. She told me my cervix was ripening and thinning out and hopefully my contractions will continue getting things going. I felt a little disappointed afterwards and I was pretty exhausted so I went straight home to take a nap and Hugo went back to work. I woke up from my nap experiencing the most intense surge I had ever felt, I actually had to use my breath to get through it. They were now intense and seven minutes apart. I called Hugo and asked him to come home. I was in labor.

Once Hugo got home we couldn’t hide our excitement. We did a final check on our hospital bags, I think Hugo even cleaned up the house, we gave a heads up to our doula who was also my aunt, I called my sister and asked her to stay over and watch our dog when we left for the hospital, we were thrilled! We went for another walk and by this time I was having to stop and breathe to get through the surges. My sister and our doula had joined us back at our apartment and within the hour of them being there things started to slow down, my contractions had almost stopped completely. I knew why and knew what had to be done to get things back on track. My sister who I love dearly was not aware of my birth plan or the methods Hugo, our doula and I had been practicing in Hypnobirthing. It was my desire for a calm, peaceful environment and I could feel that was not the case so Hugo and I decided to get through the night on our own and our doula and my sister went back home. Almost instantly my surges started up again. We lit candles around the house and began our coping techniques. The surges continued to intensify and get closer together so I began listening to our Hypnobirthing tracks and hopped into the bath tub to ease my discomfort. By now it was close to 10 and I was in it. We got the midwife on the phone and she advised we stay home a bit longer. About an hour later the surges were so intense that I began vomiting and we felt it was time to drive to the hospital which was 20 minutes away. Having to leave our apartment where I felt the most Once we got into the car and on the road my surges suddenly began to slow again. Oh no.

We checked in at the hospital and once we were in the triage room