14 Jul Flynn’s Birth Story – Part 1
It’s almost one year ago since Flynn was born, but I still think about it from time to time. Especially now, as it’s July again. Sadly I can’t really remember much from Flynn’s very first few months, it’s like I’m missing days and weeks of my memory. And everything that I can actually remember is just blurry. I think this is what it must feel like when you drink too much alcohol, and you can’t remember what you did last night. I’ve never experienced this, so I can’t say for sure, but that’s how I could describe it best. So before I completely forget about all the good and bad times, I want to write them down for you and me. I’m really happy that I took many photos and could also read a lot of the daily happenings that I wrote to Tom via Facebook messenger, to remind me once again what the time was like.
(April 2014)
So today I want to share the first part of Flynn’s birth story from last year’s July – the whole preparation (as far as I can remember). If you don’t want to read this, here’s a link, so you can just skip to the next post: It’s about my recent change of hair colors XD.
(May 2014)
I heard and read a lot of birth stories (fortunately all after I have given birth for the first time *phew*, I might have been scared to death), some were funny, some were tragic, some were sad, some were completely relaxed, but every one of them was completely different from my experience. As I already mentioned in one of the posts not long before Flynn was born, I wasn’t worried about the whole birth experience. I read about all the birthing positions, Tom and I visited an 8-hour preparatory course with the senior midwife at the hospital and I also went to a breastfeeding and a anesthesia information meeting at the hospital. By chance I’ve seen one video of a water birth on TV. I was really surprised how calm the mother was, while she was in labor and while the actual birth was happening (it was her second child though). That’s why I became really interested in water birthing. But in the end I didn’t have a detailed plan on what I wanted to do, because I knew everything will be different from what I might have planned so I tried to not think about it too much.
(July 2014)
The only thing I knew was that I wanted the birth as natural as possible. I was a little scared about the kind of births you see on series or movies. A woman lying on a bed and many doctors standing all around her and watching. I hate doctors. Not because of what they do, but because I don’t feel comfortable around them. Most of the time I have the feeling like they don’t want to help me anyway or just say they can’t do anything about what affects me at that moment, so why bother opening up to one. I wanted the birth to happen at the hospital, because I wanted Flynn to be safe at all times, but for me, I wanted to see as few doctors as possible. I also knew I didn’t want an epidural, which might mean more pain, but fewer doctors and less monitoring. Some moms said it didn’t help them anyway. I understand that many women want to get one, I also read of others who were sleeping through the whole time of their labor, but I just hoped I’ll be able to stick it out.
(July 2014)
What I however did was, that I visited a weekly acupuncture meeting for pregnant women at the hospital starting at week 36. Normally I don’t believe in things like that, but the more that I read about prenatal acupuncture, the more I got convinced that it might help. It is said to shorten the time of the labor (first time births from average 12 to 8 hours) and also make the pain more tolerable after at least 3 to 4 sessions. And if it didn’t help I didn’t lose anything, because it was a free service at the hospital where I was going to deliver. The meeting was led by a really funny midwife who gave us tips for the birth and the first time after (“don’t hold back with anything at birth” – that means screaming, shouting, sleeping or vomiting @_@) and told us stories of her daily life, and a cute and kind doctor who put in the 11 to 13 needles in our feet, at the side of the knees, in the hand and one right on top of the head. This one is for relaxing. The acupuncture might help with other problems as well, like water retention or headaches, so according to that she would put in even more needles at other places. I went five times in total, and never really feeled relaxed. Since it was June and July I was always sweating heavily XD. I was a little nervous and everything felt a little stiff and sore afterwards, but it was also nice meeting other moms-to-be. And in the end it might have helped with my birth experience, too.
Okay, I think this is all what I can tell you about the birth preparations. Next time I’ll tell you more about the actual birth. See you again!