Birth Story: Unmedicated Birth Story of Embracing the Beauty of Natural Childbirth with Morgan Adams
Show Notes:
[1:27] Our Reviewer of the Week, Care_bear_21, said: "I am so thankful for this podcast. I am 26 weeks pregnant with my first and I have been listening to this podcast for the majority of my pregnancy and I love it. I used to think that if I ever got pregnant I would definitely want to have a Cesarean birth because the thought of having my baby vaginally absolutely terrified me. Well not anymore. I look forward to trying my absolute best to have not just a vaginal birth, but an unmedicated vaginal birth. And that is all thanks to this podcast. I feel so much more confident and educated about birth that I actually look forward to it now. I always look forward to that time of day where I can just turn on the podcast and just listen to these ladies talk. I’m not even halfway done with the podcast but I’m already sad just thinking about once I’ll be caught up and won’t have anything to listen to daily. Thank you so much for this podcast."
[2:55] Our birth story today is from My Essential Birth Course student, Morgan Adams. She is a mom of 2 and lives in the panhandle of Texas, where she and her husband farm and ranch. Her husband is a fourth generation farmer, and Morgan hopes her boys will continue the lineage.
[4:46] Morgan describes her overall pregnancy experience, which was for the most part uneventful except for more pelvic pressure and gestational diabetes. Her increase in blood pressure led to having an induction. She was able to remain active.
[6:42] She was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at the first screening. She was fortunately able to control it with her diet. βShe learned you should eat your protein and greens before you eat your carbs. She also took the Fresh Test for her gestational diabetes test.
[9:16] Morgan shared her concerns with her provider about him inducing her for her first pregnancy. He responded "I'm so sorry you felt pressured. I really want you to know that it is an option for you to decline it. I will let you know if there's not an option. Like it's very dangerous if you don't get induced. I don't foresee that, you've done great. Your weight is healthy. You're exercising. Everything looks good." So she stayed with her OB.
[11:47] Morgan's husband has had an extensive amount of surgeries and felt very queasy in hospitals. However, he was extremely supportive emotionally and would reassure Morgan with affirmations. He went through the birth course with her for the first birth, and spoke to Morgan about what she wanted for her second birth experience.
[15:23] What did Morgan think about taking the birth course? "My take on giving birth with my oldest was that you don't need a birth course. Who needs a birth course? Everybody does this. Whenever your time comes, you just figure out how to have the baby. Your doctor helps you and tells you what to do. But then my thinking changed. I don't know what changed it, but out of nowhere I was like, you know what? Back in the day, you had your mom, you were in there watching her give birth to your siblings or your grandma was there and she told you everything. Your aunts, your cousins, your sisters, like everybody was together because they lived multi-generationally, and all the women were there to take care of each other. I've never seen anybody give birth. Even like learning the different stations of the baby can really help you. I think there is the importance of taking a course and feeling prepared, having all of that knowledge. The birth prep and your provider make the biggest difference in your life. Why not grab all the knowledge that you can?"
18:06 - What did Morgan do to prepare for birth?
- Three daily exercises
- Stayed active/yoga ball
- Ate a healthy diet
- Evening primrose oil
- Red raspberry leaf tea
[20:08] Morgan walks through her experience from contraction to birth. Her water broke before she started feeling any contractions. During early contractions, Morgan called her husband to head home and starts timing them by texting him. As the contractions spaced out, she prepared for a potentially long night, packing bags and getting ready for an upcoming wedding. They decided to go to a hotel near the hospital as a precaution, and informed her doula and birth photographer. When she got to the hospital, she was quickly admitted due to advanced labor. She prepared to push and delivered her baby just 15 minutes after arriving, with minimal intervention. She did have low-grade hemorrhaging but no tearing. She was also successfully able to breastfeed despite a lip tie.
[32:25] Morgan describes her contractions. The closest they got were about five minutes apart. The, the cramping did get a little more intense, but it never got super strong. She did not have any back labor for her second pregnancy, just, just the mild cramping. It would wrap around her tummy. βShe would sit there, pause, breathe through it and did large, deep breaths. She took in as much air as she could and let it all out.
[34:57] How did she feel about her contractions with Pitocin? "Contractions with Pitocin were brutal. I did not like those contractions. I had the back labor, and with the Pitocin, I just felt like everything was just so forced. Even though I did take things like the Red Raspberry Leaf Tea and those things, I feel like my body knew what to do with that birth, but my body just really wasn't prepared because it wasn't time for me to have the baby. And so I just, I really think my personal opinion and experience is that contractions are not as pleasant with Pitocin. They're not the end of the world, but they are not as pleasant."
[41:21] What is your best advice for moms?
"βI definitely think it is so important to educate yourself. Educate yourself, educate yourself on your birth plan or birth map so if for some reason something happens, there's a detour, make sure you know your options well because you want to be confident in what you're going to be going into. You don't want to just be like, 'Well, I'll just leave it up to the professionals.' I hate to say this because it's not the same in every place, but my experience with the hospital birth, they're going to probably take the route that's easier for them. Especially if they have a lot of other moms that are in labor and delivery, they're going to do what they can to make their jobs a little bit easier. Not saying that that's going to take away from your experience. Cause it might be what's best for you after all, but just being educated and making sure that your birth partner knows your plan.
[42:46] What is your best advice for dads?
"Dads, I think you just really need to be there. Give that affirmation, remind your significant other 'Hey, like you can do this. Hard things are possible. Each contraction is getting you closer to baby.' All of those great things. I think it's just so important for you to be encouraging to your wife. If she gets mad at you, just brush it off, don't get mad back, have a lot of grace for her because she's going through something that's completely changing her body, and it's going to take some time to get used to that."
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