Birth On Base: Emilie's Positive Birth Story
I had been laboring for a long time. “Just wait until she has to start pushing,” the nurse said to my husband. “She’ll be screaming and in so much more pain.” Chained to an IV, pulse oximeter, blood pressure cuff, and baby heart rate and contraction monitors, this birth had begun as something foreign to my proposed calm, unmedicated birth I had been planning for so long. During my pregnancy, I had become obsessed with the idea of an unmedicated birth. I received advice not to be too rigid in my birth plan so that in case it had to change, I wouldn’t be devastated. It was good advice, but the challenge of an unmedicated birth nearly consumed me, and while my motivation for a natural birth wasn’t completely faultless, I pursued it with every fiber of my being. I have never researched or trained for anything more in my life. I listened to podcasts, read positive birth stories, googled nearly everything, drank...