Monica's Story

Monica, a 22 year old Hispanic, first time mother referred by a previous birth center client, began her care with me at 9 weeks of pregnancy. We worked in Spanish from the beginning, even though she spoke enough English to get by. Both she and her husband were thrilled with the pregnancy and were highly motivated to learn as much as possible. They attended a Bradley Husband Coached Childbirth course in Spanish and felt very prepared for labor and birth. The pregnancy was uncomplicated, except for a little difficulty in her iron count (eventually came up sufficiently with a combination of herbal and pharmaceutical supplements), and a posterior position of the baby at one week before her due date. I taught her two at-home baby turning techniques which they worked on and at the next visit the position was normal.

At five days past her due date she was 3 centimeters dilated and ready to go but no labor yet. Her husband's job normally took him away from home for days at a time and they were anxious to take advantage of this scheduled time off for him. I swept her membranes, hoping to encourage labor to begin. No luck...just cramping for three days. She came in again and was 3-1/2 centimeters and a little more ready to go. I swept the membranes again and we discussed a biophysical profile sonogram if the baby hadn't arrived within the next week.

Four days later her labor began. After a few hours she arrived at the birth center with her husband and parents and was 5-1/2 centimeters, calm, with contractions coming every three to five minutes and moderately strong. Her blood pressure was up above normal and we began taking calcium and magnesium supplements to help bring it down. An hour later the blood pressure was coming down nicely and she was doing really well with the contractions. Her family enjoyed being at her side with their love and support. She didn't need much from me or my apprentices. We just kept tabs on vitals for mother and baby and tried not to disturb the harmony she was feeling. Two hours later she was almost fully dilated, confident, and concentrating on maintaining her relaxation.

She slept between contractions for the last bit of dilation and also during the first hour of pushing. What a great student of relaxation during labor/birth! Then she began to doubt her ability to get the baby born. We soothed her fear, encouraged her to experiment with different positions, and she refocused. Using multiple positions over the next hour, she gave birth to a beautiful 7 lb. 6 oz. daughter just six hours after arriving at the birth center. What a beautiful, peaceful birth for a first-time mother! The whole family was ecstatic.

We had a hemorrhage shortly after the birth, which was easily dealt with using a Pitocin injection in her thigh. Because she had maintained quite a bit of energy with her calm, relaxed labor style, she had a normal postpartum recovery. She enjoyed the herb bath with her baby, got off to a great start with breastfeeding and was thrilled with her experience.

In fact, she felt so blessed compared to her peers' childbirth experiences that she wanted to do something to encourage other women to consider midwife/out-of-hospital care. The Bradley childbirth teacher had moved out of state by then and Monica began teaching a modified course in Spanish especially for my clients. She was able to speak from personal experience how helpful harmony was during labor and birth. Her students consistently give birth in an equally beautiful fashion. Monica is a perfect example of a woman-to-woman network. She found us by recommendation, had a great personal experience, and now extends her knowledge and support to others.