When I found out I was pregnant with my second child, I decided to look into having him at a birthing center…only for financial purposes. I had my first at a hospital with an epidural, and I had a great experience…no complaints. To be honest, I DID NOT want to go to a birthing center. I was absolutely terrified of the pain. I didn’t even know of one close by. All within a week, I ran into three people who were either having their baby at Nativiti, or had already had their baby there. They had nothing but good things to say, so my husband and I decided to at least go check it out. When we left the tour and information session, I had a sense of peace about it. So from that moment on, we decided we were going to have our second baby at Nativiti. I was scared, but it just felt right.
All throughout my prenatal care, I felt very well taken care of. Each appointment was very personable, and I felt like all my questions and concerns were addressed. I even had some pain one night and called in to the midwife on call, Jami. She met me up at the birthing center in the middle of the night, just to check on the baby and me and make sure everything was okay.
The closer it came to my due date, the more nervous I became. I just knew my baby was going to come early. My first was born a little over thirty-seven weeks; so every night I just kept thinking, “Tonight is it!” But this baby had a different plan. I was thirty-nine weeks and four days. At 5 a.m. the morning of April 8th I woke up to a “pop” feeling. I just knew my water had broken. I ran to the bathroom, and sure enough it had. I went and got my husband and told him my water had broken. He was so relaxed and thought we had all the time in the world. Right away my contractions started, although they weren’t too severe yet. But they were already four and a half minutes apart. I called the midwife on call, Jami, at 5:20 a.m. I told her my water had broken and my contractions were already five minutes apart. She said to meet her at the birthing center.
My contractions started getting worse and closer together in no time at all, and we met Jami up at Nativiti right around 6 a.m. We walked into the birthing room; I had one contraction leaning over the bed. I felt like I had to go to the bathroom, so I sat on the toilet. I had maybe two contractions sitting on the toilet, and I started feeling like I had to push. I then got in the bathtub. They checked me and I was already dilated to a 10. I started pushing pretty much with each contraction after that. The bath was really soothing. My husband was behind me, and I braced his arms with every contraction. The nurse midwives and my husband were so supportive. All I could think about was that it hurt, burned, and I wanted this baby out!
I felt like I pushed forever…it was about an hour. And finally, at 7:28 a.m. Max Anderson Koury was born. They placed him on my chest. He was automatically pushing up with his legs, lifting his head, and I was so relieved to hear a healthy cry. I was so overwhelmed that he was here. And I was so glad it was over, and that I did it!
When I got out of the bathtub, I was able to rest for a little bit before they stitched me up. Max came out sideways, so I tore pretty badly. Max and I were able to take an herbal bath afterwards, which was healing and relaxing. We stayed at the birthing center until about 12:30 p.m. before we headed home. They took my vitals and Max’s vitals a few times and we checked out great. Jami also came out to my house a few days after Max was born to check on us and take our vitals again.
I loved my experience at Nativiti. I felt so taken care of. I loved not being hooked up to machines and that the experience was completely natural. I do plan on having more children in the future; and for someone who has had experience at the hospital and a birthing center, I will go back to Nativiti in a heartbeat.
