Julie K. Roberts Birth Story
Joshua Zangwill Roberts
Born: January 25, 2006 12:33 pm
7lbs 20 inches
Cedars Sinai Hospital

I have gratefully referred to the birth of my son as; "the spa birthing experience". My husband brought great smelling essential oils: Lavender and Eucalyptus, and wonderful music. This created a soothing atmosphere. Along with the epidural and the noon light coming in the large window from our room, I had a very positive birthing experience.

Tuesday night, January 24th at 11pm, I woke to what I thought were gas pains. I had taken my favorite Pre-Natal Yoga class with Jessica earlier in the day from 11-12:30 and had stood upside down briefly on my hands. When I came home I was starving and ate a larger than usual portion of a wonderful chopped salad. I remember thinking…I may pay for this later.

Thus when I woke at 11pm, I thought I had gas pains. It seemed that I was having pain at intervals. I began to track how many minutes were between. I went on the internet to check; "how will I know when I am in labor?" I used a chart to track time between contractions and their duration.

So from 11pm - 12am I was sort of in a waking daze, by 3am and after tracking for several hours it became apparent that there was a pattern there…every 5 minutes.

So, I woke my husband at 3am. I called the one Doula we had met the day prior. ( I had just started interviewing as I was due Feb.11.) I told her she could meet us at the hospital later.

We arrived at Cedars Sinai about 5am. They checked my stats: 3 cm dilated, 0 station and 80% effaced. Two days earlier, when I thought my water broke (false alarm) I was at Cedars and I was 1 cm dilated, 0 station and 80% effaced. So I was becoming more dilated. When the Ob/Gyn on duty checked my effacement and dilation with her fingers, my water broke on the table. "I guess you are staying!"- she said.

We moved into our own birthing room. At about 5:45 I was 4cm dilated and the pain was not fun. It felt like the baby was pressing on my lower back (even though he was posterior facing) and I did not think I could stand this for a much longer time. I was not a happy camper. I knew ahead of time I was going to take an epidural, but was concerned about "when" to take it. This was a question in my mind because I had heard that sometimes you could not feel enough to push and if you don't take it soon enough you miss the opportunity altogether.

While I bounced on a birthing ball that really didn't help the back pain, I decided I would take the epidural then. I had the greatest nurse. She gave me pain relief through my arm so I would not feel the epidural in my back. This was the best move I made! After this I felt completely different and good. The pain went away. I relaxed.

My Dr. arrived at 6am to check me. He predicted the baby would come between 11am and 1pm. I rested for pushing later in the day. Somewhere in there, perhaps about 9 or 10am my contractions slowed or stopped because of the epidural, so the Dr. instructed the nurse to give me pitocin to stimulate my contractions again. This worked. At 11am the nurse checked me. I was fully dilated and 100% effaced.

The Dr. came in at 12:15. Prior to his arrival I had tried a squatting pose with the bar overhead but this was not effective. At the Dr.'s suggestion I laid back with my legs pulled up at either side. My husband held one side and the nurse the other. They had a mirror on a stand for me so I could see what was happening. I was in a great mood. The Dr. put his fingers and guided me how to push. I pushed 3-4 really great pushes and they all said "Stop!". The baby's head was crowning and we could see hair. The Dr. let the baby rest there for a few moments to stretch out the area to lessen the chance of tearing. Then I gave one big push and out came Joshua! The whole pushing experience only took about 20 minutes. My husband cut the cord.

It was a thrilling and euphoric experience. I was on a high for days after.