A Hospital Delivery Without Pain Medication

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Preparing for Baby’s Arrival

Having been induced with her first child, mom became nervous as her due date of June 30th came closer, fearing that she might need to be induced again. Surprisingly, her membranes rupture at 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 27th. Mom calls her mother-in-law for support and to tell her that another grandbaby is on its way!

Early Labor Begins

She doesn’t feel her first contraction until 4:26 a.m. The doctor is called at 5:30 a.m. and he says to head on in to the hospital. Contractions are now coming every 3-7 minutes. Mom and Dad arrive at the hospital at 6 a.m. and meet their RN (who is a neighbor).

She takes them to one of the largest rooms and hooks mom up to the fetal monitor to check the contractions and the baby’s tolerance.

Progressing in Labor

Mom guesses that she is probably 2-3 cm because the contractions aren’t that bad… she can still talk through them.

She is at 6 cm!! She is so pleased to hear that. The nurse calls the doctor because she has a feeling things are going to go pretty quickly.

Coping with Contractions

At this point, mom moves out of the bed…and onto the birth ball.

Mom says that she feels ridiculous on the birth ball…but it seems to help her to be able to cope with the contractions…

and it feels really good.

She stays on for 4-5 contractions, then decides she wants to get back into the bed.

Her husband is a great source of comfort.

Intensity Increases

At this point, labor begins to pick up.

Mom starts experiencing “back labor.”

The RN helps mom out of bed to see if standing through a few contractions can help with the back labor. Immediately, labor becomes “unbearable.” Mom begins to have an urge to push, although she knows she’s not yet fully dilated. She requests some Nubain, but the nurse can help her regain focus and mom ends up not getting any pain medication. Later she is really happy that pain medications were not given.