Vegan Birth Stories

Please read our collection of birth stories. If you'd like to submit your own, please submit your story here. Vegan or vegetarian birth stories are welcome.

Joseph's Birth Story

Well, I just got home from the hospital with Joseph Edward Cook. We call him Little J. He was born on January 24 at 3:03 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and is 20 1/2 inches long.

Here is my birth story (he's sleeping, so hopefully I will be able to get through it all before he wakes up): Saturday night I came home from a very long day of family pictures and a birthday dinner with my MIL. I was exhausted and came home feeling swollen. I got on the scale and weighed in 10 lbs heavier than my Tuesday appointment. I called my midwife and she told me to go to the hospital to have my blood pressure checked. I went in and they said that all was well. My midwife put me on bedrest until delivery and I was happy to oblige. She checked my cervix and said that I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced - the same condition I had been in for 4 weeks.

Sunday, I stayed in bed all day and my husband made a big brunch and fed me in bed. It was a great day. About mid-afternoon, I got up and went to the bathroom and noticed that I had very loose bowel movements - which I attributed to all of the food I had eaten earlier that day. About 11 that night, my husband and I both went to bed. He came in and said that he was going to sleep on the couch since I had monopolized our queen size bed with a myriad of pillows and that if he got uncomfortable he would come in. Right after he left, I felt a pain in my abdomen. About five minutes later, I felt another one. I thought that they might be psychosymptomatic since it was my due date, but they just kept coming. I timed them for an hour at 3-5 minutes apart and decided to go wake up my husband. He told me to call the hospital and ask what to do next. They told me to come in. So, less than 2 hours after I felt my first contraction I was in the hospital being checked. At that point, the contractions were coming every two minutes and the nurse said I was over 4 cm dilated. Pretty fast considering that I was only 1 cm just 24 hours earlier. They gave me a gown and told me I could have an epidural at any time.

I got an epidural at 1:30 a.m. and then had my husband call my mom and my midwife. I slept through the night as my contractions brought me from a 4 to an 8. The last two cms took quite a while, but I think that it was because the epidural can tend to slow down labor. Finally at about noon, my midwife said that I was 9½ cm dilated and that things would be happening pretty soon. I had not felt much pain to that point, and was actually more excited than anything.

Well just as I hit 10 cm, suddenly my epidural wore off - almost completely. The pain was unbearable until my husband coaxed me to look in his eyes. We got through each of my contractions by counting to three as I inhaled and then to six as I exhaled. One of the contractions was almost seven minutes long according to the monitor. They gave me a little shot to help the pain, but to be honest - I didn't even feel much of a difference. My midwife told me to push to see if that would ease the pain, and amazingly enough it worked. So, I started to push. My sister held up one leg, my mom held up the other and my husband (with the guidance of our midwife) delivered our son. They had a large mirror there and I saw the whole thing. It took me over two hours to push him out and then once the head started to come, I had to stop to breath every push so that my husband could ease all of the tissue around the head. He was working so hard so that I wouldn't tear (and our baby had the finger marks in his head to prove it). At 3:03 p.m., our little son slipped out and the pain relief was immediate. I didn't even feel the shoulders or body come out. My husband lifted him to my stomach and then my midwife covered him with blankets. My mom helped me breastfeed him for about 20 minutes and then they weighed him and measured him.

Everything went as planned. (except for the no pain relief at the end - yuck!) My little boy is beautiful and healthy, though he does have a minor conehead from being in the birth canal so long. I did get a small tear inside my vagina, but my husband managed to save everything else - which made for a speedy recovery.

I am so grateful that everything went so well and that I have such a wonderful family and supportive husband.

Thanks for letting me share!

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