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.

Levi's Birth Story

We had our second child on July 20th 2003.

July 18th in the morning I started showing some pink mucus. The next day, July 19th, I spent much of the day outside in our garden weeding and playing with my todler in his kiddie pool. I was bending down pulling out weeds 39 weeks pregnant in the hot sun for more than 2 hours. My husband made a veggie garbanzo curry for dinner and I joked that it was so spicy it just might jump start my labor. At 10 pm my water broke as I changed positions in bed. I called the midwife. She said to labor at home as long as possible since as soon as I got to the hospital I would get a hep lock (my first child was an emergency c section) and no longer be able to eat. So I labored all night.

Our toddler woke up and my husband lay down with him in our bed and they fell asleep. I labored alone which turns out was good that my husband slept.. Contractions became painful by 3 AM, but I was ok. They were about 5-6 minutes apart. I took a bath several times and by 7 AM was even able to eat a bagel between very painful contractions. Our midwife said to call her when contractions became 3-4 minutes apart and were too painful to talk through. I called her beforet 8AM and we agreed to meet at the hospital at 8:30. When we got there I was only at 2 cm. I was very disappointed because contractions were 3 minutes apart and painful (and getting MUCH worse).

We walked the hallways till they were so painful I felt the need to be near our midwife. She was massaging my back as my husband was holding me. My back labor was intense. I kept crying that I couldn't make it any longer. My contractions were about 2 minutes apart and lasting a minute each. There was no recovery time. That is what made it so horrible. As soon as I was breathing easy they started again. I got in the tub for about two hours. It was not enough. I was unable to do anything but scream in pain and beg for it to stop. they checked me at 2PM and I was almost 5 cm. I again was so disappointed. I begged to forget what I said about no pain meds and get me an epidural. It was put in at 2:20 PM. I got to relax a bit and finally talk to my husband and midwife.

I will never regret my decision to have the epidural. It did make me shake and cause a bad headache, but my labor was really long. It took 3 hours and 40 minutes to be fully dilated from the time I got it until I was ready to push. And there is no way I would have been ready for 4 hours of pushing. Since I never pushed with my first delivery it was like having a first child. I was just so glad to be delivering vaginally I didn't care about much else other than having a healthy baby.

I started pushing at 6pm and was doing great. The epidural was no longer effective by 7 PM and I was screaming in pain again. The back labor was traveling down my left leg. They kept thinking I was almost there, but I wasn't. They had to give me an antibiotic because my water had been broken for so long, I develpoed a fever and so of course the baby had one too. I threw up several times and was getting nowhere. I really was pushing hard too.My OB came in and convinced my midwife and I to let her use forcepts for getting the baby under my pubic bone. His heart rate was dropping due to his cord around his neck and being stuck for so long. It took one contraction with forcepts for the head to come under the pubic bone. They took out the forcepts and I watched in the mirror, my baby's head was crowning and with the next contraction I pushed him out of my body. They held him up and I screamed I knew he was a boy!!! ( I just knew it from the begining).

He was beautiful. But, he wasn't taking his first breath and was scooped up and the doctor gave him oxygen. He let out a scream and I took a breath too. He was fine! Just stunned from a very long labor. He was handed back to me right away. I labored 24 hours as he was born at 9:58 PM weighing exactly the same as his brother 7 pounds 4 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He also was a patient boy from the begining, nursed very well and brought my milk in 24 hours after birth. He regained his birth weight by a week an doesn't have his next weight check till he goes to the doctor at 2 months. He sleeps very well and by 6 weeks usually sleeps 6-8 hours straight at night.

We now have another vegan baby in the world!

Sponsors:

Got Recipes? We Want Them!
Submit yours today to win a prize!