The birth of Preston {Natural Hospital Birth - St.Petersburg Doula & Birth Photographer}

September 09, 2012 • 1 Comment

Sometimes, things don't go as planned in birth.

And birth plans must change...

When this mom's water broke, and baby decided to come a little too soon to be born at the birth center they chose (Breath of Life Birth Center- Largo, FL), this amazing family had to quickly settle into a new plan. The goal was the same-an intervention free, natural birth. Only now, it would be in the hospital setting.

Her story in photos starts with waking the mall. Its HOT here right now, and mom wanted to do what she could to get things going, since her labor started with her water breaking. She did really well using her breath, moving, walking, and staying positive, even though the picture of birth she had in her mind, had to change. Mom made sure to eat to fuel her body, and stay hydrated.

Finally the time came that mom felt it was time to head to the hospital. She wanted to make sure she had time to settle in to her birth environment, and find that calm, centered place she knew she would need to be in, to relax and birth her baby

-Major shout out to St.Pete General Hospital, and the two amazing nurses she had. Because of their willingness to listen to this mom, support her wishes, and actually follow through- she had a drug free, with no augmentation, intervention free birth. (no pressure to speed things up, no offering epidural, not even further pressure to get an IV once she declined) They made sure she had telemetry monitoring so she was never stuck in bed, and were great about only listening for 10 or so minutes at a time. When you have to transfer to a hospital from a birth center or home, you never know what to expect, but this family was listened to, respected, and so was their birth. As a doula who has seen a lot of things happen during births, this was very encouraging.

Mama used many positions and coping techniques learned in their childbirth classes at the birth center, taught by June Connell of Happy Birthway. And as a team we (I was also her doula for this birth), walked, massaged, encouraged, and just reminded her how amazing she was doing.

It was night time, and she had been laboring all day, but it was obvious that things had progressed, and this mama was clearly in transition. Before we knew it,her body was taking over, and she was pushing her baby out. Then this mama welcomed her 2nd child, a boy, born naturally. She did it!

Why I am passionate about sharing this story:

I wanted to share this in an effort to support moms who may not have a choice about birthing in the hospital, or may have to change their plans. Why is this important? Because too many moms don't get treated this way in the hospital, and we need to share that birth CAN be beautiful and low/to no intervention, in the hospital, BUT (and this is huge in my opinion) we want to let the hospitals know that as consumers, we WANT this type of birth not only offered, but actually supported. How a woman is treated and how she feels about her experience will stay with her for the rest of her life. We know the hospital and home are very different (Im a homebirth mama myself) but we wanted to share an encouraging story of a family still having a beautiful, natural birth in a supportive environment- this time, just happened to be a smaller local hospital.

Here is their photo video fusion pieces