In order to tell my birth experience, I have to start before I was pregnant, when I began looking into what kind of health care I wanted. Having several friends who were attended by nurse midwives, I knew I wanted to look into this option. I spoke to the OB/GYN I had been seeing for my yearly exams. She was surprisingly uninformed about midwives however. All she told me was that first time deliveries tend to be more difficult then subsequent ones, implying that I would be better off with an obstetrician. I knew this to be untrue based on my friends experiences, so I began making phone calls and soon found out about the Family Nurse Midwives Associates. My husband and I felt this offered the best of all options because I would have top notch personalized, holistic care, with the reassurance of knowing that incase of an emergency, I was already at the hospital.

So, I began seeing Gretchen for my prenatal checkups. These were nice because Gretchen always gave me as much time as I needed for questions. Over all, my pregnancy went well. I maintained a healthy diet, walked everyday, read a lot, and attended several classed offered by Jeannette Hospital, so I would be prepared for labor and delivery. I envisioned myself going into labor after my due date, (all first babies are late right) spending my early labor at home, and going to the hospital well dilated. As you can probably imagine, things did not go as planned. At 11PM, two weeks before my due date, my baby started kicking quite hard. The next thing I knew, I had a puddle of water at my feet. I called Gretchen and agreeing that my water had probably broken, she told us to go to the Family Birth Place. Fortunately, we had bought a car seat the week earlier. We quickly packed a few things and drove to the hospital, were we spent a night of anticipation. Although my water had broken, my body was still not ready for labor, my baby had not dropped, and I did not have any contractions that night.

I knew it was going to be a long day. We woke up at 6AM and began calling relatives. Around 9AM I saw Gretchen and she explained that my contractions needed to be induced. Since my water had broken, there was a chance of infection, so the baby had to be delivered within 24 hours. Having pitocin to start the contractions meant that I had to wear a fetal monitor belt. Even so, I was able to walk around Family Birth Place, which I did for a couple of hours. The contractions started getting stronger so I decided to stay in my room, trying different positions on the bed and rocking chair. Finally after 6 hours of contractions, Sandy checked my cervix. I had gone from 0 dilation and effacement to 3cm and 60% effaced That did not seem like much to me, but Sandy was pleased so I did not get discouraged. After another hour I decided it was time for some pain relief. I did not want an epidural, so Gretchen offered me a shot to lessen the pain and help me relax. Although I still felt a lot of pain, the shot did help me relax so I could sleep between contractions. I remember being amazed at how good I felt between contractions. Even that little bit of time was such a relief. By 6PM I had dilated to 6cm and was totally effaced, so I asked to be taken off pitocin so I could shower. That was a great relief. My contractions stopped though, so I had to be hooked back up to the pitocin. It took awhile for the contractions to regain their intensity. Finally around 7PM Sandy said that I was fully dilated. I began pushing at 7:10 and pushed one hour and 40 min. I did not feel like I was making any progress during that time, but everyone was very encouraging. I knew we were getting close when the nurses started getting the instrument table ready and the infant warmer ready. Once the head was born, the rest of the body slid right out. Ben was taken to the warmer immediately where the nurses began checking and clearing him. Unfortunately, I could not see much of this activity because I still had to delivery the placenta. This only took a few pushes, though. Afterwards my perineum needed a few stitches. It had torn a little during delivery, though I did not feel this. I got to hold my baby and rest and eat. I was famished.

The next day and a half I spent regaining my strength and learning to breastfeed. All the nurses were so nice and helpful. I am very grateful to Gretchen and Sandy for making my birth experience so wonderful

Amy Guthrie

Elizabeth, Pennsylvania