Birth Story of Miss A

I'm a bit of a hippy chick. I don't go as far as the whole hairy leg thing, but I'm definitely into all things organic, natural, astrological etc. So when I was pregnant and my due date came and went, I didn't worry. I was going with the more hippy-dippy "due window" concept that the baby could come any time 3 weeks before to 2 weeks after my due date.

My OB was totally supportive of this...for the first week I was late. But as day ten, eleven, twelve ticked by and there was no sign of baby, she started getting nervous. "I'm way outside my comfort zone," she told me and my husband on day thirteen. "The longer you wait, the greater the chance of complications. I think we should induce tomorrow."

Induce?! I was mortified! That was against every earth-mama impulse I had. "We can't induce!" I stammered. "I want the baby to pick her own birthday...you know...for astrological reasons. What if she's not supposed to be born on May 10th?" I started to cry. I need to mention here that my husband is a nuclear engineer. So when I started spouting off astrology as a perfectly valid reason for not inducing our baby, he looked at me like I was an alien. Sitting there between the doctor and the scientist, I didn't have a shot. My hippy sensibilities were no match for their analytics. We decided to induce the next morning. At least that's what I told them...

Really I was determined to kick start labor "naturally" any way I could. I took a 3 mile walk with my mom (who had been hanging out for WEEKS in NY waiting for the baby to come), downed some caster oil, ate spicy food, had my doctor strip my membranes (ouch!) and forced my husband to have sex with me 7 times in 3 hours (double ouch...for him especially!). And low and behold, at 9pm, contractions started! I was elated! The baby was coming on her own!

After 29 hours of labor (20 without an epidural until I broke down and my husband told me not to be a hero and get the darn meds) my daughter was born. On May 11th. I turned to my husband as I held my perfect, tiny swaddled newborn in my exhausted arms and said, "See, I knew she wasn't supposed to be born on the 10th!"

Looking back, I think I might have been a bit foolish. I mean, I'm happy my baby came on her own and in her own time, but really who cares when the baby is born, as long as she arrives safe and healthy, right? I'm not sure I will push it so far next time.

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