We enjoy sharing submissions from our readers on parenting topics, from pregnancy to delivery to life as a new mom or dad.

In this post, mom of two Heather from I Am Capturing the Moment shares the scary-but ultimately happy-story of delivering her second little one.

My Delivery Story

Labor and delivery is a terrifying and yet blessed part of motherhood. It’s the final stages before you have the opportunity to hold your little one in your arms, after carrying them within you for nine months. I have two little girls and both of my labors were somewhat similar and yet completely different all at the same time. This story is of my second daughter’s delivery.

It was around 5:10 in the morning and I felt a lot of pressure as though I had to go to the bathroom incredibly bad. Every morning before this I would wake up feeling this, and thinking that those days I would go into labor. I was wrong.

I was convinced I would have to wait until the end of the week to be induced. My daughter wanted her own birth date, and she got it. I stood up to walk down the hallway and I thought for sure I was peeing. Warning: Gross factor here.

I waddled down the hallway as fast as I could and I heard a “POP.” My water had broken. I stood at the top of the steps and felt myself panicking. My husband was on his way out the door to go to work and I started hollering his name.

My oldest daughter, who was not quite four at the time, hollered to me through her bedroom door telling me she accidentally wet the bed. All I could tell her was it was alright, and we were going to the hospital.

We had already gone through preparations to let her know that this would be happening eventually. She was incredibly excited when she came out into the hallway. All she could say was, “My baby sister is coming! Daddy!”

My husband took care of the dogs as fast as he could and we headed to the hospital. Let’s just say the cruise doesn’t set after you’ve hit a certain speed limit, and I thought for sure I was going to have the baby in the car. You know, all those horror stories of babies being born in the car? I thought I was the next one.

By now my water had been leaking for well over forty-five minutes, non-stop. If you’ve never had your water break like that, it’s very uncomfortable.

We made it to the hospital and the entire time I was getting undressed and into my hospital gown, my water was leaking. Again, I thought for sure she was just going to come sliding right out. I guess it’s not that easy, is it?

Did I mention I had an entire birth plan prepared and I was going to do this with no medicine, standing up or kneeling down instead of laid out on my back? That did not happen. In fact, everything that happened was almost exactly like my first labor. I didn’t want that again.

I tore, horribly. I had to have reconstructive surgery three months after my first daughter was born and I was without her for almost a day. It was horrendous. It took me over a year to fully heal. Those donut pillows served useful for a very long time!

I was on my back, on the bed again. The nurses asked if I wanted pain medication and I told them I wanted none of it.

They put me on Pitocin to further the contractions and my daughter’s heart beat plummeted after a few hours. I was asked a few times if I wanted the epidural. Mind you, I had been drugged up with the epidural with my first and it was the worst experience ever.

It’s very difficult to have an epidural if you have scoliosis. I have scoliosis. With my first daughter, scoliosis caused the doctor to have to poke my spine more than three times just to find the right spot. This time I was terrified. They got it in on the first try, and the epidural helped until the contractions started bearing down towards the end.

I felt everything. I screamed, I cried, I curled up in a ball. My hair was knotted in the back because it wasn’t braided to begin with. I had to have an oxygen mask on my face because my daughter’s heart beat kept dropping. It dropped to 60 and I was fully dilated, ready to go. After 13 ½ hours of labor, I started pushing.

I can remember it as though it was yesterday (only a year ago!). I couldn’t breathe. The oxygen mask on my face was like a claw weighing down on my skin. I continued to push it off and they kept putting it back on. The pain was horrendous, and I thought for sure the epidural just stopped working. It was as though my entire body was being torn in half. At the very last push, the nurse got in my face with concern and yelled at me.

“Heather, you need to PUSH!” I pushed. With everything I had in me, I pushed.

My daughter arrived at 8:10 pm, after an hour and a half of horrendously painful pushing.

She was not handed to me. I was terrified. She was not crying. There was no sound. I continued to ask the doctor, my mother, my husband, what was wrong. They wouldn’t answer me.

After a few minutes I finally heard her beautiful cry. That beautiful cry caused me to cry and breathe a sigh of relief. She was born with a severe shoulder dystocia, a big 9 lb 4 oz baby, with a healthy cry.

To this day I remember the labor, and I thought for sure I had lost my second daughter when I did not hear her voice.

So to all the women who are pregnant, and nervous about delivery: take a deep breath, mama. We’ve been giving birth to babies since the beginning of time and medicine has come a long way. You’ve got this!

You can visit Heather and read more about life with two little ones at IamCapturingtheMoment.com.

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