Archives of Birth Stories

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A Hang Nail in Labor
-Micaela, North Carolina

The night I went into labor my husband decided to remove (on his own) a hang nail on his big toe. He complained about how painful it was all the way to the hospital. I just held my tongue. After all, I was too busy puffing and blowing to even speak. When we finally got to the hospital my husband helped me out of the car. As I was maneuvering out, I accidentally stepped on his toe. Yes, it was the "hang nail toe." Through my hours and hours of hard labor he kept whining about his toe. "Oooooooooh. It really hurts!"

When I went into the transition stage of labor, I lost all control. I started screaming, "If you mention that freaking toe one more time I'm going to find a scalpel and CUT IT OFF!!!" I knew there had to be a scalpel around somewhere. My husband had absolutely no right complaining, considering what I was going through! I think he finally did quiet down about his toe. Or maybe it was just my screams that drowned out his complaining.

Regardless, a few hours later we had our beautiful, new baby. He forgot all about his big toe. I forgot all about the scalpel.

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Once a C, Not Always a C
-Anjeannette, Nevada

I was about to deliver my fourth child and wanted to try for a VBAC. I had three previous C-sections. The third one was scheduled and resulted in my daughter being born with respiratory distress. She was in a neonatal intensive care unit for a month before I got to bring her home. I pleaded with my doctor to try for the VBAC delivery. He understood my concerns and finally gave me the green light to try, but only under certain conditions. We agreed that I would labor for up to 10 hours and if I didn't progress, then he would go ahead and do a C-section. My other labors were about 40 hours tops. To my surprise, and everyone else's, I gave birth naturally nine hours and 49 minutes later to a healthy, 10lb.6oz. baby boy. Obviously the myth of "Once a C, Always a C" is not so true.

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Laughing in Labor
-Lynette, North Carolina

At my 36-week appointment the doctor told me that I was one centimeter dilated and 75% effaced. I am known for having early, healthy babies, so I thought maybe the baby would come by that night or the next day.

That night I started experiencing pain, so my husband took me to the hospital. It was a false alarm—nothing had progressed—so I was sent home.

The next night I had the same pain, but it felt a little stronger. I went to bed and didn't tell anyone how I was feeling, but I wrote down every time I felt a contraction. I finally told my husband when the pains were about three minutes apart. When I arrived at the hospital around 12:00pm, they said I was in labor and was almost five centimeters dilated.

At 7:12pm the nurses prepped me for the delivery. The doctor was going to arrive shortly. My sister was on the phone talking to my mom and said something very funny. I could hear my mom's cackling laugh on the other end of the line and I started laughing, too. I laughed so hard that the baby just slid all the way out. The doctor walked in and was very surprised to see that my baby was already here at 7:13pm.

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Very Last-Minute Nesting
-Anonymous, Virginia

It was a Friday and I decided that I would work late to clean my office as I could literally give birth anytime. My baby was due in exactly two weeks and I wanted to be ready. My water broke around 4:39PM and I continued cleaning. It was quite clear that I would not be back to work on Monday, so I wanted to get it done. I also thought I had plenty of time between the breaking of my water and the beginning of contractions and real labor.

I called my husband and asked him to bring me a change of clothes. He got to my office a little after 5PM and helped me finish cleaning. At 7PM we decided to go home (only 10 minutes away) so that I could shower and get something to eat in preparation for the birthing process. As soon as I got in the car, I felt my first contraction. I thought to myself, “I still have plenty of time.”

As we pulled into our apartment parking lot, the contractions became intense and very close together. “Uh, oh,” I thought, “Maybe I don’t have that much time!” I told my husband to take me straight to the hospital. We got to there at 7:25PM. Once I was in the hands of the nurses, my husband went down to park the car as he had left it parked illegally. When he got back, just five minutes later, I had already delivered a health baby girl! Too bad he was not there to witness the birth of his daughter.

Overall it was an easy delivery and the doctors and nurses were amazed how fast everything happened. Me too!

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