Cecilia, born January 6th, 2004

To begin, I did not have a cesarean birth and was able to bear my daughter vaginally. That said, I want to share my story with you because I had some complications that often end in a C-section and because I found out a few things later about my birth story that both angered me and made me eternally grateful that I listened to my doubts, left my OB-GYNs and chose to seek prenatal care from midwives.

My daughter, Cecilia, was 11 days late. She was due December 26th but was not born until January 6th, 2004. During this wait, my midwives were watching me closely to make sure that I was staying healthy while we waited. On December 28th, they had me do a 24 hour urine test, worrying that I might be developing preeclampsia (high blood pressure and the presence of protein in the urine). My blood pressure was a little high but not high enough and the test came back inconclusive so they sent me home to wait and see. Admittedly, the waiting was getting hard.

Finally, on Sunday, January 4th, my husband and I were reaching our patience threshold. We called our midwives and they were thinking the same thing - it was time to come into the hospital. We went in and they ran some more tests for preeclampsia and it was decided that I would need to be on a Magnesium Sulfate drip that women with preeclampsia are put on during labor. Around 5:30pm, I was put on a pitocin IV and a "mag" drip.

I was not dilated at all so I was given several gel suppositories to help my cervix get ready for birth. By the next morning, there was no change. My midwife put a foley balloon in my cervix and over 4 hours, the balloon manually opened my cervix to 4 centimeters.

By Monday night, there was still no change and I was starting to lose it. Sobbing, I begged my husband to get the midwife - I was starting to give into a fear that my daughter would never be born. When she asked me if I wanted her to break my water, I said "YES! Please!" Around 10pm, she broke my water and labor pains started. At midnight, the anesthesiologist came in and asked me if I wanted an epidural. I had wanted to have a drug free birth but at this point I had so many needles and tubes and I said "yes." The mag drip prevented me from getting out of bed so I wasn't able to walk around or even go to the bathroom.

At 4am on Tuesday morning, there was still no change. By 7am, I had dilated to 7.5 centimeters and an hour later I was 8.5. By 10:30am, hard labor started. We pushed for 3.5 hours and finally at 1:51pm, my beautiful daughter was born. Daddy was there along with my midwife and several nurses. It truly was the most amazing moment of my life.

So what did I found out later? My older brother is an anesthesiologist resident with the hospital where I gave birth. He was at work at the hospital on the day Ceci was born. The next day, he told me that the anesthesiologists had been penciling me in for a C-section on Tuesday morning because they did not have the faith in me and my body that my midwives did.

He also told me later that he asked a lot of OB-GYN's their opinions on my labor and birth. Every one of them told him that they would have induced me 3 days after my due date rather than allowing me to wait and the majority of them told him that they probably would have performed a c-section Monday evening - not allowing me the extra time I needed to dilate and have my daughter.

My brother also told me that the doctors that he talked to, told him to let me know that I should now consider myself a "high-risk" pregnancy and should not be under the care of the midwives if and when I have another child.

All of which, I refuse to listen to - if it were not for the midwives and their passion for helping women have the birth experience they want - I would be telling a very different story today.

My advice? Research your options, ask your doctors a lot of questions about their practices and beliefs and make sure you trust your caregivers 100% so that you find yourself not wondering "what if" once your story has been told.

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