Natural Woman

It was Saturday night April 26th and the minor contractions were still 5 minutes apart. We managed to still somehow get rest even though the anxiety had been non-stop all day. The next morning at 7:37AM I was informed that the pain in her last contraction was so bad that she had to stop moving and she could not talk. It was time to me to get cleaned up and put on my labor coaching clothes. We called the doctor after the intense contractions reached the 5 minutes apart mark. The doctor encouraged us to stay home as long as possible. Since this was our first child, we were informed that it would be several hours of labor.

At this point Jessie was doing great. She was working through each one, and using the inbetween time to get things ready to go to the hospital. Then they got worse and there was less and less time inbetween the contractions. It was time to get focused and pull out the playbook and get ready for the game of our lives. We took a short walk around the neighborhood and then moved into the house to start going through the contractions in the various positions that we learned in the classes that we had previously taken. They were strong and intense, but my wife remained very focused and disciplined and at around 11:00AM we decided to go to the hospital because she thought her water had broken. By this time she was completely unaware of what was going on around her and not coming back to earth until this baby was born. I loaded up the car and got her in the passenger seat after covering it in a trash bag and we went to the hospital.

We got to the hospital at 11:30 and the contractions were still at a high level and now only 2-3 minutes apart. She got checked into Triage to get checked out. I could not stand this part because this is where they stuck me in the waiting room and I had to wait while they quizzed my wife, who was in labor, to see if I am an abusive husband or if I would ever harm a child. So 20 minutes later I was finally cleared to go back and be with her. I found out that her water had broken and that she was 4cm dialated.

We finally were moved to our labor and delivery room by 1PM where she finally got to stand back up and get back into her zone. We used several positions in the room as the contractions increased. We had some Enya music going and I would constantly watch the monitors telling her when the contractions were coming and when they were going away. Then by 3PM she was 8cm dialated and ready to start pushing.

If you have not picked it up by now, my wife was going through all of the pain and contractions completely un-medicated or more plainly stated, having a natural birth. Only 5% of births in the USA are un-medicated. She pushed for about an hour and then at 4:02PM on Sunday April 27th, 2008, Lydia Nicole Stegman was born of a natural birth.

My wife was amazing. She remained focused the whole time and never gave in to the pain. It was obviously the hardest thing that she had ever done in her life and I was right there with her every step of the way. Teamwork played a huge part of our success. I am so proud of her. The pictures below was taken literally minutes after birth. She looks so amazing and she looks so natural with our daughter in her arms.





Bottom Line - God gave us a miracle, Jessie delivered her naturally.