First birth: PROM and marginal cord insertion: Sandra became pregnant at 33 in March 2020. She was planning an unmedicated hospital birth. She sought doula support and took the KYO childbirth class. Her water broke spontaneously at 37w2d, but she was in denial, so she didn’t present to the OB clinic until >30 hours later. She went to the hospital for increased labor. After hours of labor, she had the epidural and later a small episiotomy. Otherwise things went smoothly and it was overall a very positive experience. The baby had severe IUGR from a marginal cord insertion, which was unexpected due to reassuring growth ultrasounds. It was only 4lbs 14oz at 37w4d! She didn’t need the ICU, but Sandra did triple feeding, which was tough. It did great and went from 0.5% at birth to 10-12%. He is now a thriving almost 3 year old.
Second Birth: Quick Unmedicated Hospital Birth: Sandra became pregnant again at age 35 and was again planning an unmedicated hospital birth. She went to 39w2d with her daughter, who is now 8 months old. She took the KYO class again and did a lot during the pregnancy to take care to get the baby in a good position. Labor began spontaneously with mild contractions. Sandra quickly went from “I think I might be in labor” to “we really need to go to the hospital NOW!” There were a few tense hours when she and her husband couldn’t get anyone to come watch their little one in the middle of the night. Phone support from their doula and a TENS unit got Sandra through, while her husband was literally running around the neighborhood at 3am to find help. When they finally got to the hospital, Sandra was 9.5cm with an inflated bag and she had her daughter within 20 minutes. Total time from first contraction to birth was 4.5 hours! The baby was lip/tongue tied but they were quickly revised and breastfeeding and postpartum were overall much easier.
Sandra Brown Bio
Sandra and her family live in the Triangle area of North Carolina with their 3 year old son and 8 month old daughter. Sandra and her husband both work in the mental health field. Sandra is a two-time Know Your Options childbirth class student and Patreon member. She considers her births very different but equally empowering experiences.
Resources
- Know Your Options Online Childbirth Class, The Birth Hour Podcast, The Birth Hour Patreon Group
- Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler and the OvaGraph app for fertility mapping
- Emerald Doulas based in Raleigh, NC
- Expecting Better and Crib Sheet by Emily Oster
- Natural Hospital Birth by Cynthia Gabriel
- Count Kicks app and Instagram account
- Instagram accounts Mommy Labor Nurse, The Naked Doula and The Balanced Boob
- KellyMom.com for breastfeeding Baby Tracker app (especially useful for tracking feeds, pumping and diapers early after birth, but you can also track sleep, medication manager and more)
- Human Milk 4 Human Babies Facebook group for breast milk donation (each state has its own chapter)
- Dr. Milk- national Facebook group for breastfeeding mothers
Required
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