Victoria’s Birth Story

It is hard to believe that our little girl is a month-old. In light of celebrating her one month arrival and my one month of being a mom, I thought I’d share with you all her beautiful birth story.

From early on in my pregnancy, I decided I wanted an unmedicated birth (or as unmedicated as possible). Motivated by the fact that I required a quick recovery since I had to return to work soon after birth, and alarmed by the number of C-Sections in South Florida, I wanted to avoid as much intervention as possible. Notice I said “unmedicated birth” and not “natural birth,” I truly believe there is no “unnatural” way to give birth. A birth is a birth no matter how your baby is delivered and all moms want the same thing— a healthy baby in their arms. I prepared a video filled with emotion and all sorts of details sharing our full story. It was almost impossible to write and express everything we went through— the video was filmed two days after Victoria’s birth. [I apologize beforehand for the length of the video, but the text below summarizes the video.]

THE STORY: WEDNESDAY, January 9: I had a scheduled routine visit to the doctor’s and was going to have an ultrasound done to see how Baby Victoria was doing. Suddenly the technician tells us that she’s concerned about my amniotic fluid level and warned us that the doctor would discuss it with us. We walked in to see my doctor and he began by explaining that our intended birth plan had always been feasible, so long as there was no medical concern. However, he explained that my amniotic fluid has gone down by almost 50% (from a level 9.6 at Week 36 to a level 5.5) and could pose a danger to the baby. The doctor asked me to come back on Monday to recheck the fluid level. He also advised that if the fluid was above a 5, I could go home, but if the fluid was below a 5, I had to be admitted to the hospital. For the first time since our initial visit he mentions the word “induction.” I hear it and immediately tense up (I know that inducing labor can lead to further intervention). Feeling the need to take control of the situation, I asked him to discuss the worst case scenario. He explained to me his induction procedure, I looked at him and said, “I need you to do me a favor and withhold Pitocin,” (a medicine that kickstarts contraction). I had done enough research to know that at times all you need is to help soften the cervix and that contractions can on most occasions start on their own. He realized that above all medicine intervention, Pitocin is the one I feared the most, and so he agreed to let me labor with just Cervadix, a pill that would be inserted to the cervix that causes the cervix to soften as the pill dissolves. I looked at him (and with tears in my eyes) thanked him and said all I wanted was for us to try. I left his office feeling like at least we had a plan. MONDAY, January 14th: We arrived to my doctor’s appointment accompanied by Mr. Marques, my mother and my sister. By the time the ultrasound is over, we know that the fluid level went down to a 3. My doctor said, “you know what this mean.” And I did know what that meant... and “knowing what that means” strangely enough eliminated my anxiety of wondering what was the next step. He encouraged Sergio and I to go grab a nice lunch since we don’t know when our real next meal will be. After lunch, we checked into the hospital and handed over our birth plan to our nurse (but not before we gifted them with some delicious mini bundt cakes... lol). Upon arrival, I was told I was at 2cm of dilation and 50% effaced. Soon thereafter, the anesthesiologist visited our room and offered her service for an epidural, we thanked her but refused it at that moment. At 2:45PM the nurse administered the first dosage of the Cervadix (my doctor authorized a maximum of four dosages to be administered four hours apart from each other). Cervadix requires you to lay on your sides for a period of 2 hours. Following the two hour stretch, I was able to walk easily around the labor and delivery section at Baptist Hospital. I should share that I refused to have an IV connected to me (I did accept a Hep-Lock in case of an emergency) and I asked for intermittent monitoring not continuous monitoring of the baby’s heart rate and my contractions. By doing this it made it easier to walk around and also use a birth ball to help speed up the process. Four hours after the initial dosage, I was at 3cm and 60% effacement. A second pill was placed at 7PM and then a third pill was placed at 11PM. Throughout that time, other than the physical changes to the cervix there was no pain experienced and while there were contractions, I honestly did not feel them. We continued walking and bouncing on the birth ball hoping my body would respond quickly. TUESDAY, January 15th: At 3AM our nurse came back into the room to see the progress from the third pill inserted. At that moment she determined I was 4cm and 80% effaced. To our surprise, she told us we no longer need any other pill! Whoohoo! So I asked her what was next... and she said we now needed to wait. She said my doctor had allowed us to go without the Pitocin medication until 7AM. If by 7AM there was still no active labor, then he would order I be administered Pitocin. At that moment, I felt like I was starting to lose hope and that Pitocin was going to be the route we would end up with. Within minutes though my body showed me there was still hope and I began to feel more contractions. The birth class we took taught us about lying on our side during labor and mimic sleep as a relaxation technique. As I did that, Sergio began massaging my back and using words of affirmation. I should point out that my room was silent throughout the entire evening, there was no music, no TV, no chitchatting, and the lights were off, only the light from the screens lit the room. I wanted an atmosphere that was quiet and peaceful. The only noise was Victoria's heartbeat and my husband coaching me every step of the way. At one point, the nurse came back into the room to place the monitors to check my progress, as she did this she propped me up and I sat crossed legs (also known as tailor sitting). I instantly felt so much better from any contraction. I decided to stay in that position throughout the entire labor... it was by far the most comfortable position for me. At 4:24AM, my water broke and it was clear! Contractions began coming more frequently and while many have described contractions as painful, to me they felt like a wave starting from one side of your belly to the other side of your belly. As a contraction approached, I would jitter with cold and during the contraction I experienced a heatwave. Both my mother and mother-in-law would alternate fanning me while Sergio stayed by my side at all times. At one point, Sergio began counting during the contraction and using words of affirmation... that was a turning point. I asked him to do the same for every contraction and while repetitive, it was so nice to measure the contraction and understand that it was temporary and passing. While all this was occurring, our doula was keeping track of the time between each contraction. At one point she indicated to me that we had reached transition and that the contractions would now be closer together. I should mention that throughout this active stage of labor, I kept my eyes dimmed and by the grace of God, I would fall asleep between contractions, even when the contractions were within 90 seconds. lol... no idea how I managed that one. Finally at around 7:40AM, I began to feel the urge to push, but unfortunately my doctor was dropping off his children at that time and would be arriving closer to 8:30AM. So they had me blowing birthday candles to dismay me from pushing... but my body was unable to stop iytself from pushing. At around 8:20AM, I began to feel something down there and our doula called the nurse. The nurse at first seemed hesitant to check... perhaps it was my calm disposition that made her question, but after much insisting she finally checked to discover that THE BABY'S HEAD WAS THERE! Immediately, the nurse said they could no longer wait for my doctor and they called in the OB on staff. He walked in, introduced himself, and starting putting on his gloves and getting prepped on my status. Just at that moment, my doctor walked in and said he was there! He looked at me and said, "OK Jen push." Not knowing what to do, I did a pretty weak push, he looked at me and said if I was going to push that way we would be there for 2-3 hours. So I said, teach me. He instructed Sergio to help hold my leg on one side as the doula held the other leg, he told Sergio to count to 8 and for me to crunch up and push as hard as I could for those 8 seconds. When it came time to push again, I did just that... AND HER ENTIRE HEAD CAME OUT! At the next push, her body followed right along! 3 PUSHES AND VICTORIA WAS OUT!

Victoria Fuentes Marques was born at 8:41AM weighing 7lbs 2oz and 19" long! The sensation of having her placed on me was unbelievable. The experience was magical and I could not have done it without an amazing support system and team! We were finally holding our baby girl in our arms!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

1. How long did she have you in labor? I checked in at the hospital for the induction at 2PM, while the contraction monitor said I was experiencing contraction, I did not truly begin to feel them till about 4AM. As a result, I'd say I was in active labor for about 5 hours.

2. Did you get an epidural? No. As I said in my video, no judgement for the women who do. Everyone's pain tolerance is different. I did not feel pain during my labor. I was silent, calm, and truly at peace. The anesthesiologist did their routine introduction visit and explained the procedure, we thanked her and refused at that moment the medicine. To reduce the temptation of the epidural, on our birth plan we asked that the medicine not be offered unless I requested it. Between Sergio and I, we also came up with a plan. We decided that if the pain was so unbearable, I would use a code word. If the word was used, he would have to tell me that the medicine was on its way, but he would not request it until 30 minutes had passed from my request to make sure it was what I wanted. Luckily for us, we did not have to use any safe word. Want to know the safe word? SANTA! lol. We came up with the plan around Christmas time, we thought it be funny to use that word.

3. How do you recommend hiring a doula? I highly recommend expecting mothers to consider a doula. They are there to assist you in your birth. Since we do not know what type of birth we will have, having someone with experience on a number of births is very helpful. The way I see it, the nurse is your medical assistant, while your doula is your personal assistant. My doula helped me not only during labor, but also during my pregnancy journey. Anytime I had a question, I'd ask her and seek her invaluable experience. If you are considering hiring one, do it!

4. What class did you take for labor? Both Sergio and I wanted an in-depth class that would teach us everything there was to know about pregnancy and labor. We chose to take a course known as The Bradley method. The Bradley method was created by Dr. Bradley who believed in training spouses as birth coaches. The course was 12 weeks long for two hours each classes. We loved our class and learning different ways to cope with labor pain. The class is not taught at a hospital setting and focuses on unmedicated labors.

5. How did you do it? This is may far the question I get asked the most referring to the lack of epidural. All I have to say is-- mind over matter. I wanted this so much, that in my opinion it took any pain away. I lived and breathed learning about laboring for all nine months of my pregnancy. I read countless books, heard hundreds of birth stories through the podcast The Birth Hour and tried my best to educate myself on the subject as much as possible. I also believed in my body, myself, and my support team.

FINAL COMMENTS:

I feel incredibly lucky to have had such a wonderful labor and to be blessed with a beautiful and healthy baby girl. Please do not interpret my story as an "I'm better than you" story. I'm sharing my experience and if it inspires you and empowers you in your birth, then I have accomplished my goal. May your birth story be just as amazing and may the ending of your birth story be you holding your healthy baby (or babies)!

Love always,

Jenny

#MiamiBaby #BirthStory #BradleyMethod #UnmedicatedBirth #MiamiBirth