Slow to start: The birth of Cora

By Published On: August 15th, 2016Tags: ,

I was three days past due with my daughter and extremely uncomfortable to say the least. I was trying to avoid any medical intervention and just let nature take its course, but with this being my first child—and with spiking blood pressure, that window was getting smaller.

I had a doctor’s appointment on Monday morning to check and see if I was dilated. I was only at 1 centimeter, so my doctor performed a membrane sweep and made an appointment to induce me the following day at 12 a.m. Needless to say, I was not happy about having to be induced.

So, when we left, my mom and I went shopping. Later, my husband did acupressure on my feet. We tried everything. Then around 8 p.m. I started having mild cramps—but nothing unbearable, so we all went to bed around 11 p.m.

At 4:15 a.m. I woke to go to the restroom and had horrible back pain, I didn’t think too much of it and laid back down. Then the back contractions came on every three minutes. Then two minutes. By this time it was 4:30 a.m., and I woke up my husband to tell him this was it.

I labored at home until 6 a.m., then we went to the hospital where I was checked and at 3 centimeters. From there things went fast and hard. By 8 a.m. I was at a 7 centimeters and finally gave in to the epidural after trying so hard not to have one.

That’s when things stopped. I stayed at a 7 till about 1 p.m., then I went straight to a 10 and we thought she would be born anytime. But the epidural was too strong, and I couldn’t push. I was stuck at a 10 for four hours. I finally had them turn off the epidural, so I could push.

Forty-five minutes later, after two hours of pushing, our baby girl Cora Rose was born at 5:30 p.m. on May 17th, 2016.

Send us your birth story! Whether you had a home birth, hospital birth, 37-hour labor or emergency C-section, we’d love to read the tale of your little one’s grand entrance. Write up your birth story (click here for tips on getting started) and email it, along with a few photos, to birthstory@pnmag.com. We’ll share it on our Birth Day blog and may even print it in an upcoming issue!