Labor in Love: Call on Jesus

Women labor in love everyday. It is a beautiful gift from above and the stories shared are absolutely amazing. In this series, mothers all over the world share their stories about their labor experiences and advice for expecting moms.

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I went into labor with my baby girl five days after her due date. Within that week, I had scheduled a prenatal massage. The massage therapist made a comment about castor oil. According to the overdue moms that she works with, it will get things moving. My other mommy friends shared with me that they had tried it, but it did not work for them. Fast forward to the day before she was born. It was a typical day. That morning I decided to try the castor oil cocktail. I also caught up on things that needed to be completed around the house and school assignments due that week. Time flew by and before I knew it, the early afternoon had arrived.

Around 3pm, I left to get something to eat. Afterwards, I had planned on going over to a my aunt’s house to hang out. It was not long before I learned that the food was not agreeing well with my stomach. I left Bojangles and ran a few other errands before it hit me. With really strong cramps, I knew that I needed to use the restroom since I took the castor oil. Instead of going over my aunts’s house, I decided to go home.

I safely arrived home, did my business, and got comfortable. However, my stomach would still cramp up really bad in intervals. So each time, I would run to the bathroom. As a nervous, first time mom I called the hospital to speak to a nurse at the desk. She shared with me that until the contractions were a certain amount of time apart and/or my water broke that it would be best that I stayed home. I basically stayed in the bathroom for the next hour or so before I told my husband that we needed to go. Something was not right. Even though my labor did not meet the requirements at the hospital, I needed to be seen.

I went to the hospital and again the nurse assured me that I needed to go home and rest because what I was going through was normal. I was emotional and convinced that what I was feeling was not normal. At the very least they could have checked to make sure my baby’s heart was beating. I am not sure why my internal instinct was so high, but I knew that something was not right.

The nurse then said that she would be willing to have the doctor check me out if that would make me feel better. As she was hooking up the heart rate monitor on my belly, she quickly exclaimed, “you are having contractions less than a few minutes apart, do you feel that?” Of course I did, but I thought they were for a different reason. I had been in the restroom for the past 2 hours and it was that reason that I decided it was time to come to the hospital.

I am grateful she checked me out and did not send me home. They wheeled me in a wheelchair to the labor and delivery room where I would labor in love. I made attempts to contact my relatives. I informed my mom and she quickly responded, “Call on Jesus.” In the midst of my pain, I chuckled because I was expecting a different response. Maybe, “you can do this” or “thinking about you.”

My husband and I settled in our room. The nurses wished us well and instructed us to get some rest as the next day was going to be a big day.   Maybe a few minutes after we had settled in our new room, the monitors went off. The baby’s heart rate had dropped and kept dropping. Shortly after, the doctor worked to prepare me for an emergency C-section, because I was not dilated sufficiently for a vaginal delivery. It was imperative that they delivered the baby soon because they could not tell why the heart rate kept dropping. In the next few hours, I delivered a beautiful baby girl.

“You cannot buy happiness, happiness is born.” 

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5 Questions to Help Moms Labor in Love

• Did you receive an epidural or pain medications? Yes, I received both. You could have literally stuck the epidural in my eye if you told me that was the only way I could receive that medicine. It was amazing and I for a moment in the midst of my anxiety about the complications felt that I had control over my body.
• How did you deal with your contractions? Saying my favorite two bad words over and over.
• What would you have done differently or will do differently next time? Wait on the baby to naturally start labor without the use of castor oil.
• Funniest memory: When the nurse told my husband, “I know you are trying to help but your wife cannot hear anything you are saying right now so the best thing for you to do is be quiet and rub her back.”
• Tip(s) for new moms for when they labor in love: All the pain you may go through cannot possibly compare to the amount of joy you will receive when your new baby arrives. When in pain, think about the end goal. 

Enjoy this Labor in Love story? Check back next Monday where we meet Leah and hear more about her experience laboring in love. 

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