I gave birth as a first-time mom via unmedicated, natural labor to a healthy baby boy within five hours at Mount Sinai East. I credit the minimal tearing, avoidance of invasive procedures, and healthy delivery to exercising leading up to delivery, my doula, and my doctors.
I can not thank the doctors enough for their emphasis on my health rather than their convenience at the time of delivery. Natural delivery is extremely painful – I won’t sugarcoat it. But the process was, in its way, a sort of spiritual experience because of the way my doctors and the nurses at Mt. Sinai allowed it to be as natural as possible in a hospital setting. After increasing waves of pain all through the morning, I remember the room being silent around me as my doctor and my doula instructed me to push one more time for the birth of my boy. With a great big cry from my husband, my baby, and me all at once, my doctor eased the baby out from me. It was as if he was like a priest, anointing my baby into this world.
I also have to thank my doula, recommended by Village Obstetrics. She was there from 11:30 pm to 6 am, with us the whole time, as my pain grew stronger and stronger, well past the point where my husband felt helpless to ease my pain and past even the point where I thought I could not have borne it, not without her. She knew what to say and when, how to position my body and massage me to make the experience manageable.
If you can use a specialized provider such as Village Obstetrics, I recommend it. Few experiences in life are as intrinsically magical as making a human being. The experience deserves to be treated not like a number or business, but as the magic miracle that is what a woman’s body can do.
Village Obstetrics patient, June 29, 2022
