[Chaya]

As I approach my second birth with excitement and apprehension, I'm enjoying reading the birth stories posted here. I guess it's time I got around to posting my first birth story!

I took classes at the Prenatal Yoga Center throughout my pregnancy with twin girls. I had a very comfortable, uneventful pregnancy. I remained fairly active and flexible up to the end. At 32 weeks, I moved from the Upper West Side to New Jersey, and was promptly put on prophylactic rest after just 2 days of unpacking.

I had just come off rest at 34 weeks when I thought I felt my water leaking. Since I was in a meeting close to my hospital in Manhattan, I decided to go to L&D instead of going home to Jersey.

At the hospital, I was examined very roughly by a resident with a dismissive attitude. She told me there was no sign that the amniotic sack was ruptured. She also told me I was 2 cm, which didn't make much impression since I had heard it's common to walk around dilated at the end of a twin pregnancy.

The next night, I couldn't sleep because of a backache that came in a rhythm with painless contractions. My brain said: "You are not in labor. If you go to the hospital, they will examine you roughly, roll their eyes at you and send you home."

So I just let my body take over and do what felt natural. I did yoga positions that felt good. I read blogs to distract myself. I got in and out of a warm bath. I walked around the house. All the while, the backache and the contractions kept coming. I tried to time them, but I couldn't really tell when they were starting or stopping, because there was no pain in the front.

At 5 AM, I woke my husband and said, as calmly as possible, "I think you need to pack a hospital bag." I called my doula, and she told me to call my doctor. The on-call doctor told us to go to the hospital. I rode in the back seat as my husband drove us into the city, very uncomfortable and very happy it wasn't rush hour.

In triage at the hospital, I encountered the abrasive resident from the day before. She examined me and said, "You are . . . you are . . . you are 9 cm." I started laughing with joy and relief.

I labored for another hour or two. My doula arrived and helped me through the end with amazing massage and counterpressure. My husband played guitar and we sang together to get me through the intense parts.

When it was time for me to push, I had to go to an operating room because the hospital's policy is to deliver twins in the OR. They offered me a wheelchair, but it felt better to walk. I walked with my doula on one arm and the nurse on the other, with my husband walking behind playing guitar. I felt on top of the world.

I had to push flat on my back on an operating table (hospital policy), which was nightmarish and awful. But my daughters were born safe and healthy, five minutes apart. They spent two weeks in the NICU to get their weight up, and I was able to be alert and present and visit them right away.

Now my girls are almost two and expecting a little brother any day! I hope I will have another positive story to share soon.

[hannahthompson]

I had my twins naturally and it was wonderful. I had a homebirth with my first born. I was seeing a midwife when I found out I was carrying twins and because she was not comfortable with a homebirth more than 30 miles from a hospital, I choose to have them in a small town hospital. I worked with a doctor who is a friend of mine and the new nurse midwife. I wrote a birth plan and the nursing staff really read it and help accomodate me. They helped me blow up a swimming pool so I could labor in water as I had with Gavin. We agreed to compromise on some things. I would also run some things by my homebirth midwife. It turned out great and I wouldn't do anything different, even though I was really sad to give up my homebirth dream.

Good luck!!!