Part 2 of my birth story

if you haven’t read part one, here it is. but if you’re ready for the part two, a quick recap: my unmedicated hospital delivery of baby boy went as smooth as i could imagine, and was truly everything i affirmed for. from my first contraction to the delivery of baby boy, it was only 9 hours of labor and it was a deep portal that i know prepared me for everything to come.

here’s the second part, that i haven’t shared yet.

so after delivery, they placed baby boy on my chest, Tom cut the umbilical cord and we had some of that “golden hour time”. on my birth preferences, i requested to wait at least 15 minutes for the delivery of my placenta, which the obgyn honored.

it was exactly 15 minutes and the obgyn said “it’s been 15 minutes, can we deliver the placenta?”

i thought nothing much of it and said, yes. i assumed the placenta was ready to deliver.

i knew the placenta had to be delivered, but ever since i learned about it in our birth class it always felt like a weird subject that kinda felt “weird”. i heard people mentioning that doctors want to put you on pitocin just in case something goes wrong, but overall - i heard it was pretty simple and a natural process. i also heard that the placenta will “naturally” deliver itself.

the obgyn guided me to push gently, and the placenta came out. i felt it come out and heard the “plop” (TMI, but it was just like a squishy thing that came out of me”). and in that moment, i thought to myself “okay, we’re done!”

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