“When I was diagnosed with gestational hypertension at 29 weeks, my hopes of non-medical pregnancy and birth seemed to fly out the window. Instead I was left with lots of weekly testing and a recommendation to induce labor at 37 weeks. It wasn’t until some scary spikes in blood pressure at home that my husband and I decided to finally accept the recommendation for early induction and schedule it for 37 weeks, when I was about 35 weeks. I started focusing my efforts on the Christian Hypnobirthing app and reading Faith-Filled Childbirth, which happened to be published that same week. God knew.
I came to realize that while birth has been created and designed by God, and physiological birth is a beautiful and holy thing, we also live in an age where God has also gifted us medical options that can help keep us and our babies safe. By accepting medical support, I was not denying God’s plan; I was fully embracing his plan for my birth, even if it looked different than I wanted.
I was induced at 9am on a Wednesday, and our beautiful daughter was born 26 hours later. I had my “dream labor” in the beginning - relying on my Christian Hypnobirthing app and all the positions, comfort measures, and coping mechanisms I had learned - but as progress halted overnight and my pain shifted to suffering, I prayerfully decided to get an epidural 22 hours in. I put on my Hypnobirthing tracks, let my body truly rest, and dilated the last 6cm in 4 hours. I was SHOCKED at how the medication and my body worked together so beautifully to make progress, especially when I had previously been so afraid.
I pushed for less than an hour (honestly a little too hard - I was so excited to meet my daughter that I had a good 2nd degree tear) and experienced absolute euphoria when they placed her on my chest. All I could say was, “Praise God, we did it!” Other than needing some blood pressure medication, we both were healthy. She was knit together in my womb so perfectly.
My birth was not what I wanted or planned, but it was the story God had written for us long ago. I can hardly believe that I’m saying I’m walking away from a highly medical birth experience with gratitude to God and feeling proud of my body and my baby. I learned that a faith-filled childbirth is truly about removing fear, even fear of medical intervention, and replacing it with trusting God. He already knows.”
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