I was at Bradley class on the night before my son was born. That was my due date, and my back was hurting pretty badly. That night, Beth asked us to get on the floor to practice all we had learned, and I just couldn't lay down - it was too painful. So I sat up and did my breathing, envisioning, etc. It never occurred to me I might be in labor, although when I talked to Beth a week later she said I probably was. In retrospect, my baby had been turned face-up (i.e., the wrong way) for months, yet he was face-down (the right way) when he was born, so he must have been turning that night.

I went home after class and because I had had the flu all week and had not kept food down for Sunday through Wednesday (my second bout with the flu while I was pregnant!), I was pretty zonked and went to sleep as normal. My husband was scheduled to fly in from Poland the next evening and would arrive in Washington on Saturday night. The next morning (Friday, March 1), I woke up at 6 am as usual and got up to begin getting ready for work, and as I stood up, there was a small trickle of fluid down my leg. Thinking that maybe this was my water breaking, I continued my morning routine for a few more minutes and my first contraction came at 6:28. It's funny how a contraction can't be described except as "you'll know it when you feel it," yet I knew precisely that this was a contraction!

Since our Bradley class had taught us that labor usually starts slowly, and that you should "putter around" for several hours while the baby moved down the birth canal, I assumed I had lots of time but that I probably shouldn't go to work. I did some laundry, read the paper, and called my husband in Poland (where it was about 1 am) and told him to try to get an earlier flight but that it might be another 24 hours or so before the baby came. Then I called my parents in PA and told them to come down after work, and called my doula, who said that we had plenty of time so she'd take her kids to school and talk to me again at 9:15. My mother had had two 24-hour labors, so we all assumed that the baby would come some time that night or early the next morning.

However, Nicholas had other plans. From 7:20 to 9 am, my contractions were regular and 5-7 minutes apart. I got dressed and got my pre-packed suitcase together, and began getting mentally ready for a long day of labor. But at 9:20, my contractions got MUCH worse and accelerated to every two minutes. There was no "transition period" as we'd heard about in class. These contractions were VERY painful - I had to really concentrate on breathing and, being alone, focus and count out the contractions myself. I called my doula again and said that I thought it was getting close, and although she later told me she thought maybe I was overreacting, she told me to call an ambulance because there was no way I could drive now, and a cab driver would not drive a woman in hard labor to the hospital! I called 911 and in 5 minutes heard sirens and then a knock on my door. I struggled to walk to the door and there were 3 firemen -- not paramedics, not ambulance workers, but firemen! They took my vital signs and told me they'd come in the big fire engine (I still don't know why) and the ambulance soon arrived. The pain was pretty bad now, and the quickly got me into the ambulance for the bumpy ride to Georgetown. When I got there I was 8 cm dilated, and I began to push within about 30 minutes. I pushed only a few times (6 by my count, 4 by my doula's), and the head crowned, so my midwife said that he'd be here in a few more pushes. I took a breath and pushed as hard as I could, and Nicholas flew out like a bullet! My midwife said it was the first baby she ever LITERALLY "caught"! They placed him on my chest, and he immediately lifted his head and looked at me (which I should have known was a precursor to quick development -- he began walking and talking at 8 months, doesn't nap at all, and has still never slept through the night!) My husband didn't make it from Poland in time to attend the birth, and he arrived about 14 hours later.

Although I didn't have much opportunity to use the exercises I learned in Bradley class, it was invaluable in helping me understand what was going on physically, thereby making it much less scary, and most of all, in convincing me I could do it without any drugs. Because my husband was in Poland (I had moved to DC for the last trimester because I did not trust Polish medical care) and I took the Bradley classes without a partner, it was especially important to me to be aware of what was happening around me and to me and to be able to handle it on my own (although my doula was great in making me focus and breathe). It hurt like hell, but I'll definitely use Bradley with all my pregnancies!