Hi, all!  My son, Elijah, was born last week at the September Hill
Birth Center here in upstate New York.  I'm delighted to report that
his was a beautiful birth without medical intervention, and he came
out ready to suck.  We are already a blissful, breastfeeding couple.

I learned something about the power of nursing while I was in labor,
and thought I would share this story.  I'd be interested in knowing
if anyone else has had a similar experience.

The September Hill Birth Center is located near Watkin's Glen, a tiny
town that once a year becomes the venue for championship NASCAR
racing, which causes the roads to clog with traffic, the hotels to
fill up, and all other manner of social chaos.  Of course, I went
into labor the night before the races began.  When I arrived at the
birth center, however, the midwife determined that my contractions
were not really progressive--cervix was no more dilated than it had
been three days earlier at my last prenatal check up (4 cm).  She was
hesitant to send me home, however, given that all the race activities
were scheduled to begin the next morning and that I might well start
actively laboring at any point.  (We live an hour away.)  So we
decided to check into a nearby local hotel for the night rather than
drive home.  By the time we found a room--45 minutes later-my
contractions had completely stopped, and I wondered why we had
bothered to come at all.

At this point, my almost-three-year-old daughter was completely
hysterical.  It was hours past her bedtime; she had thought the baby
was going to be born that night and now it wasn't; and she wanted to
go home.  Although it had been six weeks since I last nursed her (I
weaned at the beginning of my 8th month because nursing triggered
such intense Braxton Hicks contractions), I offered her the breast,
thinking that I had nothing to lose at this point, and it was my best
hope for calming her down and getting her to sleep.  She was thrilled
and immediatedly relaxed in my arms as soon as she latched on.  None
of her skills as a breastfeeding toddler had been lost in the interim.

About five minutes later, I was hit with a very hard contraction.
Then three minutes later with an even harder one.  Three minutes
after that, I was chanting and breathing on all fours on the bed, and
Jeff was on the phone with the midwife.

By the time we got back to the birthing center--a 5 minute ride--my
water had broken, I was seven cm dilated and was trying valiantly to
get on top of the very intense labor I had suddenly been thrown into.

To make a long story short, my 9 pound, 11 ounce son came hurdling
out of me in the jacuzzi bath less than two hours later.  (I hadn't
intended a water birth, but labor turned into delivery without
warning; stage II pushing lasted only a couple of minutes and
suddenly there he was).

Anyway, nursing my daughter turned out to be a fateful decision that
threw me into the deep end of the pool, so to speak.  It elicited a
more powerful reaction than even the pitocin drip I was given during
her own birth. (I was also  four cm. dilated when the pitocin I.V.
went in.)  I don't really have any regrets about what I did, but I
certainly wouldn't recommend toddler nursing to anyone else in early
labor (especially if in a seedy hotel room out in the woods).

So...in my current dazed, elated, and sleepless state, I remain
humbled and awed at the power of the breast!

warmly, Sandra
--
--

Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors
110 Rice Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853
[log in to unmask]
www.steingraber.com

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