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Real Moms Share Their Amazing and Inspiring Birth Stories

Whether you're about to give birth or already a mom of a big kid, you'll laugh and cry reading these moving birth stories (14 Photos)

Dina Roth Port on Oct 31, 2011 at 10:59AM

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a Dina Roth Port on Oct 25, 2011 at 12:04PM

When I was about five months pregnant with my first child, Laney, we learned that I had intrauterine growth retardation, which means the baby wasn’t thriving for some reason. I was put on bed rest and sent to the perinatologist to be monitored on a weekly basis.

A week and a half before my due date I learned that Laney's measurements had dropped again. The situation was nerve-wracking, of course, but amplified because we were expecting a hurricane in the next two days -- the first one to hit South Florida in years! I told my doctor I wanted her out! He said he would discuss it with my ob-gyn.

After a lot of back and forth, I got the phone call at 7:30pm that my c-section would be done the next day at 11:30am. I was also told not to eat anything after midnight. Since I was pregnant and starving all the time, I literally ate my last morsel of food at 11:59pm. I’m not kidding -- I devoured a piece of ice cream cake, just in time.

I got to the hospital the next morning at 9:30 for pre-op stuff and lots of waiting. The nurse came in to tell me that my c-section has been bumped because they had an emergency and needed the operation room. I said, “You can't bump me! I'm pregnant and starving and I need to eat!” She looked at me and said, “Don’t worry. You’ll be able to eat by dinnertime.” This wasn’t a consolation!

It turned out, I had my c-section at a 1pm. I was so nervous and hungry that I just wanted to zone out. I just closed my eyes and went to my happy place and stayed there. I didn’t really snap back into it until they said, “Here’s your baby” and handed me a precious bundle that weighed 5 pounds and 14 ounces. I felt so peaceful and elated.

It wasn’t until afterwards that my husband told me what had really happened. Apparently, Laney was so high up -- she tucked herself up under my ribs -- that the doctor couldn’t get her out. His entire arm was in my stomach and he still couldn’t get her. The doctor had to eventually use forceps to pry Laney out.

But the bottom line was, she was beautiful, healthy, and sweet as can be. And luckily, shortly after she was born, I had another special delivery at the hospital: Take-out dinner and a glass of wine!