Artie’s Birth Story

By Hattiesburg Midwifery Mama, Kaelyn Wesley

At 41 weeks and 3 days I decided it was time to ask my midwife, Amanda, for some suggestions on getting labor started. That afternoon I took her advice and kept busy until around 10 that evening. At 10:30 I began to feel some inconsistent contractions but I also had some very similar a week before so I went ahead and got in bed to sleep them off. At 12am I woke up with a contraction like I hadn’t felt before and couldn’t sleep any longer so I got up and started walking around while timing the next few contractions. At 12:35am I woke up my husband to let him know and he told me to call Amanda and my doula, Kiki. I insisted it wasn’t active labor and that I just needed to go get in the warm shower for a minute (that should have been my sign right there). He looked at my contraction timer and I was having them every 3-5 minutes so he called the team to get everyone there.

My demeanor was very much normal and I was still able to crack some jokes so it was hard for any of us to believe I was actually in active labor. Because we thought it was just too early, my midwife’s assistant came to check on me and have me do a few things to keep labor going. As soon as I got on all 4’s and relaxed my pelvis, I felt the most amazing feeling of relief: my water broke.

From this point the contractions became much stronger and closer, and we all know it was coming soon. My mom arrived soon after this as well as my doula and midwife, and this whole time my husband was diligently getting my birth pool ready, in between pausing to help me with each contraction. I can’t say I had any sense of time during this evening because it felt like it was only a matter of minutes since I had woken up. Throughout the whole night, Amanda would periodically step in the check my, and baby’s vitals and everything was moving along smoothly. I had contractions for about 4-5 hours before I was ready to get in the pool.

Once I was ready I got in, things somewhat slowed so I went to labor on the toilet for a bit but once I felt stronger contractions I insisted on getting back to the pool. I asked my midwife when I should push and she told me that she honestly can’t answer that for me, just to listen to my body, and that’s all I needed to hear in that moment. At this point I had a little bit of higher blood pressure so I was given Magnesium, and soon after that, I threw up.

At this point I was ready. I began a few pushes leaning against my husband in the pool so I turned to face him so that he could catch the baby. After several deep pushes baby Wesley was born at 7:05AM at 41 +4. My husband looked at me with the most proud face and said “it’s a boy!”

After delivery, we went to our bed where I delivered my placenta while I held sweet baby Arthur “Artie”, but I ended up losing a lot of blood so I passed him over to my husband and Amanda quickly began assessing me making sure my vitals were still good. After a few minutes of rest with my husband and our baby, I requested that Amanda check me out again because I was feeling lightheaded. This time things didn’t look as great as they did before our Golden Hour so she was able to give me Pitocin and IV fluids, making sure there was no emergency. After that, both myself and Artie were very healthy, and able to bond immediately.

Being able to have Artie at home meant that I was able to labor in the most comfortable way, in my happy place, with people there who I knew and trusted. If we are lucky enough to have another baby, I can only hope to have the same experience.

Artie is Kaelyn's first baby, and he weighed 7lb 14oz at birth and was 21.5in long.