Written by Hattiesburg Midwifery Mama, Dr. Hannah Thrash, PharmD
On Sunday August 11 (one day before his actual due date), my husband, Jordan, and I had a few friends over. I started feeling a little bit of what felt like period cramps as well as some tightening towards the top of my stomach that would last for a few seconds. I had had some Braxton hicks towards the end of my pregnancy, but these just felt different. They also were happening every few minutes and not going away like the Braxton Hicks did. I texted my husband at 3:20pm (to not tell him in front of our friends) “might just be Braxton hicks but something might be happening.” Then, he, a few friends, my daughter and I went and walked around downtown Hattiesburg for a bit and I began timing my contractions. At this point they were about 6-7 minutes apart. After that, we went back home and I texted Amanda that I thought I might be in labor. She told me to eat 20g of protein, drink 32 ounces of water, 30 minutes of brisk walking, take a shower and lay down to identify if it was really early labor. So my daughter and I went off to the At Home store to walk in air conditioning and also take my mind off being in labor. That night, I went to sleep around 10:30 still feeling this tightening (that wasn’t painful at this point just kind of uncomfortable).
I woke up around 12:30am and things were much more uncomfortable. After trying to lay in bed and ignore it for a little while, I got up and started trying to do some dishes while my husband was with me helping me to clean the house while timing my contractions. At this early point, every contraction I would feel, I would crouch into a deep squat and picture the wave analogy to breathe through the contraction. Jordan reached out to Amanda and also to my mom to let them know this was going on. By the time my mom got here, at about 1am, I was no longer focused on the dishes and was just focused on how to relieve some of the pain. I was feeling and breathing through the contractions. Jordan and my mom got busy setting everything up for the birth. In his sweet little panic, when setting up the pool, Jordan actually kicked out the window in our master bathroom to get to the outside spicket to connect the water hose. My mom actually reminded him about the adapter to the shower so I could have warm water to birth the baby in. This must be why Amanda recommends everyone who is going to need present for the birth is here for the home visit (lol)! While they got everything ready and prepared for birth, I was in the shower breathing through the contractions. What I found interesting was that any contraction where my husband was present and talking to me and touching me in some way, was a contraction that was much more manageable and easier to breathe through. However, when he was out of the room, like to set up the birthing supplies, the contractions felt much more painful.
At some point, we moved from the shower to the bed. I was having a contraction on all fours (the position that relieved my pain the most) and that’s when we saw the first bloody show at about 2am. I focused on breathing through the contractions, get comfortable, and rest like this for awhile.
I remember feeling such a relief when we heard Amanda pull up into our driveway at 4:06am, even though she and my husband had been in constant communication. Just knowing that this is in fact labor and also that she was here was so reassuring, especially as this is my first time to give birth. Amanda checked my cervix and at this point, I was 8cm dilated. So she suggested a few other position changes to help things move on and also to help me remain as comfortable as I could be at this point. At some point, I got the okay to get in the tub and felt SO MUCH relief. At this point I was about 8cm dilated. While I was in the pool, it felt like my body needed to start pushing. So I listened to my body and pushed a few times. Amanda ended up feeling my cervix again and I was at about a 9, but my body still felt like it needed to push. So Amanda tried to push back the last little bit of my cervix during contractions so the baby could come out.
The original plan was for my 6 year old daughter to also witness the birth of her new baby brother or baby sister. However, when she woke up, seeing her sweet little face looking so concerned and also hearing the cartoons over my birthing music took me out of the zone that I was in for my labor and actually slowed labor down. We decided it was best that she went to school and my mom took her. Also by this point, it was 7am and I was exhausted. I just wanted to go to sleep and have all this be over. My poor husband , who had not gone to sleep at all Sunday night, had actually been sitting on a yoga ball in the corner next to me and fallen asleep in between contractions a few times and woken up to me grabbing him for another contraction.
Amanda suggested that we take a little break so I could get some rest and relief in the shower and we could change things up a little bit. So, I got out of the pool, 9.5cm dilated, walked across my house and got into my shower. My husband tried to get in for a minute just to be closer to reassure me but it ended up feeling too tight in there and I needed to be able to spread my legs, while on my hands and knees with the water hitting my back (that’s where the pain primarily was), as far as I could. So my sweet husband sat outside the shower and reassured me through my contractions.
When you learn about the stages of natural labor, there is always a stage towards the end where you believe you truly cannot do this. When I was in the shower, I hit that point. After a few contractions where I was debating it in my head, i told my husband that I didn’t think I could do this (to which he reassured me that I already am doing this). I told him I wanted to tap out and go to the hospital and that’s when he told me that by this point, the hospital probably could not do anything for me and I’d probably end up having this baby in the car on the way there. Also, the thought of laboring in the car for about 20 minutes without having the shower, the pool, or the ability to move for relief was a terrifying thought. So I got out of the shower and back into the birth pool. They checked my blood pressure and it was a little low, explaining some of the exhaustion. After a spoonful of honey and a bowl of yogurt, I was feeling a little more refreshed, a little stronger, and even more ready to meet our sweet baby. Everyone there started to cheer me on after every contraction and that helped as well.
I pushed for a few times in the pool but I just couldn’t get the right force in the water. So, under Amanda’s suggestion, I got out and got in between the bed and my husbands dresser next to the birth pool. I leaned back on my husband, sitting on the birth ball in a deep squat and started pushing. Amanda also told me that I have to get mad with it, as I was mostly trying to breathe through the contractions. When I started screaming with the contractions, that’s when things started to move. She still had to help hold back my cervix, which hurt but finally, in this position, I started feeling all the progress I had made. At one point, she told me she could feel the baby. I reached in and felt hair on top of its head, a relief because of the heart burn I had had for the last 5 months of pregnancy. It was a few more pushes and the baby began to crown. As it turns out, the baby’s hand was also right next to his head instead of being down by his side like they normally are. Amanda suggested that I get on my knees with my hands on Jordan and push that way. After a few pushes, the baby came out at 9:00am. It was the biggest relief. The baby cried immediately. I took a few breathes of relief in this position before reaching grabbing my sweet baby. My husband saw it first and announced to everyone “it’s a boy”! Our sweet Navey Garrett had entered the world.
Then, I was moved to the bed where I cuddled my sweet boy and pushed out the placenta. There, he and I stayed skin to skin while any vitals needed to be checked on either of us. I also had a second degree tear and had to get a few stitches so Amanda did that with me on the bed and him still doing skin to skin on me.
At 11am, 2 hours after birth when the umbilical cord was nice and white, Jordan cut Navey’s cord. He was then weighed and measured. 9 pounds 10 ounces, 22 inches long with a 15cm head. We were all shocked at his size!
Jordan did some skin to skin with him while I was escorted to the shower to clean off. I was surprised to see those dishes (that I had started at 12am when I was trying to ignore labor) were done as well as the towels that were used during birth were washed. After I had gotten cleaned up, I went back to the bed to snuggle and feed my sweet baby boy. I was still bleeding a lot so they gave me the option for a pitocin injection or interchanging some herbs, Hem-halt and Shepherds purse, under my tongue every 5 minutes for 30 minutes. I chose the herbs and they did the trick! At noon after making sure that the baby and I were good, Amanda and her amazing assistants, Tara and Hannah, left.
It was incredible to be able to be at our house and have all the comforts of home after the baby was born. To cuddle up with our new baby in our bed with all our favorite foods in the kitchen. It was also an incredibly empowering feeling knowing that I was able to successfully push out a baby, a big baby, at home. For 9 months, when I would tell people that I was planning a home birth, a lot of people would say that I was only saying that because I had never given birth before and that I would change my mind. Though I chose a home birth for all the benefits I read about, including some additional freedom for choices, to move and to eat, getting to prove the people who doubted me wrong was also an incredible feeling. Especially doing it with a Midwife and her team who I trust fully to take the absolute best care of me and our baby.
I couldn’t have gotten through it without my sweet husband. Like I said earlier, the contractions he was present for were so much better. Throughout the whole labor, he would help me get through each contraction by telling me I could do this, how strong I was, to relax and breathe. Each contraction was different on what I needed physically too. Some contractions I would want him to lightly scratch my back, others I would want him to massage or squeeze my hips. Others, I wouldn’t want him touching my back at all, just my arms. He was a pro at changing during each contraction even though I couldn’t communicate with words what I needed.
When my daughter got home from school that afternoon, she was so excited to meet her baby brother (even though she really wanted a sister). Though, when we told her that we had the baby on the floor right next to the bed, she let me know that it didn’t really count then since it wasn’t in the pool. She also let me know that I didn’t pack her a snack in her backpack that morning for school (LOL).
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