scarlett's birth story - part 2

Tags

baby girl, family, home birth, joy, midwife, motherhood, natural childbirth, nugget, pregnancy, water birth

***DISCLAIMER*** I AM WRITING THIS POST IN THE HOPES THAT IT WOULD ENLIGHTEN AND EMPOWER OTHERS ABOUT WATER BIRTH AT HOME, NATURAL CHILDBIRTH AND MIDWIFERY THROUGH MY LABOR EXPERIENCE. THIS POST IS NOT DISCREET AND GIVES MANY DETAILS ABOUT OUR HOME BIRTH THAT SOME MAY FIND “TOO PERSONAL” – IF THAT IS YOU, THEN PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS.

{see part 1}

It was quite the journey to walk from our bedroom into the nursery where the birth tub was set up {it had been inflated, waiting for us for about a week. Sam filled it with water around 1pm that day}. Sam lead the way, walking backwards while I leaned against him and Maricella followed with my bowl for nausea. Getting into the warm birthing tub was such a wonderful feeling, a relief to my body to be weightless. Debbie had informed me that the rushes would feel different once in the water and she was right; they felt more specific as opposed to general tightness. I tried several different positions when I got into the water, I found leaning over the side to be the best initially. Sam sat outside the tub, rubbing my shoulders all the while praying over me and the baby. Debbie had a cool cloth on my neck and had made raspberry tea for me as I was still feeling nauseous. After what felt like a short while, Debbie told me that our third midwife, Jennifer, had arrived and then told me she wanted me to start using the rushes to move my baby down. Hearing her say that, I knew what she meant somehow and what I had to do. As the next rush came, I waited and let it build until I couldn’t wait any longer and then pushed down, all the while still keeping my moans and noises in a low tone as to relax my body. With each rush that followed, I began to bear down to get nugget to move; this began the most challenging part for me.

I kept thinking, now that I was pushing, that everything would be so quick and I’d only push a few times and then “poof” there she’d be! When I realized this was not the case after about 4 more rushes, I hit a wall. We were making progress, she was moving down beautifully, but just not as quick as I had imagined and that is when I found myself to be very tired. It was also at this point that my lower back began to ache and got worse during each rush. I had been the only one in the tub until then; Sam kept his post outside the tub as I leaned against it, he held my hands and kissed them all the while encouraging me. I knew I needed him in the water with me at that point, I needed his support more than ever. While he went and changed, Debbie was coaching and supporting me. Sam joined me in the tub and Debbie told me to try a different position since he was in the tub now and could physically support me. We moved so he was behind me and I was sitting in the tub with my legs stretched out. I pushed for a few minutes in that position when all of a sudden I felt a burst leave my body under the water, I know immediately that my water had just broken. I vocalized to our team what I thought had happened, they told me the rushes would change and sure enough they did. The intensity increased and I knew the baby was moving down, but with each rush I was feeling more and more fatigued along with increasing pressure on my lower back.

Our team could sense my tiredness and Debbie suggested that I stand up in the tub and lean over the side, allowing gravity to take the pressure off my spine and thus making it easier to move her down. I pushed that way through several rushes and that is when I felt doubt and fear creep into my mind. I felt like I wasn’t strong enough to push any more and I remember speaking out “I’m so tired, I don’t think I can do this” and instantly regretted even speaking those words. {I was the one though my whole pregnancy who rebuked any negative talk about my labor and then here I was, speaking my own failure, even when I knew that the Lord had everything under control. My flesh found a way to sneak in and make me think that I wasn’t able to do it – that was a LIE! My Creator made my body perfectly capable of growing and delivering this little life He placed inside me and I KNEW that. } Sam, Debbie, Maricella and Jen all immediately spoke life into me as well as prayed over me; in that moment of weakness I remembered that I was not alone in this, I cried out to the Lord. I told Him I released my labor to Him, asking Him to take over.

The next thing I remember is Debbie saying that the baby was crowning and for Sam & I to sit back in the water to deliver her! Sam sat behind me again, this time holding my legs up while I began to push her head out. Once her head was out, Debbie told me that I had to pass her shoulders and to do so I needed to do little “puffs”. I think I only did about 4 or 5 tiny puffs and then Debbie said “Alexa, reach down and pull your baby out” which I did without hesitation. {I had not planned on being the one to pull her out but in that moment I didn’t want any one else to! I pulled her up, out of the water, and onto my chest. I was in shock, a haze was over me, I couldn’t believe I was holding my daughter. It was more incredible than I had ever imagined – and in an instant all of the discomfort I had felt in labor melted away. All I felt was love deeper than I had ever known. It amazes me how God enlarges your heart and gives you a whole additional helping of love to give that is only for your child.} She opened her eyes slowly and stared right at me, then back at Sam who was over my right shoulder. The peace and presence of God was so thick in the room at that point, I knew she felt it as well because she was so calm and yet so fully alert. I held her and was just in awe of this little miracle of life that I was holding.

We had decided months ago that we wanted to delay cord clamping until it had stopped pulsing, so there was no rush to do anything other than sit and stare at each other. Sam and I kept talking to her, both crying, and she just kept staring a each of us, almost as if she was realizing “oh yeah, I know your voice, so that is what you look like”. Once the cord stopped pulsing, Debbie clamped it and then Sam was able to cut the cord.

I didn’t want to move, I could have just stayed in the tub and held her in my arms for hours upon hours, but I knew she needed to get warm and dry so out Sam went, then the baby.

I had lost a bit more blood than normal due to the size of my placenta, that along with vomiting several times during labor, I was quite weak. I tried to get out of the tub and felt like I was going to faint. Maricella and Jen made me a smoothie with a bit of my placenta in it to stop the bleeding quicker and give me some strength. It took almost an hour for me to get out of the tub, once I did I laid on the floor in the nursery; all I want was to hold our baby. They brought her to me and laid her on my chest, skin to skin, and in that moment I was whole. I asked what time it was and what time she was born and was told it was 10:48pm on Wednesday, October 3rd. They measured and weighed her, 7lbs, 10oz and 20.5 inches long.

She was perfect and the Lord had answered our prayers, giving me a safe, effective and efficient labor and delivery. I could not think of a better way to give birth than what we did and with the team that we had. I will do it all over again for each child God gives us – water birth at home – for us it was perfection.

 

here are a few images from our labor & birth:

40 weeks + 5 days

40 weeks + 5 days

 

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