My Birth Story
Last month, I gave birth to my third baby boy! So, I thought I would share my birth story! This story really begins the day before he was born. My oldest son had randomly asked me if we could have cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next morning, and of course I said yes. So, once my boys were in bed that night, I started the process for homemade cinnamon rolls. This included proofing the dough, rolling it out, and baking the cinnamon rolls so that I would just have to warm them up and make the icing in the morning. Unfortunately, I stayed up until midnight to accomplish all of this, not knowing that I would soon be awake again.
Next thing I know, it’s 3am and I wake up from a contraction. I had had a few nights of prodromal labor, so I wasn’t sure if this was just another one of those episodes. I laid in bed for a couple more contractions, but felt fairly uncomfortable, so I went ahead and got up to walk around and see if they continued. I walked to our living room and looked out our large picture window. While I stood there, I had a few contractions all about 3-5 minutes apart. They were very manageable, but I could tell at that point that they were the real thing. Even though they were already 3-5 minutes apart, I was trying to manage my expectations, thinking that it would likely be a long road ahead. So, I decided to start doing household tasks to pass the time while I tried to distract myself from labor. This included unloading the dishwasher, reloading it with all of the dirty dishes from making cinnamon rolls, starting a load of laundry, and then folding an already clean load of laundry. While I was doing all of this, I had a movie playing to further distract myself, again thinking that this was going to be a long process.
Around 4:45am, I started to preheat the oven to warm up the cinnamon rolls and started mixing together the icing. I had decided that I wasn’t going to wake up anyone else until 5am, as I wanted them to get all the rest they could. However, about this time, my husband woke up and realized that I was not in bed. He came out to the kitchen to find me working on the cinnamon rolls. While we talked over a five minute timespan, I had a couple contractions. He then asked why I hadn’t woken him up sooner and thought that we needed to start heading towards the hospital. However, for some reason, I was still in denial that things were progressing quickly as I had only been having contractions for a couple hours at that point and they were still fairly manageable.
Neither of us had our bags packed, so we both got to work on that while I called my doula, and my husband called his sister to eventually come watch our two older kiddos when we needed to head out. I was still fairly certain that we had plenty of time until I was in the bathroom and started to get a bit emotional. From previous labors, I knew that was a sign that I was starting transition. It was at that moment that I started to feel a bit panicked. I had told my doula and my sister-in-law that we probably wouldn’t head to the hospital for another hour. However, we were quickly calling them back to tell them that we needed to leave soon. I finished getting dressed and also put on my TENS machine to help manage the contractions. At this point, I needed to concentrate and vocalize through the contractions, another sign that things were progressing quickly.
Thankfully, my sister-in-law lives next door, so she was at our house quickly, around 6am. Our two older kiddos woke up right around this time, so I was able to quickly say good morning and give them kisses on their heads between contractions. I had really just wanted to see my oldest child’s reaction to the cinnamon rolls, and I was happy to get to see that before we headed out the door to the hospital. He was very excited to eat them!
There was construction on the interstate heading into the hospital, so we took a back route to try to get there quicker. During this car ride, my contractions were about every two minutes and I was hanging onto the door handle through every curve in the road. It was truly not a fun car ride at all, and all the while I was wondering if I was going to get the urge to push before we got to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 6:45am, parked the car at the entrance, and quickly rushed inside. I headed straight for the elevator because I knew a contraction was coming, and I didn’t want to get stuck in the lobby. A contraction started in the elevator and continued through us getting to the labor and delivery floor. The receptionist in the lobby of L&D quickly called for a nurse, and they got me back to triage. In triage, there was a rush of nurses that came to help because they could tell that I was far into labor.
Once in a triage room, I stood next to the bed and leaned onto it with my hands. This was where I stayed as they hooked me up to the fetal monitors, and this would be the only intervention that I would receive. A couple nurses and the triage doctor asked to perform cervical exams, which I denied each time. I did not receive a saline lock, any IV fluids, or medications. We had called ahead during our drive to the hospital to let them know we were coming and to also let my doctor know, but we realized that they hadn’t done this once we were in triage. Instead, I heard them page my doctor while we were in triage, and I wondered if she was going to make it in time. My doula arrived quickly and we were then wheeled back to a birthing room.
At this point, I was drawing inward, keeping my eyes closed and concentrating on relaxing my body between contractions. My doula took control of the space, being intentional to pull aside the birth team and relay my preferences: minimal people in the room, hands off until consent is given, and little direction unless requested. The staff were quick to respond and respect these preferences as the room quickly became less crowded and everyone just observed unless I requested something. My husband was also quick to make sure that my bodily autonomy was respected and stayed close so that I knew he was near.
Only a few minutes after we got to the birthing room around 7am, I started feeling the urge to push. Once my baby was this low in my pelvis, I felt stuck in the position that I was in - on hands and knees. This was my preferred position to be laboring and pushing in anyways, but I also felt like I did not have the physical capacity to try any other positions even if I wanted to. With my baby that low in my pelvis, my husband had to put constant counter pressure on my tailbone. Otherwise, the pressure in my pelvis felt like too much. There were also a couple moments where I felt the need to let everyone know that I was going to explode (LOL).
Shortly after I started pushing, my water broke. Then, shortly after that, I heard my provider announce that she had arrived. This allowed me to breathe a small sigh of relief, knowing that all of the people who knew my values would be in the room for the rest of the process. I continued to push through my contractions, and then breathe through the ring of fire, until my baby was born exactly at 7:30am! It was such a relief to have him earthside and to know that the most intense part was over!
I was able to immediately pull him up to my chest and then get repositioned in a more comfortable reclining position on the bed. My husband then got a good look at our son while we cuddled and soaked up skin to skin time. We then just waited for my placenta to be born spontaneously. No one put any traction on the cord or tried to clamp it. There were a few moments when the contractions were pretty uncomfortable that I almost wanted to rush the process, but I ended up breathing through them and continuing to wait. My placenta was then born spontaneously about 20 minutes after my baby was born, and I had very minimal bleeding with no tearing. There was no need for a shot of Pitocin or any aggressive fundal massage. The cord was almost completely white at this point, so it was clamped and my husband cut the cord. My baby and I continued to snuggle, my provider eventually left, and then we got cleaned up a bit before we transferred to the postpartum unit.
My labor nurse was so sweet and admitted that she hadn’t seen a birth like that before - uninterrupted and with minimal intervention. She said that it was possibly the kind of birth that she would like to have one day. Be sure to keep an eye out for my next blog to check out my thoughts about postpartum and this birth compared to my other ones!