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This sweet mama had her third baby born at home before the midwife could reach her! As we described in this month’s newsletter, rapid birth isn’t an emergency, it’s an emergence!
At 1:30 a.m. I got up to go to the toilet and ended up sitting there for about 40 minutes with diarrhea. I was a bit suspicious because both Sophia’s and James’s labors began with diarrhea as well, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up since I wasn’t even overdue yet. Soon, I started getting some mild contractions that were coming on every 5 to 8 minutes and lasting between 30 and 60 seconds.
I decided at 2:30 a.m. to wake Jamie and my mom up and to call my midwife, Dina. I told Dina I thought my labor was starting but my contractions were still very mild and easy to talk/walk through. She told me to call her back when I couldn’t talk through them and she would head over then.
Jamie was a ball of nerves at this point, so after he point out all the birth supplies I told him to go downstairs to watch a show because his energy was no good to me.
At 3:25 a.m. I called my midwife and told her I was having stronger contractions and I thought she should head over. She said she was getting her stuff together and would head over. They were about 4 to 5 minutes apart and 40 to 60 seconds each, but started feeling like they weren’t completely fading each time.
They were beginning to blend together. Dina called me back at 3:47 a.m. to say she was just getting in the car and would be with us in in 35 minutes. She jokingly asked me if I was going to have the baby without her, but I reassured her I thought we still had a ways to go. Boy was I wrong!
At 3:57 a.m. I got a pushing contraction while I was on the toilet. (I had spent the majority of the time on the toilet still emptying my bowels and bladder.) My mom was standing in the doorway and I looked at her in a panic because I felt it was way too soon for my body to feel like pushing, but I knew that urge.
She reassured me that it could just be me emptying my bowels some more. I asked her to check the toilet for my bloody show but she didn’t see anything. I got another pushing urge a minute later and yelled downstairs to Jamie that he better get up here. He ran up so fast. I started to get off the toilet thinking I could slow things down if I was in a different position.
I lost the strength in my legs to walk so I got on all fours, but quickly had another pushing contraction. I was in disbelief that my body was pushing so I reached down to feel if the baby was even there. Sure enough I felt her head! Jamie called the midwife and began shouting at her that the baby was coming out, and why wasn’t she here already! He was so panicked and did apologize to her later. She asked him to put her on speaker and said to calm down and that she would be there soon.
With Dina on speaker, I got another pushing contraction, and in one great big push her head, body, and broken waters were born all at once at 4:02 a.m. into my mother’s arms, who was behind me, ready to catch her.
I turned around and immediately looked to confirm my intuition that I was right and she was a girl. I was so thrilled to announce her gender! Ella was screaming so loud the moment she came out and was a perfect pink color. My mom passed Ella through my legs to me as she was attached to me via the cord. My mom and Jamie wrapped us up in a bunch of blankets right there on the bathroom floor to keep us warm.
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We moved to the bedroom to nurse and wait for Dina. She arrived around 4:20 and helped clean up and then I delivered the placenta soon over. They wrapped it up and helped me get settled in to bed with the baby still attached so she could get all the cord blood benefits. When the time came, I cut the cord myself!
My midwife’s assistant walked me through what the different parts of the placenta were. It was so neat seeing what helped grow my baby!
When it came time for me to be checked out, I found myself tensing up, not fully knowing what to expect from my midwife, but hoping it would be different than what I had experienced in the hospital with James and Sophia.
She was so so so gentle with us and I was never once in pain from her examination. She also didn’t do any uterine massage, which has always been an unnecessary torture for me in the past. She was shocked (I wasn’t) that I hadn’t torn or anything from my fast delivery.
Every ounce of natural birth and postpartum was respected by my midwife. I can’t even put into words how much I love her and am so beyond grateful to have found her. People joke that we should get a discount because she didn’t make it to the delivery, but birth is so much more than “catching” a baby. Dina was worth every penny for her gentle, natural prenatal and postpartum care. She empowered and believed in my intuition to birth the way my body saw fit.
Ella’s birth was exactly what I had envisioned since my pregnancy with Sophia. It was so intimate just being me, my mom, and Jamie. It was gentle in spite of the speed because I was able to listen to my body and get into the position I wanted to birth all my babies in. And it was so special my mom got to catch Ella…It just all felt so right and I’m so grateful I could finally fully live out the birth that was meant for my body and babies. A serious dream come true!
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