The Mom Crowd

My baby turns one in a few weeks. One year ago I was very ready for him to make his appearance into the world. As I plan our celebration for his first year of life I have been thinking a lot about his birth and how he made his entrance into the world. So, I thought I’d share my story with you all. I love hearing other women’s birth stories so feel free to share yours in the comments section if you like!

Graham’s Birth Story:

Graham was due during the last week in August 2007. His due date came and went so I asked people to make suggestions and bets on when this baby would come. My friend, Sharon (also a frequent reader and commenter here on The Mom Crowd), recommended eating some eggplant parmesan. She sent me a link to a recipe from a restaurant that guarantees to get labor going. I was ready to have this baby and willing to try anything. I had been having lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions and knew that my body was probably ready to kick into gear. I didn’t want to go through all the work to make the meal so we went out to dinner on Sunday night.

We had a lovely dinner at a place called Bravo!. The boys were soooo well behaved and we had a great waiter. Ewan was feeling very snuggly with me and wanted to sit right next to me all night at dinner. Normally he wants to sit next to daddy. Maybe he was picking up on some motherly hormones about to go off or something.

I went to bed around 11 and woke up at 12:30 with a fairly strong contraction. Normally, contractions had been waking me up at night when I had to pee but I didn’t feel like getting up since I had just gone to bed. I went back to sleep and at 1:30 I woke up with another strong contraction. That time I decided to pee so I could get back to sleep but I did notice that the contraction was much stronger than what I had been waking up to previous nights. I thought that something might be up especially when my bladder wasn’t very full. I laid back down and waited to see if another contraction would present itself. Sure enough, 7 minutes later it did. Hmmm…I thought…could this be it? 7 minutes later another one came and something told me that this was labor beginning and it would probably go fast. I woke up Jon and told him I was having some strong contractions. 5 minutes later another one came. He said he thought we should pack up. The part of me that thought it would be a fast labor wanted to agree but the other part of me that didn’t want to wake up the midwives and go to the birth center too soon wanted to wait. My husband said he thought we should get ready to go. As soon as we got up my contractions were 3 minutes apart and moving along quickly. I was already pausing during the contractions and not wanting to talk. I don’t think my contractions ever were longer than 30-45 seconds. How nice was that?! I decided it was a good thing we were getting ready to go.

We woke up Ewan as we were on our way out the door since he wanted to come to the birth. We left the house at 3:15am. This was my first labor where I wanted to really be upright instead of laying down. I used the birth ball to lean on while we were at home and at the birth center.

As we were driving in the car I started feeling “pushy” and was about ready to jump out of the car and walk to the birth center since sitting down was miserable. Every contraction in the car was so much more painful than when I was at home and able to stand up and sway or lean on the birth ball. At one point I said, “I WANT OUT of this car!!!” Jon decided to pick up the pace in the car and (cautiously) ran a few red lights. I kept imagining getting pulled over by the police and yelling at them to let me get to the birth center. Ewan was very chatty in the backseat with me. I told him that I may not be very talkative during a contraction but he kept the mood light and I welcomed that.

We got to to the birth center at 3:45 and got settled in. The nurse, Gretchen, checked Graham’s heartbeat which sounded great. My favorite midwife, Anne, was on call and I was thrilled! I wanted to enjoy the wonderful jacuzzi bathtub for labor. Before getting in the tub she asked to do an initial exam. I was already 9ish centimeters! I thought briefly about going ahead and breaking my waters but on Anne’s recommendation decided to enjoy the tub first and to get used to being in the birth center environment. I relaxed in the tub for a bit and then started to feel like pushing a little. It felt really good to have warm water poured over my belly while I was in the tub. I got out of the tub and asked Anne to break my water. When she broke it she said I still had a little lip left on my cervix and was going to try to move it out of the way when I felt like pushing next. We were all pleasantly surprised that the water was clear since he was already a week late. It is pretty common for meconium (baby’s first poop) to be present when babies are late. It made for one less complication–especially later. This was my first birth where I had that overwhelming urge to push early on after being completely dilated.

After getting out of the tub I got on the bed on my knees and leaned over the birth ball. As I felt like pushing, I did. At one point I said to Anne, “I’m afraid I’m going to fart on you!” Everyone laughed and she said, “Please do!” I had to say it out loud otherwise I would have kept thinking it and it would have gotten on my nerves. After a few contractions leaning on the birth ball I decided to sit up in the bed and lean back against Jon. I knew that this baby was probably bigger than Ewan (9lb 6oz) and I could tell it was taking more work to get this baby down. I was thinking that he was going to be a 10 pounder.

For me, labor has always been the easier part of birth. Second stage (pushing the baby out) is more challenging for me both physically and psychologically. It is more challenging physically because I know the “ring of fire” is coming and it is a very uncomfortable feeling for me. Having your skin stretched, even though it is only minutes long is quite the challenge. That is what makes it psychologically difficult for me–to welcome the burning and to work with my body during that process.
I took my time to get the head out-it felt like years to me and I was the most vocal this time letting out grunts and little sobs to work through the pain and work with the contraction. It was awesome to feel his head moving down and to touch his head while it was emerging. Ewan, my oldest son, was watching me push out the head and decided after seeing a little blood that he wanted to go upstairs and watch a movie. Up until this point he was around and in and out of the room excited about everything going on. I was a little sad but wanted Ewan to feel the freedom to do what felt right to him. I think it ended up being a good thing.

I don’t remember how it came up before I started pushing, but Anne had mentioned something about how flipping over on hands and knees is helpful when the shoulders get stuck. I can’t remember if she was just being informative or if she mentioned it because we all agreed that this baby was probably bigger than Ewan.

After Graham’s head came out it was obvious after a few pushes that his shoulders were stuck. Anne said calmly, but urgently, to get on my hands and knees so I flipped over and pushed with all my might. Flipping over or moving really, when a baby’s head is between your legs is quite the feeling! Anne hopped on the bed and pulled and pulled while I pushed and pushed to get that shoulder out from under the pubic bone. It was 2.5 minutes after his head came out that the rest of his body came out at 5:10am. There was not really any time for waiting to cut the cord. She immediately cut the cord and took him to the table to rub him down. Thankfully his heart never stopped beating but it did take him a minute to breathe. They also had the oxygen running near his face. As she was rubbing him down she told Jon to start praying. It was a fairly intense 4 minutes after the head came out. We were all thankful when he started crying and it looked like his collar bone was not broken.

Interestingly, when I had been imagining this birth–listening to my intuition–shoulder dystocia kept coming to my mind. I think that perhaps God was preparing me because when she was pulling him I was very calm and peaceful even though I knew the outcome could be grave.
After he started crying I finally got to hold my little boy and spend some time bonding with him. His precious little face was bruised but he was beautiful to me! We were taking bets on how big he was. Anne kept saying she thought he might beat her record of 11lb6oz but he didn’t look that big to me. Sure enough when we finally put him on the scale he was 11lbs 12.5 oz and 23″ long. Labor was from 1:30am to 5:10am start to finish. She said she thought he might be the biggest baby born in that birth center! (Turns out he wasn’t the biggest.)

I couldn’t believe that I had an almost 12 pound baby and was sooooo thankful that I was in the birth center surrounded by people who believe in birth.
The other thing that amazes me is that that I only had a couple of skid marks (minor abrasions) and didn’t need any stitches at all! No tearing! I think taking my time to push out the head helped but also I couldn’t believe that I didn’t tear when the midwife was pulling with all her might with my pushes while I was on my hands and knees. What a blessing to not have stitches! I tore with both Ewan and Isaac so I was completely amazed.
Ewan came back down after his movie was over and was so into his brother. I was so happy that he was there even though he chose to go upstairs during the birth. I think being able to come and see the baby on his own time table was good for him. I think it was good that he was not in the room during the critical time of getting the baby out. He would have noted the tension and I didn’t want him to remember birth that way.

So, I don’t know if the eggplant Parmesan was coincidence or not but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to add to your list of natural ways to get labor to come.

This was my first birth center birth and I loved it! Each of my 3 births have had their own challenges and they are all dear to my heart. I’m almost sure I can’t wait to do it again.