Eddie's Birth

I was expecting my first baby with a due date of August 27th. About a week prior to my due date I had a couple of nights of being woken up with Braxton Hicks. I was having minor cramping pains. I woke up and took a warm shower and that stopped the contractions and I was able to fall back asleep, but I knew my baby was coming soon. Sure enough, on August 30th, at 2:30 am, I woke up from a sound sleep.  My water bag was leaking and the wetness woke me up.I started to notice contractions shortly after that. I tried to lay back down, but I was too uncomfortable. I didn’t lay down the rest of my labor. 

I felt confident when my labor started.During my pregnancy, I was mentally preparing myself for a long labor. This helped me in Eddie’s birth because I felt confident in my body and minds' innate ability to birth and I felt confident in trusting the unknown aspects of my birth; the duration of my labor being one of those. 

About an hour into labor, my body cleansed itself; purging everything from my stomach and my bowels. It was very intense; overcoming me. I was moaning loudly, as my sister heard me from her house directly behind mine. She said she heard moaning coming from my bathroom.

I was laboring alone for the very early morning hours of my labor. I didn’t feel the desire to wake up my boyfriend, Ed, just yet. He told me later that he was lying awake already for a while prior to me getting him. I didn't want to have anything to do with my phone, but I did text my mom (who was my midwife) and my sisters. Grace, my sister who lived behind me, came over at 9:30 am to check on me before leaving for work. My sisters, Linnea and Faye, arrived around then and stayed with me for the duration of my labor. My mom came over then, as well, to check in on me then went back home.

I was not paying attention to the time passing by. I was not timing my contractions. I was constantly walking-pacing back and forth across my small home. Walking and pausing during my contractions felt the most comfortable to me.

I started to feel a spontaneous urge to push and a desire to squat down. When I checked the clock it was 1:30 pm.This was one of the first times I had looked at the clock that day. I was very pleasantly surprised. I couldn't believe it was already time to start pushing. 

When the urge to push began my walking phase of labor was over. I moved to the bathroom and spent the rest of my labor there. I spent the next hour laboring and beginning to push during my contractions on the toilet. Around 2:30 pm my mom said she was going to  go home to get her birth stool. At this point I randomly touched myself and felt my baby's head inside of me,he felt so close. I loved feeling him. It made me feel so excited. All the hard work my body and I were doing was bringing my baby down. His very round, very hard, very close head left me with a sense of a second wind. I had just a little more work to do and my baby would be here.  I yelled for my mom to come back and had my younger brother bring the birth stool. He dropped it off on my porch and ran off. My loud vocalizing and swearing scared him off!

Towards the end of my pushing ,I had the sensation that I was dying. Literally. My body was going full force and I was trying to help, but I was feeling weak from pushing.  Ed was holding me up from behind and we hooked arms so I could push down and squat as he countered my weight against his body. In between contractions, I was able to rest on the birth stool, which is soft and is slightly lower than a toilet. It helps to open your pelvis and allows you to be in a squatting position. 

My son, Edward III, was born at 3:40 pm. The first thing I said was, “Why is my baby so bloody?” A great welcome to the world-right? I went from feeling like I was on another planet to being back at home in my neocortex within seconds. What a rational and analytical first thought to bring me back down to Earth! Of course my brain and my hormones were still working hard doing all that must be done in the first golden hours of birth, and I would not actually have my feet planted for hours later. There was a sense of euphoria and pride in the room. Connecting with your mammalian roots reminds you of the validity and importance of non verbal communication. When you share your birth with others you really are sharing quite a lot of yourself.

My midwife brain was back. It was not turned on at all during  my labor. Later on, when reflecting on the events of my labor and birth, I was disappointed with a few little things. I thought of suggestions I would have made if I was the midwife in attendance. Oh well, physiological birth is a great equalizer of women. I was simply a laboring woman; not a midwife. I was happy to be present in my baby’s birth in this primal way.  

I did not have any ultrasounds during my pregnancy, so we did not know the baby’s gender. We were very excited to find out we had a son!

Since I saw right away that my baby was bloody, and I was aware that I was not hemorrhaging, I was pretty certain that I had torn. Shortly after he was born Ed, my mom and my sisters’ helped me to the couch. Within moments he was nursing and that began my love affair with breastfeeding!!!  He knew just what to do. Around 20 or so minutes later I delivered my placenta on the couch. After my placenta came my midwife examined my bottom. I had an odd perineal tear.  I had a repair done.  

Birth and postpartum are unpredictable. Be open to whatever may happen.