Holy crap, I was pregnant and then labor happened and a baby came out! After experiencing it I can say that it really is the “miracle of birth”. Here are the gory details for those of you that are interested in how Shepherd’s “birth day” unfolded. It was not the typical birth in that we did it at our house rather than the hospital.
Sunday morning July 10th I woke up at about 4am with mild contractions. The contractions continued throughout the day but were intermittent and did not get closer together. In birth class Greg and I learned that this is called “prelabor”, can go on for a day or more, and can simply stop or progress into active labor. The conclusion from this is that you have to try not to get excited because it doesn’t mean you are really “in labor” yet. This was difficult for me because I was 6 days overdue, desperate to no longer be pregnant, and terrified that I would go 2 weeks over my due date, have to be induced, and therefore end up giving birth in the hospital rather than at home.
We spoke to our midwife (Lynn from Rainy City Midwifery) and doula (Rebecca from Down to Earth Doulas) to let them know what was going on. They suggested we try and go to bed that night as normal and see if the contractions would continue to be slow enough to get some rest.
At around 11pm (right when we were trying to go to sleep) the strength and frequency picked up. We started timing the contractions (and yes, there is an iphone app for that) and they were getting closer to the 5-6 minute apart range for an hour and were getting very painful. We called Rebecca back around midnight and asked her to come over. Lynn wanted to wait until we were *definitely* in active labor to head over since it is no small thing to haul 2 midwife students and a bunch of birthing equipment over to someone’s house in the middle of the night. I was already feeling pretty desperate for the medical practitioners to be there but I would have to wait. Greg also paged the birth tub rental place to get that process going. I think it is incredible that in Seattle you can rent a birth tub and that they are on call 24 hours a day and will come set it up in your house in the middle of the night.
Before the birth tub was filled I remember telling Greg and Rebecca that if the entire labor was going to be like what I was currently experiencing, that I wasn’t going to make it the natural way at home and would have to go to the hospital so I could have some drugs, haha.
But then the birth tub was filled and I got in. This was around 2am. I don’t know what the physiology behind it is but the pain relief is incredible. If you plan a home birth do not forego the birth tub! After that I was much more confident that I could get through labor.
Several things happened over the ensuing hour… Lynn and the students arrived, the contractions got much more intense, and I started puking (a sure sign that the fun has started!) At this point I was 90% effaced and 4cm dilated. 4cm didn’t sound like much to me but Lynn and the students were very happy with it.
The next 6 hours were a blur. Coping with the pain and the regular puking took all my concentration. I had no sense of time other than that I noticed when the sun was coming up and hoped that our neighbors didn’t go up on their roof deck before going to work and see me giving birth in our living room.
At 10am I was fully dilated and started pushing. It was really difficult physically – I think by this time I was pretty weak from dehydration and lack of calories (due to the regular puking). At the same time the heart tones of little Shepherd slowed a bit (Lynn and students monitor baby’s heart rate at regular intervals throughout labor). They thought maybe the umbilical cord was being compressed and had me try a bunch of different pushing positions to see if they could find one that would relieve the pressure and get the heart rate up. (In my state I had no idea what was going on and just blindly did as I was told throughout this entire phase). Many positions later (on birth stool, all fours, on my side, on my back…) there wasn’t a change so they decided to give me oxygen and pushed me to push faster than they normally would to get that baby out as quickly as possible. It was excruciating – due to both the pain but also because every push took so much physical effort. Several times I got light headed and felt like I was going to pass out.
I pushed for an hour and 20 minutes total and Shepherd was born healthy and fine at 11:20am. As it turned out, his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck (Lynn unwrapped it as he was being born) which may have been the cause of the decreased heard rate during pushing.
In the end he was born on our living room floor, on top of a quilt that Greg’s aunt made me and a blanket I got for Christmas when I was about 9 years old (they were covered in splash mats so nothing was stained). I was in shock when they put this slimy, bluish, whimpering baby on my chest. The joy, relief, shock, and awe of that moment is pretty indescribable. Greg was somewhat in shock as well. Little Shepherd started rooting within 5 minutes and I started nursing him soon after with a little help from our birth attendants. We all rested together for an hour or so and then the midwives did the newborn exam, helped us all get down to our bedroom, and then somehow cleaned up the pig slaughter like mess in our living room.
Throughout the entire labor Greg was cool as a cucumber. I don’t know how he did it but I’m glad he did because I sure needed him to get through it.
Here is Shepherd about 20 minutes after he was born:
Holy cow, Greg and I made a baby!
Congratulations, very nicely done!