Birth Story: “This is Awesome! This is Awesome!”

Wow, mamas — we are so excited to share today’s birth story, with its multimedia combo: a written story + pictures + video of baby’s birth.

After two C-sections, Meg poured her heart and soul into her third pregnancy and plans for a VBAC.  Thank you, Meg, for the courage to share your journey — and incredible video — with all of us at Blooma. Congratulations!

xoxo,

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

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{By Meg}

There is so much to tell about this birth, it’s hard to know exactly where to begin.  The preparation began as soon as I found out I was pregnant. I immediately started interviewing midwives and shortly after that, doulas.  After a cesarean with my first baby, and a devestating repeat c/s after four days of labor for our second, there was a huge part of me that wasn’t sure I could handle putting everything into another pregnancy without a guarantee of a vaginal delivery.

I knew I wanted to have a homebirth.  That alone would cost, but even more than that, it was the heart.  I knew I would have to put my whole heart into the entire process again, only to wait, and wait, for the outcome.  Jeremy and I talked through it a lot and despite all the financial cost, he wanted me to have a shot at my dream birth.  What amazing support he was.

We found a midwife.  We found a doula.  We began our journey.  They wanted me to follow the high protein, low carb/sugar diet, which I had planned on.  They also really wanted me to try yoga.  I had always wanted to do prenatal yoga, but we were not able to afford it.  Jeremy got a new job and promotion to cover yoga and some massage that was highly recommended by my amazing midwives.  Around the same time, I started reading Hypnobirthing, which I had chosen somewhat randomly from a pile of books lent to me by a friend.  I had never thought Hynobirthing would interest me.  As I started reading, I became more curious about the method and we decided to take the class.

At around 18 wks I began yoga.  I knew yoga would be good for my body. Good for the baby and positioning. I’ve always preferred group exercise, but I never could have imagined to what extent yoga would help my heart.  I am not sure I ever left class without shedding a few tears-some stress, others pure joy. My journey through yoga started out with determination for a vaginal birth, to a point up until the birth of letting go, of releasing.  I would give everything I could for a vaginal birth, but I would let go of what I did not have control over, namely, the baby and how labor would go.

On November 29th, a Tuesday, at just over 39 weeks, I went to class. I had been having strong contractions on and off for a few days and got through class with 2 or 3.  I wasn’t terribly graceful that day, but it didn’t matter. It was still productive and good for the soul. I was signed up for class again Thursday morning, but did not make it to class…

Wednesday evening the bothersome contractions were kicking in quite frequently. I was discouraged because of the four-day labor I had endured with our second baby.

Our midwife suggested I take full advantage of the birth tub and use it to keep comfortable until real labor kicked in full force.  In the meantime, I was so bothered I took a hot bath (not helpful for filling the birth tub might I add), drank a glass of wine, drank a cup of chamomile tea.  Anything to get the pesky “pre labor” to settle down so I could sleep.

The time ticked by.  Before I realized it was 1 a.m.! A friend of mine, thankfully on Pacific time, asked if I was timing them.  I hadn’t but we decided to do that right before she suggested it.  Sure enough, it seemed that despite my efforts to stop the contractions, my body was working to get our sweet baby in our arms!

Another 15 min or so later, they were really getting strong and we called our doula and midwife who headed our way.  

I got in the tub as soon as the doula arrived.  My husband was boiling water like crazy trying to warm up the tub.

Before the midwives arrived, my water broke during contractions in the tub.  Clear fluids. I could tell by the way the doula was relaying information to our midwife (on her way across town) that they really thought this baby was coming!  Really?  Do they really think this baby might actually come out of me? I cannot express the encouragement I felt hearing the nervousness in the doula’s voice as she asked me to feel for a head.  No head yet, but the baby was working its way down.  Amazing.

My labor went on beautifully in our bedroom while my children slept soundly. I never labored the first birth, and with the 2nd, I got to 7cm.  So I knew what contractions were like,  but not pushing.

I was pushing by the time the midwives arrived.  I could not believe how GOOD it felt to push!!!  I think that surprised me the most!

I let my body take complete control over the labor, relaxing as much as I could during contractions, breathing as I had learned in hypnobirthing and yoga, as well as following my body’s urges to push as it directed.

There was a point though, when I realized while I was getting through the contractions with good deep breathing, my jaw had been “soft” and my shoulders loose, but I had not fully surrendered.  I had to  let go.  Even more.  I started telling the baby, “okay, you can come out, you can come out now.” Outloud, a few times, I said this. (More below video.)

I do not remember exactly when the midwives arrived, but I had been pushing for about 2 hours or so when they asked me to get out of the water and sit on the toilet. I didn’t want to but I completely trusted them, and got my butt out of the water and waddled down the hall to the bathroom. They could see the baby descending down my back, as my hips opened up, and knew the baby was “right there.”

They had me feel for the head, and I told them, “I don’t think that’s the baby, I think it’s just my cervix.”  Hmmm.  Who do you think knew more?   After some convincing my baby was right there, birth came quickly.

After about 15 min of pushing on the toilet, the midwife asked if I wanted to get back into the tub. “I’m fine right here,” I told her.  “Well, you can’t have this baby on the toilet. You need to get to the bed or the tub,” she said.

Deep breath, deeeep deeeeep breaths. I could tell everyone really thought the baby was coming as they scrambled to get the plastic and sheets on my bed. What wonderful encouragement. They really thought this was going to happen!! I couldn’t believe it.

After no more than another 15 minutes back in the water, the baby was crowning. As the head came out, I yelled, “This is AWESOME! This is AWESOME!”

With head and FISTS out, my sweet little baby grabbed ahold of the midwife’s finger. How sweet is that?

I had to wait about two full minutes before I had any urge to push again.  As soon as I did though, out flew the rest of the baby.  A little girl!

After two boys, and two C-sections, I had a healthy baby girl in my arms, birthed in a beautiful tub of water in my bedroom.  It was amazing!

I would have been more than happy to have another boy, mind you.  Just goes to show, no two births are the same.  Everything about this birth was completely different. I had to encourage myself with that knowledge the entire pregnancy.  How good to see that truth brought to light.

P.S. — 9 lbs, 5 oz

 

Tags: birth story, blooma, home birth, Hypnobirthing, prenatal yoga minneapolis, prenatal yoga st. paul, VBAC