Birth Story of Benjamin

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Annie 1 A and T started care with me in the first trimester of their fifth pregnancy.  A’s birth history for the most part was to go post dates and her boys were 10#!  We completely anticipated the same pattern! The morning of October 6, A sent me a text saying she was feeling sort of labor-y.  Nothing was regular but everything felt different.  She was 37.2 weeks, so we talked about ways to make the prodromal labor go away.  I checked in with her later that evening and everything had slowed way down. At 11:50pm, A called and told me her water just broke.  She said there was a lot of fluid and it was clear.  She had never had her water break first, and going by her history of delivery quickly after her water breaks, she asked me to go ahead and come. I arrived at 12:30am and found A just sitting in her bath tub.  She wasn’t having too many contractions.  Vitals all looked good.  I did a cervical exam and found A to be 6cm dilated, 30% effaced and baby at a -3 station.  I got some more fluid out during the exam.  After the exam, contractions starting coming. We ran A’s some warm water and she sat in her bath tub.  A and T use essential oils routinely.  A pulled out her clary sage essential oil and began rubbing some on her belly every few minutes.  As 1am neared, contractions were coming every 5 minutes, lasting 45-60 seconds. As the 1 am hour went by, A said she felt like the contractions were really getting harder.  Close to 2am she moved to the toilet to labor for a few contractions.  A felt like more action was happening while sitting on the toilet.  After about 15 minutes, she moved back to reclining in the bath tub. Waves of nausea started to come on A, and we gave her peppermint oil to breathe in to help with the nausea. It was visible through the 2am hour that contractions were picking up.  A was amazing to sit and watch as she reminded herself to relax her jaw.  She moaned gently with contractions, reciting “relax” to herself, and talking to her baby to come on out.  At 240am, A said she felt like she could feel more of the head now. We continued on with the clary sage every 5-10 minutes.  Each use of clary sage would bring on a strong contraction. A little after 3, A asked to try the birth stool in the tub to see if it helped.  She was beginning to feel pushy.  After one contraction on the stool she decided that wasn’t the right position.  We changed out the water in the tub as she adjusted back into a semi reclining position. Contractions fizzled to 6-8 minutes apart, allowing A to close her eyes and rest in between each contraction. At 3:34 am, A asked for the bottle of clary sage and did a couple drops internally.  She said it worked really well in her last birth and she had read about Gary Young having luck with it internally with his wife. The very next contraction, A began to spontaneously push.  The head was immediately visible on the perineum.  The head was gently birthed at 3:38am, followed by the rest of her sweet baby at 3:39am.  T helped catch his son and bring him to A’s chest. Benjamin definitely looked to be 37 weeks!  He was covered in cheesy vernix from head to toe!  So much that it was thick in his eyes, and struggled to open them because of all the vernix. Welcome to the world Benjamin, born on October 7, 2015 at 3:39am, weighing in at 8.0#, 19″ long.  Your mama was so thankful you came early versus late!  Such a blessing to support this sweet family in welcoming their fifth child into the world.

More from Our Blogs

Winter in Scotland

It has been a while since a new blog post, but with good reason, as it has continued to be a busy

Autumn is Upon Us (Sept/Oct 2022)

A Wee update As nighttime continues to creep sooner and sooner, the tasks of the day are not decreasing. Actually, the opposite

Scroll to Top