Guest Post: Birth Story of Nikki (As Told From Her Mom Amanda)

I have come to understand that Midwives and Doula’s are pretty much hidden angels. After a battle with insurance companies and a doctors office that was way far away we decided to look into getting a midwife this time. I have an older LO who is about to be 5 and he was a hospital birth with induction. My husband was by far not convinced at first. Until he met her. From the first visit with my midwife at 20 weeks i knew this was the way to go. Some one who cared about me and my soon to be baby. Some one who’s job was to help women birth naturally with out  intervening in the birth process. My first born was at 37 weeks. So we thought this one would be early as well. We went through 2 weeks of prodromal labor. Or as most people call it “False labor” Longest two weeks of my pregnancy. Contracting though out the night to no avail. I was 3 cm and stuck. If you have never experienced it, it can/is both mentally and physically exhausting. After a few times of false alarms and being that i was 39 weeks, we started two homeopathic tablets to help labor start if i was ready. No matter what you can’t force the baby out. Even with pitocin, if the baby isn’t ready its not coming. But this time she was ready. The next morning around 11 my contractions started to get regular. and stayed this way all day. Being that we had the on off labor for two weeks, i wasn’t quite convinced it was the real deal. They didn’t hurt to bad, i could walk and talk through them.  Around 6:30 i went to see my midwife to get checked. When contracting i was 5 cm!  So we did a membrane sweep to help  it along. Around 10:30 i texted my doula that i couldn’t sleep through these and since i wasn’t sure if it was still real she came over to watch me.Lucky for me i got to experience having 2 doula’s because one was shadowing the other. At about 1 am we called the midwife. I woke my husband up to call into work and get stuff ready.  I still wasn’t in active labor though. Just early labor and my contractions were dying down. I was quite upset at this. I had the option to break my water but i didn’t want to. I was excited for caul baby ( baby’s still born in the sac) and a lot can go wrong breaking your water before its ready. I didn’t want to risk being taken to a hospital when we were SOO close.  It was decided that we should take a nap. So the hubby and i laid down. He propped his arm up for counter pressure help and cat napped.  i breathed though the contractions trying not to clench. Sphincter law.. open mouth open cervix. It got to the point were for some reason I needed to make these guttural animal like growl/moan sounds. It some how made the contractions far less painful. Some how through all of this my son was still sleeping in the other room. I heard my neighbors alarm go off up stairs and thought to my self, oh dear lord. I did warn them that we were doing a home birth and they also have an older son.  Later i came to find that none of my neighbors heard our birth so i wasn’t as loud as i thought. After laying down for about 20 mins i had the urge to upchuck the watermelon i ate. My midwife did mention that this could happen during transition and not to eat the pizza i had previously planned to eat. Thank heavens i ate the watermelon. I got shakey and cold and came out of the room . My midwife and doula looked at me and said well baby should be coming soon and this is transition. I was at 8 cm! We decided to move to the pool later only to find that my JERK cat poked holes all in it 🙁 we couldn’t keep it inflated long enough for me to labor in it. My wonderful doula’s helped apply counter pressure and calm words of reassurance. That was the bee’s knees.  Mean while my son has woken up and is watching power rangers. When i contract he calmly tells me ” mom i can’t hear my tv. your too louddd” That kid. I love him dearly. I was happy to know he was taking it well. So off to the bedroom we go. By this point i felt a strong need to push but couldn’t. I was only at 9.5 cm. My left side wasn’t fully dilated.I wasn’t a ten yet and pushing to soon can make your cervix swell and then you back track. So i had to have a contraction on my side. WORST one i had the whole night but it worked.   We moved from the bed to the stool and some what in the bathroom. Squatting helped but i couldn’t get little misses head under my pubic bone. we did this on and off for an hour. Finally i agreed to just have my water broken. If the cord came out first i was going to be rushed to the hospital. luckily i live about ten mins away if you walk and like 2 if you drive. My husband sat behind me on the bed fully supporting me resting in between contractions. My son popped in and out of the room occasionally to ask if the baby was here yet or not. He was really anxious to meet his sister. Being able to push was amazing. Always have bendy straws on hand. ALWAYS. when you are exhausted and need some juice for sugar, a bendy straw will be your best friend. So will the person who hands you a spoon full of peanut butter.  After my water broke it must  have been not even an hour later the baby was coming out. Some people experience a “ring of fire”. Yes it feels like fire. but as soon as the baby’s head’s out it dies down a little. I pushed her head full of long dark hair out and some some reason let out a little scream. It hurt no more than before but the effort of pushing her head out made me let out two short but high pitched screams. THANK HEAVENS my neighbors kids were at school and mine was still watching his tv show. My midwife assisted in pulling baby out and this massive release of pressure happened. I felt no more pain for a a bit. I was sore but nothing hurt. My sweet baby laid on my chest while we cleaned up . We did a delayed cord clamping so we just sat there for a while, hubby behind me, my other LO popping in to see his sister. First question he asked was”  are you gonna clean that up?” I couldn’t help but to laugh. He was instantly in love wit his little sister and so were we. We moved from the bed after the cord was cut to an herbal bath to help with healing. No tares this time around thanks to the awesome oils’ my midwife uses.  Like Ina May says ” our bodies were meant for this” . With out the help and support of my amazing midwife and her assistant/ the Doulas, i think i would have given up long before. I didn’t think a home birth would ever be possible for me. I flinch at getting my blood drawn. But they helped me though all of it. I’d do it all over again in a heart beat.