BIRTH STORIES
Riley Ireland’s Birth Story
“My first contractions began around 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday. I recorded them, so that I could see if there was a pattern. Initially, they were very sporadic, lasting just a few seconds and were up to 25 minutes apart. I went to work at 7:00 a.m., but by 10:00 a.m. I was sent home under the impression that they baby would come in the next day or two. I kept in contact throughout the day with Nikki, who kept reminding me what to look for. At about 4:00 p.m. the contractions were every 10 minutes and by 5:00 p.m. they were every three minutes! They were hard, long and very strong! I called my doctor and she said to go ahead to the hospital. I also called my husband to come get me, a family friend to pick up our 4-year-old, and Nikki. By the time we arrived in the labor and delivery room it was 9:00 p.m and I was 5 cm. dilated. I was so uncomfortable at this point and imagined many hours of labor ahead of me, so I requested an epidural. However, at about 10:00 p.m. I was already 10 cm. dilated and ready to push. The only problem was that the doctor had not been called, my husband was downstairs moving the car and Nikki had not arrived yet! Once everyone showed up, we realized the baby was facing an inconvenient direction (note: occiput posterior), so Nikki had me lie on one my side and she gently rocked me back and forth (note: side-lying pelvic tilts or “pelvic rocking”). Within about a half an hour, the baby turned. I started to actually push at midnight, and after two contractions, at 12:13 a.m. on Thursday, January 18th, 2007, Riley Ireland was born healthy and weighing 6 lbs., 9 oz.”
~ Jessica P., teacher
Benjamin’s Birth Story
“After nearly a month of every early-labor symptom in the book and a couple of false-labor trips to the hospital to boot, I was tentative yet anxious for the day’s events. I was, after all, seven days past my due date. I had been in contact with our doula Nikki almost daily to talk about symptoms and contractions, which were continually throwing us both for a loop. At last, it was my induction day, and I was ecstatic to be on the way to the hospital, where Nikki promptly met us at 6 a.m. While she could have anticipated every possible scenario that was about to unfold, my husband and I still were a little worried at the thought of inducing labor. Nikki walked us through each step, filling in whenever either of us had that deer-in-the-headlights look (which was quite often). The pitocin drip began, along with a 20-hour ride that finished when our darling son was born. To our surprise, the pitocin actually regulated my contractions, which I was able to manage with breathing techniques Nikki told me about. As my labor progressed, we encountered a hurdle: back labor. I managed the pain as long as possible, using breathing, lunges, massage, hydrotherapy, aromatherapy and good, old-fashioned music. When nothing was taking the edge off the continuous back labor, we discussed pain management and decided to call for an epidural. Mind you, this was 12 hours after arriving, and Nikki had not left my side. She was constantly there, coaching and running interference, communicating with family in the waiting room and holding my hand when I needed to grit my teeth and bear it. Once I rested and finally heard the gratifying number every woman in labor wants to hear – 10 centimeters – Nikki suggested a change of energy and got my husband and me into game mode. She coached, I pushed, he supported and in the wee hours with the bustling hospital staff surrounding us, our perfect son was born. Tears welled in my eyes, and after looking into my boy’s eyes for the first time, all I could do was turn to our doula and say, simply, ‘Thank you’.”
~ Josephine B., editor
Finley Nathan’s Birth Story
“My wife Karissa and I took your Prepared Childbirth class last spring. We finally had our baby last Friday (on the 4th of July!), and wanted to share our joy with you. Since we were a week overdue, they scheduled an induction for 7:30 on Friday morning. Karissa was a fingertip dilated and about 75% effaced, so she was given one dose of Misoprostol at 9:00 a.m.. As we hoped she would, she started active labor by 1:00 or so. Thankfully, her water broke and she started progressing well on her own, so we didn’t need to use Pitocin. Karissa was really dreading the idea of being strapped to the monitors all day. She spent about an hour and a half in the jetted tub (a LIFESAVER!!!) as her contractions got stronger and stronger. When she got out, the doctor checked her cervix and she was at 5cm. So we started thinking, ‘hey, we just might have a baby before midnight…’ and everybody seemed to be feeling encouraged. Except for Karissa, whose contractions had started to become pretty unbearable. We soon figured out why. Two contractions after the Dr. checked her, Karissa told her mom that she was feeling the urge to push. So we called the doctor back in, and Karissa was at 8cm. Everybody was a little surprised at how quickly things were going, and the next few minutes seemed to blur as Karissa waited to start pushing. I’m a seriously squeamish guy, so I endured the ordeal by locking in right next to Karissa’s face and not moving around or looking at anything that was going on. Anyway, she quickly got to 10cm and started pushing. It was really hard for me to watch her go through that… you prepare yourself for the drama, but when you’re actually there watching and experiencing it, it’s rather jarring. After probably less than 1/2 hour of pushing, Finley arrived at 4:33pm… he’d swallowed a little of the brown stuff (note: meconium), but otherwise he was perfectly healthy. So of course now we’re just blindingly exhausted, but also indescribably happy. We want to thank you again for our wonderful experience with you. The class was simply amazing, and our birth experience was dramatically different because of the tools you gave us during our time together. Hopefully our paths will cross again someday. Until then, we wish you all the best.”
~ Justin and Karissa Bullis
