A Bitter-Sweet Experience

Last Sunday I witnessed the most incredible experience ever. I was privileged to act as a birth support person to a wonderful couple expecting their second child. Marie (names have been changed to protect identity) called me late Saturday evening to say that after being 2 weeks past date she was now in labor. Since I was 2 hours away, I told her I would be heading her way immediately. It was a quiet drive and I was extremely excited. When I reached their house Marie was still coping well with contractions. We sat down and chatted for awhile and noticed that Marie had to focus more on the contractions. I also noticed that her husband was quite tired as it was about 2am at this time. I asked him if he wanted to catch a nap and that I would take good care of Marie. He thought that was a good idea but before he laid down we got the pool set up. While her husband was snoozing Marie rested in the pool herself, occasionally taking sips of water and eating a mango popsicle. While the pool seemed to intensify her contractions, they were now not as frequent. So after an hour or so Marie climbed out of the pool and went upstairs to the room she had set up to labor in. The contractions at this time seemed to take all her focus but still were not close together. For hours she labored like this. This completely caught me off guard because I assumed she would have a fairly quick labor. Guess I was wrong! After another helper arrived I took that time to lay down for awhile. Marie's contractions caused her to vomit a lot, but she kept hydrated by drinking coconut water, which really helped. Seeing that the contractions were not coming closer together I whispered to her husband that Marie should try a shower and see if that changes anything. So Marie headed to the shower and we (the other birth attendant and I) let Marie and her husband enjoy some quiet time together. When her husband would have to go to tend to their 3 yr old we kept a close eye on Marie. After Marie got out of the shower the contractions had picked up. She was no longer getting a break from them at all. She was pacing and breathing through the contractions very well. She started to make some sounds which immediately let me know that she is getting ready to push. I rushed around and retrieved the hot water bottle and baby clothes, wash clothes and towels. We gathered round her as she began to push. As she pushed her waters broke and we noticed that their was quite a bit of meconium, this made me a little nervous and so I asked whether she wanted to birth the baby in the pool (babies who are born under water don't breath until they are brought up to the air) as I was worried the baby would breath in some of the meconium, which would not be good. Although I told them to trust their gut, it was up to them. Marie wanted to stay, so I prayed "Lord let this baby be ok". Soon baby's head was born, nice and pink and she was starting to make gurgley sounds and then Marie pushed once more and their little girl was born into her daddy's arms. She was pink and still making sounds so I just told her daddy to keep her head down a bit so the mucus could drain. Marie had been on her hands and knees while she birthed her baby so we settled her down into a position so she could feed her little girl. By this time baby was crying really well, which was music to our ears! She latched on like a pro and nursed heartily. I felt blessed to be a part of this beautiful experience and am truly glad I was there. During the process of Marie's birth I noticed myself having cramps (I was 10 weeks pregnant) and then I noticed that I was bleeding. After Marie had her baby I started to bleed more, so I told the other birth helper that I needed to go home. On my way home the cramps intensified and later that night I passed my baby. It was really hard, I didn't want to lose another baby. Ironically it was 2 yrs ago to the very date that I had had a miscarriage when I was 5 weeks pregnant. I wish the birth could have just been about the birth instead of me having a miscarriage as well..
This post is all over the place and I apologize for that but I wanted to recall the experiences before I forgot.

Unbelievable! Beautiful Homebirth after 2 Inverted T inscisions!

Read this beautiful story here

Suprise! Unassisted Birth of Twins!

Here is a really neat story of a very quick unassisted birth of twins.