I’m calling this a surprise birth, only because it wasn’t one of my “personal” clients. It was more of a friend taking me up on an offer I made. An offer I was honored to do, in fact; I’m the one who received the blessings from this offer. Thank you from the bottom of my heart A for the honor of attending your birth! The pleasure was ALL mine.
So, around 10:30 in the morning I received a phone call from mom saying she was in the hospital being induced. Her doc had been successful at an external version turning her baby from breach to head down. It was a pretty intense procedure and finally after the 5th try, baby decided to cooperate. Thank you BABY!
She said she was dilated to 5 cm, and didn’t need me yet, but she would really like for me to come to the hospital in a couple of hours to help her with labor and have a successful un-medicated vaginal birth.
I arrived at the hospital around 1:30 and she was already dilated 7 cm. This was great progress. Contractions were getting much stronger and intense, so dad and I immediately offered counter pressure on her knees and low back. Mom was AMAZING! You have to understand; when you are induced and have pitocin to augment labor, contractions are VERY intense! Even the little contractions feel like transition contractions. It is VERY, VERY difficult to do this kind of labor without any pain relief medication. This mom was very smart to realize she needed another support person to help her have the kind of birth she wanted.
Not much progress was made in the next couple of hours. Mom couldn’t pee, and a full bladder will hold up a baby, literally, the baby can’t drop into the birth canal when there is a bladder, blown up like a balloon holding it up. We were able to talk her into a catheter just long enough to relieve her bladder. 900 cc’s later (that’s a lot of pee) baby came right down into position and soon mom felt an uncontrollable urge to push. Thinking she was still not complete (10 cm) the nurse wanted her to breathe through the contractions. After just a few minutes, I could see this was not going to work any longer. Mom was pushing without pushing; she couldn’t help her body’s natural pushes. I quietly encouraged her to go with what her body wanted to do, and it would be okay. The nurse came in and checked her one last time and she was complete. Now she could REALLY push.
It was still a long process. There was one point where mom just didn’t think she could do it any more. Yep… I’ve heard that before, and believe it or not, those are good words to hear, because I know the end is near.
I usually say a prayer about this time, and this was not different. I asked that mom be given the strength she needed to finish her race, and this baby would be guided through the birth canal and help his mom on the final lap.
Just as quick as I finished my silent prayer, I looked at mom and she was smiling. She said, “I can do this, I'm going to hold my baby in my arms soon”. I agreed and affirmed this newfound strength she had. It was as if she could hear her very own angelic cheering team, and received a BIG energy boost.
With each contraction, in the spirit of hospital births, dad and I helped her grab her knees and helped her curl up chin to chest, and push to the count of 10 three times through each contraction. It wasn’t much longer, of course mom might disagree with me, as it probably seemed like eternity to her, we could finally see baby’s head. Doc’s aren’t so good at letting baby’s head come slow to stretch the perineum, so just as baby first started to crown he cut an episiotomy. I personally would rather tear, it hurts a lot less, but a cut is much easier to suture. None the less, it sometimes bring a baby here a little quicker and I don’t think this mom was arguing that point, she was happy to have her baby here sooner than later. Every push seems like just one too many, and she was ready to have her baby in her arms!
Mom and dad welcomed their second son into their family at 7:06 PM. CONGRATUTLATIONS mom and dad, and THANK YOU baby for showing your mom and dad just how strong and amazing she is!
