I love births when their most important lesson is how easy birth can be when we give women the tools they need to birth with confidence. We celebrate the accomplishment of what the women’s body is able to do as we surround her with supportive and empowering people who trust birth.
5:15 AM Mom calls with contx about 6 minutes apart. They had been 20 minutes then jumped to 6-7 minutes within an hour. This is her second baby, so we expect for labor to progress quicker than the last one. I got a quick shower to wake me up for an hour drive. I was on the road by 5:45 AM.
7:00 AM I arrive at the house, and mom is working hard through contx, with what looks like with ease. As we start to set up the birth tub we are thinking, “were not going to get this filled before baby gets here”, so we changed plans and disinfect the tub in her bathroom instead. She has a large garden tub, so it will be plenty big.
We make her bed in the specific way we do for a home birth. We put clean sheets on bed in normal order; fitted, flat, & blanket, then we cover the bed with a waterproof sheet or drop cloth (lg. Shower curtain works well also). Then continue to make the bed again over the top of blanket with an old set of sheets; fitted, flat etc. This makes it an easy and quick bed change after baby is born. When mom gets up to go to the bathroom, we take the top set off and leave a fresh clean set for mom to return to bed with. We make the bed like this even if the plan is to have a water birth, because we never know which plan is going to play out, and we want to be prepared for every plan.
7:30 AM When the tub is ready so was mom, she gets in and feels relief as she is emerges herself in water. At this point comfortable is not in mom’s vocabulary. Nothing or any position is comfortable now, but mom is breathing and rocking her hips through contx, and now she is feeling like she needs to poop, so she gets out of the tub and sits on the toilet. She gives a couple of pushes on the toilet and we encourage her to go back to the tub, but she says no, she can’t move. We tell her she can, and we will help her, but she still refuses. We always trust that mom knows what her body needs and what position is best for her. Just to give you an idea of positions, and trusting mom to do whatever is best for her. We asked mom to scoot forward on the toilet, but she said she couldn’t, instead she stood up and was in a supported, stand with her knees slightly bent, as she did this baby came right down the birth canal without even a push. The next contx mom gave a gentle push and the head was born. Within 5 seconds, no pushing, the body was born. One midwife supported mom’s perineum and the other one received this beautiful baby girl in a soft towel. Mom sat back on the toilet and we lifted baby into her arms. The placenta came after the cord finished pulsing, and Dad cut the cord. No bleeding, only a VERY small tear, and clean up was instant. It doesn’t get any easier than that. We call these “butter births”.
8:13 AM Mom and Dad welcome their sweet baby girl into their family weighing in at 8 lbs 1 oz!
