Ava's Birth Story

I used to think birth stories were nothing but horror stories about terrible birth experiences and all about the scary "stuff that no one tells you about", so I avoided them completely when I was pregnant with Noah. After he was born I started to read mommy blogs and came across a number of beautifully written birth stories that didn't sugar coat the pain and emotions, but at the same time were so empowering that I fell in love with reading birth stories. Let this be a fair warning - I have no shame in sharing my story, in part because I had two very positive birth experiences that I hope may be empowering to other women as well. Feel free to skip this one if you prefer not to know all the details :)

Even though I had had a positive birth experience with Noah, I was nervous. I had a very short first labor and was at the hospital for less than an hour before Noah was born. I wanted to avoid this from happening again, but also liked that I had been able to labor at home where I felt most comfortable. They say second children come even faster than their older siblings, so this was definitely a concern and I prepared myself for the worst case scenario by reading up on emergency home births. My other concern was the amount of tearing I had suffered when giving birth to Noah. I had a terrible recovery and wasn't able to truly enjoy the first weeks after Noah was born. It took too long to heal, and I probably should have had it checked out, but I just assumed it was normal. Anyway, I discussed my concern with one of my midwives and she gave me some helpful tips: position matters - let gravity help out; on your back is not the most favorable position. Breathing matters - pant the baby out instead of pushing as hard as you can. Following this conversation with my midwife, Tony and I had a long and good discussion about my fears and what we thought would be the best strategy. Essentially, my plan was to listen to my body, trust my instincts, and let my body do the work. It was extremely important for me to talk it through with Tony who I knew would play such an important part as my support person. I started to almost look forward to the birth as we approached the due date. 

And then the due date came and went. I didn't mind since I was feeling great, walking 2 miles almost every day, but I knew that my midwives would bring up the topic of an induction at my next appointment. At 6 days past the due date (Monday), I had an ultrasound to make sure there was still enough fluid, and a non stress test to make sure the baby was still doing fine. As expected, there weren't any issues. Because my midwife knew that I wanted to avoid an induction if at all possible, we decided to schedule a follow up appointment that Friday, to sweep my membranes if needed to potentially move things along naturally, before a medical induction would be "highly recommended" that following Tuesday. I thought that was a good compromise but was still hopeful that baby would show up on her own before then. 

While I was ready for baby to arrive, I was nervous about the timing. Expecting a super quick delivery, I was afraid we would not have enough time to drop Noah off at a friend's house, especially in the middle of the night. So Wednesday evening we decided to make a 3 hour trip to Yakima to drop him off at Tony's brother and girlfriend's house. A bold move, being so far away from home, but I felt like this was the last thing that made me nervous and was somehow not allowing my mind to be ready for baby to arrive. 

That night I felt some cramping on and off and got excited, thinking that this might be the first sign of baby's arrival, but by the time morning came around it had stopped and Thursday turned out to be yet another day and I was dreading my appointment the next day. I was 9 days past my due date and prepared myself for a fight with my midwife, going through arguments against an induction in my head. 

I was still of the same mindset when I arrived at the hospital the next day for my appointment and I started to be super defensive from the beginning. I hated that everyone was making such a big deal out of the baby not being here yet. I knew she was fine and would arrive when it was her time. Yes, I was excited for her to be born and for this waiting game to be over, but I wasn't exactly dreading for this pregnancy to be over. I was feeling just fine and had stopped complaining about anything pregnancy related after one of the girls in my centering group had given birth to her baby prematurely and said that no matter how annoying pregnancy had been, she'd now give anything to still be pregnant. 

My midwife was understanding and just wanted to make sure I had a plan. She wasn't going to force an induction on me, but wanted to discuss options, and at least have appointments scheduled so we could keep monitoring. That sounded fair. Then she said, before we discuss details, why don't we check where you're at and then sweep your membranes to hopefully get things going? I agreed and was once again happy to have chosen midwives for my care. What she said next took me off guard: We're not sweeping any membranes. You're already 6.5 cm dilated, so you're technically in labor. I'll call triage, baby is on her way, you're staying here!

To be continued...