Birth story - Alex and baby Aria

I was fortunate to have a very smooth pregnancy with no complications. I really loved being pregnant right up until the last few weeks — waiting for her arrival was the hardest part! I found The Positive Birth Company early on in pregnancy and did the digital pack in my third trimester.

At 39+3, I had an acupuncture session where my acupuncturist did the cervix points for the first time. That night we had my favorite meal for dinner (pizza 🍕) and eventually settled into bed to watch The Sopranos.

Around midnight, I started feeling mild surges that felt just like period cramps. They were about 5 minutes apart, but I really didn’t want to get my hopes up about labor starting if it wasn’t the real thing. I told my husband it was probably nothing and to go to sleep. I had a little snack and fell asleep too around 1:30am.

At 3am, I woke up from a very intense surge. When I stood up from bed, my water broke! I cleaned myself up and got back in bed to try to get a little more rest since I knew this would be the day I’d give birth.

Fifteen minutes later, I had another really intense surge and got out of bed. This time, blood spilled on the floor instead of water. When I turned the light on, my husband woke up and said that he thought he was going to throw up or pass out. I told him “this is only the very beginning, get it together!” 😂

I texted my midwife to see if the amount of blood was normal and she recommended that I come into her office to get checked out. Since her office and the birth center are 1 hour and 15 minutes from my home, she suggested I plan on checking into a hotel near the birth center after getting checked at her office and I agreed. The thinking was that I’d still have a long way to go before I could be admitted to the birth center, since things had just started and I sounded so calm. Boy were we wrong!

We spent the next hour packing last minute items into our bags. It took us a long time do this little bit of packing because I had to stop every 2-3 minutes to breathe through my surges. At this point they were strong and close together!

We finally got in the car at 4:20am for our long drive to my midwife’s office. I went in the back and kneeled on the floor leaning over the seat. There was no way I could sit down in the seat at this stage. I put my headphones in to try my hypnobirthing tracks and upbreathing but I must have already been in transition at this point and upbreathing was not cutting it anymore.

I called my doula who coached me in vocalizing through the surges with loud, deep “o” sounds. It was basically like downbreathing but much louder. I think I sounded like a zoo animal back there 😂 It helped somewhat but being in the car for the peak of the surges was really challenging. Definitely the hardest thing I’ve done in my life. My husband was a trooper keeping his eyes on the road and driving as quickly as possible while keeping us all safe.

At one point I paused the animal sounds and tried singing a motivating song - Rise Up from Disney’s Frozen 😂 - since I’d read somewhere that singing helps. That was pretty funny for my husband but not that helpful.

As the car ride progressed, I realized I had to be really close to giving birth because of the strength and frequency of the surges and pressure in my bottom. I was starting to involuntarily push a little but held back as best I could to avoid a car baby! I called my doula back and said that she and my midwife should meet us at the birth center instead of my midwife’s office.

Finally, at 5:20am we arrived at the birth center (15 minutes early thanks to my husband’s fast driving!). We had beaten my doula, midwife and the birth center staff there so the building was still locked. Luckily we had a yoga mat in the car that I asked my husband to lay down on the ground in the parking lot. I spent the next 20 minutes until my midwife arrived on all fours on the yoga mat in the parking lot. I was giving in to my urge to push a little but didn’t want a parking lot baby much more than a car baby!

When my midwife arrived and let us inside at 5:40, she checked my cervix and sure enough I was 10cm dilated! She started filling the bath while I managed a few surges on the toilet with my husband and doula. My doula gave me a little pep talk at this point since it had suddenly dawned on me that I was about to push her out and I started doubting my ability to do it. She assured me the hardest work was already done and that I could do it.

As soon as the water was high enough, I got into the tub and started pushing with my surges. I had always pictured that I’d be sitting or kneeling in the tub so that I could reach down and catch my baby myself but my body needed me on my hands and knees. I had also wanted to push very slowly to avoid tearing, but, in the moment, I just really wanted the surges to be over with.

With the next surge, I did two strong pushes. The first push brought her head out and I found that the “ring of fire” from her head was not nearly as bad as it sounds and more of a mild burning sensation. With the second push, her body glided out into the water and my midwife passed her up to me to bring to my chest at 6:08am.

The moment of seeing her and holding her for the first time was so surreal and indescribable. I simply could not believe that she was here. My husband was sitting behind me staring at her with me in awe. Once the cord finished pulsing, my husband cut it and took the baby while my midwife helped me out of the tub to the bed.

My placenta came out easily as soon as I laid down on the bed. Since I’d lost a lot of blood, my midwife gave me a shot of pitocin and cytotec, as well as stitches for a second degree tear. I tried some gas & air in addition to the lidocaine for pain relief from the stitches, but it didn’t help much and only made my mouth dry and throat sore. They put my baby on my chest for the rest of the stitches and that was far better. Once that was finished, we realized baby had made her first poop on my chest! 😂 After cleaning up, I laid back with my husband and baby in the nice big bed.

We spent a few hours alone with her doing skin-to-skin and she breastfed a lot! It was magical. Our doula brought us some food in bed and soon it was time to weigh and dress her and head home. My husband was the one to dress her in her first outfit and I cried watching him with her. At 10am we left the birth center to head home with our baby girl. In the end, we’d only been away from home for 7 hours! We never even needed our friends to pick up our dog!

I had packed so many great things to setup a serene birth environment at the birth center as recommended in the PBC class, from essential oils to birth art, affirmation cards, dried flowers, playlists and happy photos. In the end, our bags never even made it out of the car and we were in the birth center for all of 28 minutes before our baby was born under bright lights to the soundtrack of my animal sounds. But, I got my natural water birth that I had wanted so badly. And even though I didn’t get to use much of the hypnobirthing techniques, I know PBC played a part in making that happen by getting me in the right mindset leading up to the birth. I am so thankful to PBC and the wonderful PBC community for all the amazing stories and encouragement 💗