Birth story - Alexis and baby Minerva

*Trigger warning* - use of word contractions, past birth trauma experience.

I first joined this group when I was pregnant with my son in 2021, unfortunately I went 41+ weeks, had a sweep and a little later my water broke. After 36 hours I still hadn’t gone into labor and my midwives had to send me to the hospital to be induced. I should mention I live in California and that happens to be the law, my midwives had no choice. Birthing my son turned into a really rushed and uncomfortable situation rather quickly. Over all - I’m glad he was born strong and healthy.

10 months after my son was born I learned I was pregnant again. I was determined to have another chance to birth at my local birth center!

My health insurance was changing so I went to a pregnancy center in town and verified pregnancy and got my due date. Then I took an at home blood test to determine gender, and was told a boy! The American health care system is a mess, and it was close to 5 months before I could get settled and approved to be seen by my midwives. Fortunately my baby was strong and healthy! We got to an ultra sound at 31 weeks and the technician asked me if I wanted to “verify the gender” I said sure, I had already taken a blood test and figured, that couldn’t be wrong. My head started spinning when the technician said “yeah honey, this baby is a girl”. We were 9 short weeks from meeting her and all we had was boy clothes! We were over joyed and started buying (arguably too many) baby girl clothes.

As I hit 37 weeks I was excited to meet her soon, but also incredibly nervous I was not going to get the birth experience I was dreaming about.

At 39w 5d we played hooky and stayed home from school with our oldest son (my husbands from and previous relationship-but very much our son) and our toddler, we went to breakfast and a science museum near by. After a long but relaxing day of family fun, we put the kids to bed, ordered a pizza for delivery and put on a movie. Around 10pm I started feeling pretty intense “contractions” but they we far apart so I didn’t think much of it. We went to bed shortly after hoping things had not only started, but would progress as well.

At 4am (39w6d) I woke my husband and told him he would not be going to work in the morning as I was feeling contractions about 6-7mins apart. At 7am he took our boys to school and daycare, while I took a shower and called my midwives to let them know how I was feeling. By 8am I was feeling contractions 4 mins apart. We made it to the midwives by 9:15 and they asked to check if I was effaced and dilating. I held my breath as she checked, worried that I wasn’t, worried I was going to have to repeat the same experience I had birthing my son. When she was done she told me I was already 7cm!! I was excited, nervous, all the feelings all at once. I asked them to fill the pool as my husband helped me through the contractions.

The water was AMAZING, I truly enjoyed being in the pool more than I imagined I would. After about two hours in the water I told my husband, I think she’s coming as I felt my contractions shift. And hour later, I was able to catch my baby in the water.

I’m so overjoyed I was able to have this experience and will forever recommend my birthing center to anyone that ever asks. Even my husband said how different the experiences were, how awesome it was to watch and participate, he’s even told his friends that if they have the opportunity that midwives are the way to go! It’s crazy how many people thought I was nuts for going to a birth center over a hospital. But I truly believed there was no reason I couldn’t have the birth I dreamed of experiencing and didn’t let them get me down.