Birth story - Kaitlin and baby Jami Marie

*Trigger warning* - use of the word contraction( not negative for me), back labor, intense pushing, placenta abnormalities.

This was my third vaginal and unmedicated birth, but I switched my care team from an in hospital midwife group to a free standing birth center at 32 weeks due to not receiving the level of care I experienced with my first two. Switching to a birth center here in the United States means not having access to any pain relief, no overnight stays and the need for medical transport if anything becomes concerning, but I really wanted to experience birth at my pace and not have any of the pressures to push on command or be hooked up to a monitor if it wasn’t necessary, plus the midwives I was working with initially were so overworked and short staffed that the quality of care had diminished over the course of my pregnancy. I had had two very positive hospital births prior, but with a different care team and at a different hospital, and I couldn’t use the same midwives or hospital this time around because my insurance had changed and they were now out of network.

I had a very hard pregnancy, with extreme exhaustion and nausea from about 8 weeks until I gave birth. I also had Covid when I was about 14 weeks along, I didn’t get terribly sick but I had crazy long term symptoms like brain fog, joint pain, and circulatory issues in my feet. Working as a music teacher, running around after a 5 and 3 year old and dealing with the utter exhaustion I felt was incredibly difficult, and I counted down the days until her due date! I threw up every single morning until she was born, and food tasted like ash in my mouth, that first post partum meal was absolute heaven! I also had bad pelvic pain towards the end, as she dropped very early and was low as soon as 32 weeks. I started experiencing some early contractions and had to go into the hospital twice for monitoring, fortunately no real cause for concern but I definitely was given orders to stay out of the heat, keep hydrated and to time the tightenings I was feeling pretty consistently.

Jami Marie arrived at 4:11 am on July 27th, at 37 weeks and 6 days. She was little but mighty, at 5 lbs 10 Oz. I had my first contraction at 8:30 pm, called my midwife and told her to be ready to go in to the birth center that night! My first two labors were fast, so I didn’t take any chances as we are 30 minutes from the birth center. I called her again at 11:30 and told her I wanted to go in, even though contractions were 6-8 minutes apart. They were very intense, and I could feel baby moving down with each so I figured it was time to go.

We got to the birth center at 12 am, got settled in to a beautiful, calm candlelit birthing suite and tried to relax and encourage labor to speed up. I was dealing with back labor, a first for me, and it was really intense. My midwife had me do some inverted poses and sideline poses to encourage baby to move in a way to alleviate the back labor and it definitely helped. They gave me some space to relax and get labor moving again, as we were back to 8 minutes apart. Labor picked up a little, I got a bit sick and labored on the toilet for a few minutes. That did the trick and I finally reached active labor at 4-5 minutes apart. I started shaking and getting sick again, but I’m not sure it was transition yet as baby was still descending.

They finally said I could get into the birth pool and warm water felt soooooo incredible. I spent 40 minutes in active labor in the tub, using up breathing and Hypnobirthing tools to breath baby down and stay calm and relaxed. I was so focused and calm until I started to push, and I then channeled my inner warrior lol. I went from soft, low sounds to full out roaring and screaming. I felt my body start to push baby out on it’s own, something I really wanted and didn’t get to do with my previous births. Even though I was able to let my body push, it was incredibly intense as she crowned because her head didn’t retract between contractions. Instead it just stayed there and kept applying that pressure so I had no chance to rest! Hence the screaming and roaring, I needed some outlet to release the intensity and my voice did the trick, I almost lost my voice from yelling! Pretty sure I traumatized my husband, I was not this way with first two unmedicated births but the pushing was just so intense this time. I had to reassure him between the roars that I was ok, just working hard.

Even though it was the hardest and most intense pushing I had done, I never felt out of control or scared and I went through transition and pushed her out in 10 minutes. I also never got checked for dilation until I started pushing, which was very helpful for me as those numbers can be discouraging sometimes. My water did not break until her head emerged, she was almost born en caul and I’m sure that didn’t help with the pressure either.

She was born in the pool, my husband got to catch her and she came out out eyes open, tongue out looking for boob. No big cry, but she was breathing right away and her vitals were great. She was so calm and alert, taking us all in and rooting right away. We had some beautiful skin to skin in the pool, I birthed the placenta and we rested on bed for another 3 hours before going home.

I thought for sure I had at least some moderate tearing, as I had pushed her out so quickly but no tearing or stitches needed thankfully, probably because she was so small. My bleeding was average, and man those after birth contractions are so much worse than I remember. The placenta was abnormality small and discolored, the assistant working with my midwife asked if I had had Covid during my pregnancy and I said I had, she said she had noticed an uptick in odd looking placentas since Covid hit. I’m curious to see what the long term studies show!

Going home so soon was strange at first, but I really enjoyed getting to rest in my own comfy bed. My girls got to meet their baby sister just hours after she was born, it was really special. My parents took care of our older two for two days so that my husband and I could enjoy those first days with just the baby.

We had a blissful two weeks, then the silent reflux began affecting her. Unfortunately she did not get diagnosed until she was almost 16 weeks old, and so those 14 weeks in between were pretty hellish. She couldn’t sleep for more than an hour or two at a time, and literally was in pain almost constantly. As soon as she got diagnosed and on medication, it was a life changing difference, she was a completely different baby! She is so sweet and happy now, and I cannot get enough of her. ❤️