Ava's Birth Story

I plan to post birth stories here, so I ought to start with my own.

The Birth of Ava Skye
Tuesday, July 26th, 2005 at 8:03 pm

7 lbs 4 oz and 20 inches

Original due date: August 4th or 7th
1st baby, home hypno-waterbirth

Cast of characters:

Christine = Mom

Keith = Dad

Lisa = Midwife

Liz = Midwife's assistant

Stephanie = support friend

Angela = support friend

I’ll begin when I had the first signs that Ava might be arriving soon. It was Sunday, July 24th and we had just returned from visiting Keith’s family for dinner. A trip to the bathroom later I discovered I was losing my mucus plug. At that point, I also started to notice an increase in the presence of that menstrual crampy feeling. Keith and I were excited but anxious…this was a real sign that we were going to have a baby soon. We knew that a mucus plug could still mean weeks before the baby came, but most often it meant only 1-2 more days. We went to bed that night and though I woke up feeling very cramping in the middle of the night, the feeling went away and I went back to sleep. I really couldn’t tell if it was contractions trying to get started or if it was just gas. Realizing that Ava might arrive very soon, I had a brief freak-out when I realized I had work to finish up at school. I wanted to meet my baby, but felt like I needed at least one more day at school to tie up loose ends. I asked Ava if she would give me just one more day.

Monday, July 25th we went to work and I did indeed finish up the things I needed to do. Lots of folks at school were surprised to see me when I told them I thought labor wasn’t far away…I was pretty uncomfortable with that crampy feeling getting rather intense at times depending on the position I was sitting in. It was uncomfortable, but definitely not time-able contractions. I wasn’t in labor yet. Parts of my mucus plug continued to come out during the day. We hadn’t called the midwife (Lisa) to tell her this yet because nothing else was happening yet and we had an appointment scheduled with her on Tuesday afternoon. As it turns out, we didn’t need the appointment.

Tuesday, July 26th, 2005 – 9 (or 12) days before my due date

I woke up at 3:30 am with that uncomfortable, gassy, menstrual feeling again and realized it was a bit too uncomfortable to be lying down for. So I got up and hopped on the internet for a while. Over the last several months, I’d been chatting with other women who were expecting in July or August on BabyCenter.com, so I jumped on there and wasted some time reading other birth stories and complaints about late-pregnancy discomforts. During the 4 o’clock hour I realized my crampy feeling was coming and going in waves, so I started to time when each of them started. By 5 am , I’d recognized they were 5 minutes apart. Though short (it was too difficult to time the length by myself in the dark with no watch so I don’t know how long they were), they were gaining in intensity. It was getting uncomfortable and I was beginning to believe I might have a baby today.

At 5:30 I woke Keith up and asked him if he would be awake with me for a while. He asked me what was going on and when I told him I thought we might have a baby today, the excitement in his voice was priceless. That was certainly a great way to get him up out of bed! He worked with me and timed a few contractions. By 6 am , they were 4-5 minutes apart and 60-70 seconds long and I really needed to focus on relaxing through them. I was on the border of no longer being able to talk through them, so we called Lisa to let her know what was happening.

She chatted with me through a couple of contractions and we decided she’d come over shortly to see what was going on (she only lives 6 blocks away). It seemed unlikely that my labor would just start like that so suddenly and intensely, but it was possible. At 7 am she stopped by and checked things out. She thought it was early labor and that given I’d been up most of the night, I should focus on trying to rest rather than pacing and using energy. I also needed to try and eat something. She checked my blood pressure and listened to the baby’s heartbeat too. We discussed what the plan would be for the day. Lisa had a full day of prenatal appointments scheduled (one of which was supposed to be mine), but she was willing to cancel them all if we wanted her to be there with us. Keith and I discussed things and after getting through a couple of contractions in a lying down position, we decided we’d be okay on our own and just try and rest and watch how things were going. We agreed we’d check in again by noon but that we could call her at any time before that if we wanted. After Lisa left, we also called our two labor support friends Stephanie and Angela to let them know what was happening, but called them back shortly after that to tell them not to come over quite yet. So everyone knew labor had started but for now, we were just resting and going to keep in touch.

I spent the morning on the couch or on the toilet. I was able to rest and tried eating some breakfast (bagel, cheese, protein shake) which I vomited at about 10:45 am. The contractions weren’t too bad on the couch. Keith stayed right by my side and helped me breath through them. I had to visit the bathroom often. I noticed that while on the toilet the contractions seemed to be a little less intense and possibly space out a bit more as compared to when I was walking around or on the couch. While on the couch, I was listening to my Hypnobabies Birthing Affirmations CD which I really enjoyed and was sipping on water and Recharge. Steph stopped by some time during the morning (time was a bit fuzzy for me from here on out) with some treats and CDs she made especially for us. Though normally a huge chocolate fan, the treats she brought over sounded horrible to me so I knew I must definitely be in labor.

Lisa called to check in with us at about 11:30 . She decided to stop over and visit in about an hour and see how things were going. She checked the baby’s heartbeat again (all was well) and asked about the morning. Contractions weren’t any closer together or farther apart, and she was happy to hear I’d been resting but the puking wasn’t really great news. We discussed plans for the afternoon and decided she’d go back for more appointments and we’d call when we felt we needed her. She also reminded me to continue all my GBS precautions. At our prenatal appointment one week prior, I’d learned I was positive for Group B strep (GBS) bacteria. This bacteria is normally present in about 1/3 of the population and is transient so sometimes you have it and sometimes you don’t. If a baby contracts it during birth, which is a very small risk in itself, there is a tiny chance the baby could get sick and possibly die. In hospitals, the normal treatment is antiobiotics during labor but there are other side effects associated with this treatment. We researched and decided on some alternative treatments which I had been practicing all week. It was also to my benefit to not have vaginal exams prior to or during labor and definitely not have my water broken. The chances of GBS transmission to the baby without any of these precautions is extremely small, but still, it seemed prudent to take simple steps to reduce any risks.

Early afternoon passed by with more of the same. Contractions were still about 5 minutes apart and required my full attention. I tried nibbling on a little more food but nothing sounded good (in fact all food made me feel sick) so not much actually went down. I got up and decided to get a bit more active with the contractions so I started walking around and trying different positions other than lying on the couch. Tried the birth ball but didn’t like it. Kneeling over the side of the couch was good, as was walking with Keith’s assistance during the contractions. My bowels continued to dump in slow motion. I felt like the intensity of the contractions might be building a little bit but wasn’t entirely sure. By mid afternoon, I was beginning to feel like the birth tub might be a good idea (I’d been in labor for 11 hours now) so we called Lisa at 2:30 and asked her about getting it set up. She said she’d be over in a bit. Throughout the afternoon, I listened to a guided imagery/relaxation CD that Britten, a friend from our birthing class, had given us. We also called Steph in the mid afternoon and asked if she’d like to come over and be some company.

Steph arrived at around 3-ish and began reading birth stories to me from Spiritual Midwifery. It was nice to hear the happy, homebirth stories while working with my own labor at home too. I continued moving around and visiting the bathroom often. Lisa arrived at around 3:30 and worked with Keith to get the tub set up. She checked in with me and I think it was obvious I was getting a little more serious and more tired. She checked the baby fairly often – Ava was always doing really well. We decided to set the tub up in our middle bedroom – the room that would eventually be Ava’s room.

Keith: The day was beginning to wear on and I was wondering if there was something more I should have been doing. Chris seemed very much on top of the waves so I was mostly trying to not distract her. She did not want to be rubbed or massaged so I focused on just being there. It seemed like walking around made her waves more intense so I encouraged her to do that. Lisa and I were trying to think of ways to step things up a bit. I knew that since Chris had not been keeping her food down that it was only a matter of time before she got worn out. She walked around a bit and I shadowed her so that when a wave hit, she could lurch towards me and hold on.

Christine: It was hot. July 26th turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year in Corvallis – 100 degrees. I’m not sure I really noticed. At around 5-ish Steph stepped out to feed and walk her dog. We also called Angela and told her to head on over. The birthing tub was finally filled but it was too hot, so I waited for it to cool down.

It was around this time I was beginning to wonder about whether I was going to make it through this labor at home. It had already been almost 14 hours and things didn’t seem to be progressing much. The contractions were more consistently 4-5 minutes but they still weren’t taking my breath away so I knew I had a long way to go. I voiced my concerns to Keith and to Lisa, wondering how much longer I could hold out with no food and contractions that were hard work. Lisa wanted me to try eating again. The only thing that sounded reasonable to me was chicken, so Lisa ran home and pulled some out of her fridge because she had some leftovers. The chicken went down pretty well, but within 20 minutes or so I puked it up too (and rather violently). Both Angela and Steph were here when I puked…I think it was a little surprising to them. As I finished, I said how I’d heard that throwing up actually made you dilate more, so it was a good thing. We all kinda chuckled at that.

We checked the temperature of the tub again and it was still too hot, so we decided to add some cool water. I continued walking and visiting the bathroom. Throughout the whole day, I got the mild shakes on occasion too – like I was cold but I don’t think I was. Sometime around 6 pm Lisa called her assistant Liz (another midwife who will come over as I get closer to the birth so both of them will be here) and tells her it might still be a while but that she should probably plan on coming up tonight.

My mental state during these evening hours was really starting to deteriorate. I was listening to my Birthing Affirmations CD again, but it was like I could no longer hear what the CD was saying. Knowing that my mother had 2 relatively quick births, I’d expected mine to be quick as well. I hadn’t mentally prepared for the possibility of a birth that took much more than half a day. Here I was already over the average length for a birth (12-14 hours), and I was still not even close! I began to think about how I was going to handle everything. I hadn’t eaten or slept much. I thought about transferring to the hospital, getting an epidural, and even getting a c-section. I was really starting to think about giving up my dream of a homebirth. When I realized where my thought process was taking me, I stopped and made a conscious decision that if I was going to give up and go to the hospital (which was the one thing I’d identified long ago as what I wanted to avoid – I didn’t want to go to the hospital by my choice – if we went to the hospital I wanted it to be because we medically needed to be there), I needed to give this natural, drug-free homebirth more of my effort first. I was afraid of how much longer and more intense things were going to get and I knew this fear was holding me back. Mentally, I decided to just dive in and accept what came my way. The only way this baby was coming out was by moving forward. So from that point on, I blocked all hospital/intervention thinking and the birth started moving forward again.

At 7 pm I decide the tub temperature was acceptable and I was getting in it. No one could stop me. Once I’m in though, I realize the water might be a bit cool so we go about draining some of it and filling it with hot again. Lisa and I discussed whether she was going to check my dilation, which was totally up to me, and I decided not to get checked. We figured the tub would either speed me up or slow me down, so I should just I’d get in and see what happened. Well, contractions didn’t dissipate at all in timing or intensity. Lisa checked the baby’s heartbeat again and it was still doing great. Steph and Ang decided to head to Fred Meyer (grocery store) for some snacks. I said I’d try eating some ice cream if they brought some back. I’d been sucking on Popsicles for a while and that seemed to be okay. So they headed out.

Keith: I was starting to get worried that the labor was not going to progress before Chris got worn out. Her contractions has been so regular for so long that I was also starting to space out and not be as present as I could have been. Chris asked me to give her more encouragement, so I began to focus on how to move things forward. It was clear by this point that she had been too much in control of the waves and needed to let go (not easy!). I finally took the risk to tell her this and she agreed. The energy in the room really shifted as Chris made the decision to let the birth go where it needed. I was very proud of her and us as a team. At the same time, I started encouraging her more. I knew at that point that somehow everything was going to work out.

Christine: After a bit of time in the tub I felt like another trip to the bathroom, so Keith helped me in to the toilet.

7:30 pm – Once on the toilet, I began shaking uncontrollably, almost violently. I couldn’t really tell if it was because I was cold (I was naked and wet from the tub) or if it was from the birth hormones. Keith covered me in a towel and robe and tried to help hold me still. After 1-2 moderate contractions and a major involuntary bowel dump, I went to wipe and found my toilet tissue covered in bright red clotty blood. Something was definitely happening! Keith and I looked at each other and called out to Lisa who was on the back porch. We told her what we saw and she was happy to hear about it – it means important changes are happening in my cervix so things were moving along. Right then I’m hit by a really powerful contraction that causes me to begin moaning. Wow! Things are REALLY picking up. This was intense. It was a long and hard one that really took my breath away. It ended and gave me a short rest, but very quickly another one came along. Suddenly my contractions were maybe 3 minutes apart and lasting 90 seconds or so. At this point Lisa called Liz and told her to head on up because the birth was going to happen in the next few hours (but little did we know)…

Keith helped me back to the tub and I got hit by another contraction right as I was getting in. This was the worst one so far because I was caught mid-motion and not prepared. It was just so intense! The contractions were really coming on top of each other now. I felt like I was getting very little rest in between. Lisa realized things were moving faster than we all thought so she began breaking out all her equipment and getting things ready for the actual birth. As I heard her bustling around, I realized I was going to be having this baby really soon. She wasn’t in here working with me because she had some serious setup to do before we were caught off-guard with a baby on its way out. This realization was a bit scary for me – these contractions were so intense and giving me very little break. How much worse was it going to get? I was afraid…I really wanted things to slow down just a little so I could feel more in control, but it was well beyond my control at this point. I start feeling nauseous and puked in the bucket again. Puking and contracting at the same time – no fun! We’d started putting hot water back in the tub again, but suddenly I was too hot. It wasn’t much longer before I was too cold again, and then I was too hot again. My body was going crazy.

7:50 pm – Steph and Ang come back (I’m only vaguely aware of this) and hear things have really sprung into action. They man their cameras and help where they can. I’m totally absorbed by the contractions. Ever since getting in the tub, Keith as been right here with me telling me how great I’m doing. I’m of course saying I can’t do this anymore and I want it to stop, but Keith is telling me I am doing it and that soon our baby will be here.

Keith: Things are getting really intense, but by now, that’s a relief for me. It’s becoming obvious that this is really going to happen. I feel completely in the moment and continue to encourage Chris. Even though the intensity continues to ramp-up, at no point does anything feel ‘wrong’. Chris seems to dissolve into the effort and we both become singularly focused on the incredible energy that is building fast.

Christine: I can’t believe I’m saying I can’t do this…I know in my mind there is no turning back, but still I find the words coming out of my mouth. I also get overwhelmed with all the people in the room, so Steph and Ang stay in the doorway (but smartly keep videoing cause I definitely wanted to have this on tape). Right around this time, I go from sitting to kneeling with my arms on the side of the tub and suddenly I feel my body pushing. It feels like I really need to take a dump, but that the dump is the size of a cannonball. My body is pushing hard! I yell out “push” and “burn”…it is all I can say at the time. Lisa tells me to reach down and see what I can feel. I can’t really tell – everything feels very swollen down there. The contractions are still right on top of each other and now my body has started pushing the baby out with no assistance from me. I’m trying to breath and relax as best I can through it, but I wasn’t assisting with any pushing on my own. Each contraction had 3 or so major pushes within it. It was all happening so fast. Lisa reached down and checked for what she could feel. She instructed me that in this position, it was very important to keep my butt down in the water as the baby was coming out. The baby couldn’t be lifted out of the water until she was completely out of me, so I had to help keep her under. My moans turn into roars and nearly into screams. I can’t control anything…it just comes out of my mouth as the baby is being pushed out of my body. The power of my body is beyond my wildest dreams. With each push, I can feel things getting lower and lower. At one point, it feels like she is stuck behind something but I think it was just her head sliding behind my pubic bone. The burning I felt continues to grow with each push. Lisa can feel the baby’s head. With the next push, she is totally crowning. She sits like this as one contraction goes away, so I get to feel the crowning sensation for about a minute or so. It is intense – not really painful but more like major stretching. At this point though, I know the baby is coming out very quickly and without adequate time to stretch, it was likely I was going to tear. With the next contraction comes another involuntary push and I ROAR as the head comes out. A few seconds later the next push brings out more of her body. It feels crazy to feel this baby sliding out. The contraction ends before she is totally out though so Lisa instructs me to give another push and I do. This is the first push that I actually participate in. And with that, she slides out.

8: 03 pm – Ava Skye is born. Relief! I feel my belly totally deflate at that moment as both the baby and all the amniotic fluid dump out of my uterus. My water never breaks – as best we can tell, the baby come out still partly wrapped in the amniotic sac. I’m just hanging onto the tub trying to catch my breath. Lisa tells me to come back and sit down and as I do that, she brings the baby under my leg and up out of the water. She is here! We quickly discover the cord is very short, so I need to keep my butt angled up towards the surface of the water so that Ava is up high enough to keep her head well above the water. It is uncomfortable, especially since the cord is tugging on what I think is some torn flesh below, but with the baby in my arms it doesn’t seem so bad. She is so beautiful. She is blue to start but lets out a cry very quickly and pinks up with in a minute or so. She is slippery – she’s absolutely covered in vernix. She looks around a little, cries, coughs, and just moves her body. The 1 minute Apgar is 8 and the 5-minute is 10. All I can say is “Hi” over and over and over again. I can’t believe she has come out of me and that she was born right here in her very own room. It all seems very surreal. Did I just give birth to this beautiful creature? Why does it all seem like a dream? While we are all sitting there gawking at the baby, Lisa is checking her over and making sure everything is alright. The other midwife Liz never made it…I went from the start of transition to delivering the baby in just 30 minutes. Talk about intense!

The next hour is spent admiring the baby and delivering the placenta. First we wait for the cord to stop pulsing before cutting. It takes a little while (15-20 minutes?) so I’m sitting uncomfortably holding Ava above the water. She opens her eyes and looks around quite a bit. The cord finally stops pulsing and Keith cuts it, which is a bit of challenge because it is so tight. Once it is cut she is shortly lifted up out of the water and handed to Keith.

Keith: I’m still in awe at the arrival of our daughter. I was happy to cut the cord, feeling in a small way that I helped bring her into the world. Up until the last few pushes, I hadn’t really thought about the fact that we would have a little baby on our hands. The birth was all consuming. I’m feeling torn between looking Ava over and staying present with Chris and her afterbirth. It quickly becomes clear that the placenta is being stubborn and Lisa’s concern is apparent. My attention stays with Chris until it’s really over and we can both relax. The baby is so peaceful and calm, we hand her around to Steph and Ang. First things first, we focus on the bleeding and delivering the placenta.

I have a separation bleed (meaning the placenta has now become detached from the uterus) and we decide I’ll get out of the tub to try and deliver the placenta on the birthing stool. It takes a minute to set this up and I bleed quite a bit during that time turning the tub water crimson red. Once I’m out on the stool I get the baby back and try to get her to feed to help my cramping. After a bit I feel some cramping and try to push. I push fairly hard and a large pool of blood with lots of clots (some as large as my hand) comes spilling out. Yikes! We sit and wait for more cramps, but there just aren’t many. Lisa gives me an herb to encourage cramping. Another one comes, I push, and nothing comes out. We decide to move to the toilet so Ava goes to Daddy. At this point I realized Lisa’s attention was no longer on the baby. The baby was fine. Her attention was on me – I needed to get this placenta out because I was bleeding quite a bit. Walking to the toilet is amusing with Lisa helping me and holding a pad under me. I get really faint on the toilet though. My vision gets a little blurry and I see stars. Apparently I look really pale too. We decide I need to be on the bed so we move on in there and I feel a bit better. Next time I feel a cramp, I push with all my might and finally the placenta comes spilling out. Wow…that was difficult, and it took an hour! If it hadn’t come out on that contraction, we were going to resort to a shot of pitocin (helps uterine cramping) to work on getting it out. I bleed a bit more after the placenta was out but it slows down relatively quickly as my uterus cramps down. It took me an hour and LOTS of pushing to deliver the placenta, while the baby only took 15 minutes and no active pushing on my part. How odd the body works sometimes…

Later, we checks for tears and Lisa gives me 4 stitches in my left inner labia…not a very comfortable experience. I’m glad my perineum has stayed intact though, which I consider pretty amazing since Ava shot out so quickly. The tear I did get was just on the surface so it didn’t involve any muscles and will heal very quickly. Ava is sitting in my arms for a lot of it, but also visiting Keith, Angela, and Stephanie. We also examine the placenta and amniotic sac, which we keep and plan to bury under a tree on our first anniversary. Lisa looks very carefully over everything and it looks like everything did come out. She guesses that the reason it took an hour to deliver the placenta was because though most of it detached shortly after the birth, there is an odd-shaped lobe of the placenta that probably just held on for a really long time. Lisa takes me to the bathroom again to make sure I am able to pee (after birth, sometimes it can be very difficult to pee and occasionally a catheter is needed) – it takes some effort and I poop in the process, but eventually I pee and we are all happy. I stay on the bed for the rest of the evening while the others clean up and bring me food and beverages. I’m finally hungry! We had bought a cake from our favorite cake-maker and frozen it for Ava’s birth, but I wasn’t quite ready for all that sugar. It was saved for the next day. Next it is time for Ava’s check-up with the midwife and her weighing. She looks so tiny but she comes in at 7 lbs 4 oz and 20 inches long. Overall, she looks perfectly healthy and happy to be here. We then called our families and some time after midnight, Lisa left us with our new daughter.

Some of the coolest things I liked about my birth:
Of course, being at home the whole time
Wearing my own clothes and being on my own couch
Never riding in the car
Having the midwife come to me
No vaginal exams (none for the entire pregnancy)
No IV
No interference
No pushing on my part – my body did everything!
The baby came out in her sac as best we can tell – my water never broke
Ava being born in her own room
No suctioning of the baby after birth – she spit everything up just fine
Delayed cutting of the cord, despite it being very short length
No separation of Mom, Dad, and baby
Immediate help with breastfeeding
Cuddling in my own bed with my new family

Next time, I’ll be more mentally prepared for the possibility of a long birth. I think with the confidence of having had a natural, drug-free homebirth under my belt, the next one won’t seem so scary. So was it painful? Yes, but it was a good pain. And more than pain, it was just a lot of work and stretching muscles. And in the end, it gave Keith and I a perfect little Ava Skye.