Colin’s Birth Story
This is Colin’s Birth Story: During the last two months of my pregnancy, we moved across the country from North Carolina to California, and I switched my prenatal care from a hospital to a birth center. Prior to our move, I did virtual prenatal appointments with the wifeys of the Monterey Birth Center. My care transferred seamlessly, and I felt so fortunate to be able to transition from my care in North Carolina with a team I truly trusted, to a new team in California that I felt so respected and cared for with.
My sister and mom arrived in town around my 38-week mark, and we all patiently waited for baby Colin to make his arrival. I felt relaxed, and lots of relief that I had my team here with me and felt patient in waiting for labor to begin. My first birth, my daughter was born right around my due date, so we anticipated waiting until at least then to meet him.
If you’re pregnant and preparing for childbirth, it’s important to find a childbirth education course that can help you learn the skills and knowledge you need to have a positive birth experience.
Listening to other women’s experiences of childbirth can be incredibly helpful in preparing for your own birth. By hearing a range of stories from different women, you can gain a more nuanced understanding of what to expect and how to cope with the challenges of labor and delivery.
MamasteFit’s Childbirth Education Course is an excellent option for anyone looking for comprehensive, evidence-based education that will help them feel confident and empowered during labor and delivery.
Anyway, back to Colin’s birth story…
The days before my due date, my sister, Gina, took my daughter and her kids to Disneyland for a few days, to give me and my husband time to relax before we became parents to two kids. I missed my daughter, but the quiet was helpful for me to be able to rest. It was perfect timing, because the day after they got back, I started to feel some contractions!
On Sunday night, June 27th, I started having intermittent back pain that would build but nothing consistent. A few weeks prior, when we asked my niece if she would like to share her birthday with her cousin, she adamantly stated no! My due date was her birth date, so we joked that they could share a birthday. But, as my body felt like it might be moving towards labor, we asked again if she would be okay with sharing a birth, and she happily announced that she wants to share her birthday with her baby cousin. She beamed as she said they would need two bounce houses and began planning their birthday party next year. I felt relief that she seemed excited to share a birthday since it was seeming like it could be a possibility.
Around 11 pm/midnight my contractions started to build in frequency but were still super far apart. I figured I should try to rest up as much as I could, so I went to bed wondering how long early labor would be this time around. My first labor, early labor lasted well over a day, so I prepared myself for another long early labor.
Monday morning around 2 AM, on June 28th, I was woken up by more consistent back pain and needing to pee. Once I got up, the contractions started to be more consistent, and I started to notice more bloody show. I was still able to sleep in between so walked around the house grabbed water and laid back down. I texted Gina that baby boy might be born today, and he’d share a bday with Adeline, as I fell back asleep for a few hours.
Around 4 am, my contractions woke me back up, and I was not able to sleep through or even in between them anymore. They were getting more intense, and I needed more support to manage them, so I woke my husband up so that he could do hip squeezes, as I rested on the birthing ball in between contractions. I tried to use the TENS that the wifeys had given me, but I don’t think I knew how to work it, and was anxious for Gina to wake up so I could use her fancy labor TENS.
After about an hour of consistent contractions, I knew I was moving closer to active labor. My husband asked if I thought we should head to the birth center, which luckily was only about ten minutes from our house, but I didn’t think it was quite time yet. After all, my first early labor had lasted so long that I was preparing for this early labor to last a while too. Even Gina’s more recent birth had a long early labor.
The midwives are not at the birth center 24/7, so we messaged them to let them know that I was in early labor, but didn’t feel that I needed to call to wake them up yet. Around this time, Gina woke up and helped me apply the heating pad and TENS for more support. It made such a huge difference as I was starting to have some lower belly contractions now.
Over the next hour, the contractions quickly got more and more intense that I need more support. I needed to move more with them, and my mom started to help rub my back as I contracted that helped so much. Around 630 am, everyone was asking/telling me we should probably head to the birth center based on how I was laboring. Gina reminded me that it was a really beautiful birth location and that I might as well show up early enough to enjoy it!
Finally, after about a half-hour, I agreed it might be time to head in and we should call the midwives. I was so worried they would send me back home because I wasn’t far enough along. With my first labor, I showed up at the hospital only being 1 cm, and was sent home. But the drive home then was about 45 minutes; it only being 10 minutes away brought me some comfort that I didn’t need to be in the car that long if we did need to head home.
But, I also knew that I could be in denial of how far along I was in my labor, and I was not trying to have a baby at home! We called the wifeys to let them know we were ready to come in, and they said they were ready for us to come!
We arrived at the birth center at 730 am, and the wifeys got the tub going right away for me. As soon as I could, I hopped in the tub and it felt so much better! They didn’t do a cervical check when I arrived, which I was initially surprised by. I loved it! It was so empowering to feel that the wifeys genuinely believed that I knew my body and trusted that I could do this.
They came in every 30mins to check the baby’s heart rate but otherwise, I had privacy to labor with my husband, Gina, and my mom. My mom would rub my back and hips during contractions. My husband would hold my hand so I could squeeze it. Gina was taking photos and helping me relax and offering food/water. After a while of laboring in the tub, I moved to the toilet and then the shower.
The hot water from the showerhead felt so amazing on my lower belly! I sat in the shower for a bit with just my husband holding my hands and giving me water. I was convinced the baby must be in my pelvis funky and that’s why my labor was so different than my daughter’s labor because I didn’t have front pain with my first, only back pain.
Gina recommended I try some forward-leaning inversions if I felt anxious about the baby’s position. The baby was likely in a perfectly fine position, but it did help with my anxiety to feel like I was doing something in response to what I was feeling in my body. After the inversions, I did some side lunges because that seemed to be what my body needed and then tried to lay down for a bit. I don’t know how long I laid there but eventually, I just wanted to get back in the tub and have my hips squeezed.
We had been at the birth center for about three hours at this point, and Gina joked that it was time to start pushing since it had been three hours. Both of our active labors had been on the faster side; so far in the three birth between the two of us, our early labor is 12-24 hours, and then our active labor is around 3 hours. We all smiled and laughed, and then the very next contraction I started to bear down a little. Talk about timing!
Gina noticed that I was starting to bear down at the peak of my contractions, and asked if I felt like I was bearing down or pushing. After thinking about it, I realized I did bear down on the last contraction. Gina called the wifeys back in, just in case I ended up pushing fairly quickly. She told them the baby wasn’t about to fall out and to take their time, but that she wanted to let them know I was starting to bear down.
They came in and brought in warmer and different response equipment in case of emergency to the room. As a freestanding birth center not attached to a hospital, they have the ability to respond to a certain level of emergency response. If it exceeded their capability, the goal would be to stabilize for transfer to the nearest hospital. We had talked in depth about the possible transfer plan so that my husband and I felt confident that our team would be able to respond if an emergency exceeded their facilities capability, that our baby and I would be safe in their care. If you are planning an out-of-hospital birth, it can be really helpful to have this conversation with your midwife on what to expect with a transfer.
Questions I asked included:
Did they have practice rights at the hospital, such as would they be able to continue to provide care to me in a hospital if I had to transfer, or would I be transferred under the care of a new provider? Understanding possible changes in who my provider may be, or knowing that my midwife would still be with me my entire labor helped me feel more confident in knowing what to expect.
Which hospital do they transfer patients to? What is the procedure if I had to transfer? This would help me better know what to expect in the event of an emergency.
What events do they typically transfer for? Is it mostly non-emergent, like the desire for pain relief; or do they have emergent reasons that they could describe certain scenarios?
I also had a hospital bag packed just in case we needed to transfer so that we had what we would need for a few days in the hospital.
As I was bearing down, I tried to feel if baby boy was close, but he was not. I did notice that I felt different sensations than I did with my first, and asked if they could check my cervix to make sure everything was okay. One of the midwives came over, and was really encouraging. She helped explain what sensations I may be feeling that would indicate that it is likely a cervical lip, and that a few more contractions would help it melt away. But she also said that she could do a check if that would make me feel better too. It was really encouraging that she helped talked me through my sensations, but still validated that I wanted a check and acknowledge that it was still an offering to do so.
She checked me, and felt that there was in fact an anterior lip, and suggested shifting my position to help it melt away with the contractions and pushes. She reassured me that I was doing amazing and that I knew my body. I felt like pushing was taking forever, and there was a long pause between pushes. One of the wifeys said this was the rest and be thankful phase, where after transition, labor pauses to give you a chance to rest before you start pushing more actively. After contractions picked back up, she recommended I stand up for a few contractions. My water was still intact, and she knew that if the baby applied more pressure against my cervix that he would likely be born shortly after.
I reluctantly stood up and leaned on my husband, and sure enough during the second contraction, my water broke. I immediately sat back down into the tub and started to push much more strongly with each contraction.
I tried to be very aware of how I was pushing to prevent tearing, focusing on panting, or blowing out a candle and slowly eased his head out. As soon as I felt his head come out I looked down and slowly pushed his body out into my hands and pulled him to my chest. The midwife helped me unravel him from his umbilical cord that was loosely wrapped around his neck and body. Then I brought him back to my chest and just said “hi” about 20 times.
It was the most empowering amazing feeling to be able to not just birth my baby, but also catch him and bring him out into the world with my own hands! I felt like a birthing goddess!
After the birth, the midwives got more hands-on in the care with massaging my uterus and checking on our baby boy. We did delayed cord clamping, and Patrick was able to cut the cord after we had some time to bond with our baby.
I did have some heavy bleeding with clots at the beginning that required lots of massaging and manual removal of clots, which didn’t feel great. The midwives quickly responded to the bleeding and gave me a shot of Pitocin in my thigh to help manage the bleeding. I felt confident that they were able to respond to the bleeding and knew if they felt I needed to transfer, I trusted it was the best decision for us. They found that I only had a small tear that wasn’t bleeding and didn’t need to be repaired. I was pumped about that! All my quick pants and breathing really helped!
Gina and my mom headed out shortly after they got us settled, so that we could bond with our new baby. We only spent about 4-5 hours at the birth center before we headed home too.
This experience was way more amazing than I had envisioned. I can’t recommend the wifeys and the Monterey Birth & Wellness Center enough! I felt so supported and heard by everyone involved. They believed in me, my ability to birth my baby, and just in the birthing process in general! My husband was so supportive of all my wants for the birth and was so helpful in keeping me calm and relaxed throughout labor. I was especially glad Gina and my mom were able to be there at the birth, thanks to Gina’s husband’s flight being delayed a few days due to weather! The original plan was my mom would stay back to watch the kids when we left for the birth center. But, Gina’s husband was able to stay home with all the kids, while my mom was able to come to support me during my birth. I am so thankful for my birth team that supported my birth, and for all of you that followed along our pregnancy journey for the past year! I feel so much love coming our way, and I am truly grateful!
At the end of the day, every birth story is unique, but there are common threads that run through them all. By taking MamasteFit’s Childbirth Education Course, you’ll be equipped with the tools and knowledge you need to create your own positive birth story.
Sign up today and start your journey towards a confident and empowered birth experience.
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