Tenzin arrived on April 4th at 1:46pm. He was born in the comfort of his own home via the help of an amazing birthing team from Southcoast Midwifery. Here is his story…

On Tuesday, April 3rd Dan and I arrived at the birthing center for our 41 week appointment. We were slightly anxious to find out the progress we had made from the previous week.  We knew that if we reached 42 weeks without positive signs of labor, we would have to be transferred to hospital care and our home birth experience would not be possible. After being checked we found that I was dilated to 2.5 cm and about 50% effaced – not a lot of progress had been made from the previous week. After discussing our options with our midwife, we decided to have a Foley Catheter placed in my cervix in hopes that it would help stimulate hormones to activate labor. Although I really had hoped to enter labor whenever my body was ready, we believed a home birth was the best option for us. We decided the catheter was worth a try – with the thought that it probably wouldn’t work if my body was not ready.

We left the birthing center at 6:00pm and by 6:30pm I began to feel steady cramping every 4-5 minutes. Throughout the previous week I had been having birthing waves off and on, so I wasn’t convinced it was the real thing. By 9:00pm, however, they had moved to 2-3 minutes apart, were approximately 1 minute long and feeling fairly strong – at this point I was convinced. After speaking with our midwife we settled in for what would be a long night of steady waves. At 6:30am midwife Amber and Sheryl, a Southcoast Midwifery assistant/doula, arrived at our home. Amber checked me and removed the catheter.  We were slightly disappointed to find out that I was 4 cm and 80% effaced – a very long night with little progress. Amber recommended I try to relax as much as possible so we decided to try a warm bath. After an hour in the tub listening to Hypnobabies relaxation scripts, I was still 4 cm but feeling more “pressure” as the baby’s head was beginning to move down. After a couple hours of moving around, trying different positions and using my birthing ball, things began to intensify. I was found to be 5-6 cm. While things seemed to be moving slowly, we were happy with the progress.

We continued to experiment with different labor positions over the next couple of hours and I used deep breathing and visualization exercises to get through each contraction. With Amber’s great positioning ideas and Sheryl and Dan’s gentle cues to remind me to relax, I was able to remain fairly calm and focused through each wave. Amber had me try several different positional techniques as she tried to manually turn the baby’s head into the correct position. These were some of the most difficult times during my labor as they brought on even more intensity.  While these maneuvers were quite uncomfortable, I trusted Amber and knew she was doing what was best for both me and the baby.  Around 12:30pm, my water broke and I was about 7 cm. There was light meconium in the fluid. Since the meconium was light and the baby showed no signs of distress, we were not overly concerned. Although the presence of meconium meant that we would not be able to birth the baby in the water like we had planned, we were thankful that the baby seemed to be tolerating the birth and that everything was going smoothly.

I guess things moved quickly once my water broke. I began to feel a bit “pushy” around 1:00pm. The team suggested I take a shower, which is where my body decided to first start pushing. One funny moment that I remember was when Dan saw that I was starting to push, he hopped right into the shower with me, fully clothed and all.  We quickly rinsed off, headed back downstairs and settled into a squatting position on the floor near our sofa. With a few pushes, I could feel the top of the baby’s soft, squished head. Sheryl held the mirror for me as the head crowned and Amber instructed me when to blow through my contractions and give small pushes. It was amazing to see how effective this was – while it allowed my body to stretch around the baby, with every blow I could see more of the baby’s beautiful head. After approximately 20 minutes of pushing, the head emerged face down and turned to the side beautifully on its own. Although I wanted to immediately push the rest of the baby out, Amber persuaded me to wait until the next contraction. While waiting, I remember looking down and how surreal it felt to see the side of my baby’s face, a smooshed up little ear and sweet hairline. I pushed with the next contraction and Amber assisted in positioning the shoulders as they were quite broad. I reached down and helped catch my baby as the body emerged. It was absolutely the most amazing feeling to help bring this squishy, slimy baby to my stomach. Our baby had arrived and needless to say Dan and I were forever changed in this single instant.

The baby let out a few screams initially and then remained calm while resting on my stomach for the next half hour. For the first several minutes, we gently wiped him down and made sure the baby had plenty of oxygen. At some point we realized that we still weren’t sure whether we had a little boy or a little girl. Dan took a peek and announced that we had a son. Once his cord had stopped pulsing, Amber clamped it and Dan did the honors of cutting. Tenzin was brought to my breast to nurse and he was able to take a few sips. Amber eventually gently suctioned his stomach to remove as much of the meconium water as possible - I was so thankful to be able to hold him during this time. Dan then took some time to bond with Tenzin while I birthed the placenta. They weighed and measured him and we were all shocked when Amber announced that he weighed in at 9 lbs and measured 21 inches! The next couple of hours were spent with Dan and me marveling at this tiny wonder. The birthing team assisted with the clean up and checked in with us every so often. We were so amazed and so thankful for this perfect, healthy little being. This was truly the most empowering experience of my life. We are forever grateful to the entire team at Southcoast Midwifery for the loving care we were given throughout our pregnancy and their assistance in making a beautiful dream our reality.

If you had a baby with the midwives at South Coast Women's Health Care, we'd love to include your birth story here! You can submit photos and the story to: info@southcoastmidwifery.com

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