The anticipation of a water birth, to meet our first child was exciting yet overwhelming. I still look back on this day and think to myself, it was nothing like the movies! Having worked up until 2 weeks before my estimated due date which was, October 23rd but my baby had a mind of their own. Since I was finished “nesting” weeks ago, our tiny one bedroom apartment was prepared for our baby’s arrival. By the way I should note, we didn’t know what we were having at the time, as we waited to know the gender until giving birth (we were SUPER patient, I KNOW!!). All we wanted was a healthy and happy baby. Everything I knew about childbirth from the movies consisted of all of the sudden moments, such as a pregnant woman trying to buy her groceries but then BAM! Her water breaks the, the baby is on its way out and the people around her have to assist her with bringing this little life into the world. My birth story was nothing like that, well at least not Berkeley’s that is.
To share my birth story best I have to give you a little insight on my birth plan. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been intrigued by water births. When I say intrigued I mean slightly obsessed, I had a Pinterest account when I was in high school and I’m pretty sure my mom and I communicated more through there then we did via text when we weren’t in the same room. Before they offered the private board feature or at least before I even knew about it I’d find myself posting all things motherhood. All things motherhood, including but definitely not limited to birthing babies, especially through water birth. Pinterest would show what I had been saving to my boards, which brought concern to my mother to the point, she questioned if there was something I needed to share, haha. There was nothing to share, I was just fascinated with the process of childbirth and the idea that it could be done in the water.
Fast-forward ten plus years later, my husband and I are overjoyed with the exciting and shocking news that we are going to be parents. I’d like to be completely transparent here, on that early Saturday morning in February when I took my pregnancy test after not having my period which had been like clock-work since I was 12; I looked at the pregnancy test quietly as I sat on the toilet alone, unaware of if I should share the news with my husband then or hold off. After dating almost four years we had gotten engaged in February of 2020, then Married in September of 2020. This was February 2021 just 5 months after finally marrying my best friend that I came to find out I was expecting! In all honesty, I sat in the restroom reading the words “PREGNANT” on that digital Clear Blue test feeling overwhelmed with a wave of emotions. Thinking to myself, “Wow, I always wondered if I would even be able to get pregnant.” , “OMG! I’m going to be a Mom”, “Wait, we said we’d wait a year?!”, “I could just cry” , “are we ready?” , “Will Danny be upset that I got pregnant so fast?”, “Oh, God I feel sick!”, “ Well, this confirms I won’t be drinking that Frosé at dinner tonight!”. After facing the flood gate of thoughts and concerns, I finally gathered myself, grabbed the pregnancy test and approached my husband who was working on his laptop at the time. I just sat the pregnancy test beside him, and smirked with uncertainty, my husband’s response was priceless. He said “ WHAT!!!”, “Are you serious?!” with a joyful smile and tears in his eyes. We embraced and I felt safe and knew that everything was going to be alright!
As we began to plan for the arrival of our bundle of joy, my husband supported my decision to birth our child how I saw fit. So I decided to opt for an out of hospital birth experience. I chose to give birth at a birth center in Houston, where we lived. I had planned for a fully unmedicated, natural water birth experience that would take place outside of my home and outside of the hospital. Trust me I felt like I had a degree in the studies of water birth so I was shockingly more confident and more comfortable with the idea of an unmedicated and out of hospital birth than a medicated or hospital one. After all the midwife appointments, ultrasound appointments and glucose testing, we are more than excited and in anticipation for the arrival of our baby.
On the evening of October 30th (7 days after our due date). I sat in the living room, on my birthing ball doing all the hip rotations and such in hopes of getting our baby into position and to help baby move down to start contractions because I am officially 41 weeks and at 42 weeks I would have to move from a natural out of hospital birth to a scheduled hospital c-section birth. Around 11 pm that evening I’m feeling some rather persistent and consistent pain in my lower back, I get excited (truly I was way too excited about the mild pain I was feeling). I tell my husband to call our midwife because I’m sure the baby is coming. Nope! Not even close, she informs us that because I’m talking normally I’m most likely not in labor and instructs us to wait until my contractions are a minute long each and about 4 minutes apart. I go on about my evening lay in bed and start to feel some heavy contractions, let’s just say the pain is getting REAL, this time I’m struggling to get some real rest.
My entire life, well since I’ve had a menstrual cycle; I’ve had excruciatingly painful periods, so I wasn’t unfamiliar with pain or discomfort, but this was starting to feel UNREAL. As my contractions get closer and closer together at about 6 min apart we call the midwife and let her know how I’m feeling. She asks if we’d like her to come check on me at home or if I think I want to meet her at the birth center . We decide to head to the birth center, after my husband grabs everything we thought we’d need. By this time it’s 3 am and we are so sure, we are meeting our baby within the hour, but we aren’t. We arrived at the birth center around 3:30 am, when my contractions were getting closer but my water had yet to break. I was told to just lay down and rest as my body continued to do what it needed to do.
Come 5:30 am, I wake up to a faint pop, and a giant gush of water! My water had finally broken and I knew it, because the pain I was feeling prior must have been a 3 because this new pain was easily an 8. I was encouraged to walk around, use the restroom as I needed and get into the tub to help relieve the excruciating pain I was feeling, I was even able to eat but the pain was so intense I couldn’t even think about food. I found myself kneeling in the water, sitting in the water and laying in the water as I worked through the pain. Eventually the intensity of the pain I was feeling increased in my back, causing me to vomit from it. This was a sign for me that birth was near, the pain had shifted from my lower back to my hips as our baby lowered and lowered into position.
I remember my midwife saying to me that it was about 9:30 am and that if I didn’t dilate more in the next 3 hours they would try a few other things to help me. I thought to myself, “I WILL not be here for 3 more hours!” , “I’m having the baby in the next 10 minutes, tops”. Well something that I believe many mothers would say, is that labor feels like hours but its minutes that have gone by but ACTIVE labor which began for me after my water broke felt like minutes but it was hours that had gone by. For those next couple of hours the pain in my lower back and hips would be relieved by my husband using all his strength to press the sides of my upper hips together to give me some sort of relief. Come noon-ish, I’m dilated to 9 cm finally after getting in and out of the water, walking around and squatting, we are finally getting close.
My midwife informs me that the babies heart rate was dropping and I would need to get out and give birth on the bed. No words were spoken from me, I was in mama bear mode to do whatever I needed to make sure our baby arrived safely. So I got out of the inflatable pool/tub of water and laid on the bed provided in the room. Within minutes and about 6 pushes, I heard the most rewarding and life changing sound, the cry of our sweet baby. My husband and I were so in love at this beautiful baby that our midwife had to ask us if we had checked to see the gender! With tears in our eyes, and emotions already running high we were beyond excited to find she was a baby girl.
This birth story of mine is just a reminder that things might not always go as planned but they all workout. I didn’t give birth IN the water like I had originally planned but I did get to have a fully natural and unmedicated birth like I wanted and at the end of the day if interventions were needed I was committed to doing them, to meet my beautiful bundle of joy safely. Remember that medicated, unmedicated, natural, c-section, out of hospital, in hospital, at home birthing is all up to you, birth your babies how you please and see fit because all that matters is that mama & baby make it out of the process safely and healthy.
With Love,
xx Classically Faith xx
Helpful Resources about Water Birth: HERE
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