I Gave Birth on the Floor (Our Birth Story)
Well here I am…writing the fourth and (should be) final natural birth story down on my blog. Sharing with you the details and precious moments of bringing our fourth baby into this world. And yes, he was brought here on the floor…but let’s start at the beginning.
After having three previous natural births at our local hospital, I decided for our fourth baby that we would try something different. With the new Birth Center of Baton Rouge right there next to the hospital, I felt at ease and confident that we could birth there. While our previous hospital births were wonderful, there were some moments and occurrences that I wanted to avoid altogether; more freedom without jeopardy of a birth plan going out the window.
If you’re unfamiliar with a birth center let me catch you up real quick. It’s a beautiful, cozy place where you can give birth in a setting that resembles a tranquil bedroom and you have the support of midwives. You are free to birth how you want, where you want and with whoever you want present. The freedom there is beautiful and had we not delivered during the COVID crisis, we would have really experienced the freedom. Our experience was still beautiful and during the global pandemic, I couldn’t have been happier that I was there! Being at the birth center meant that we were able to be discharged six hours after birth which let us come home to rest and be home — away from others during a time where you didn’t really want to be around many people. The midwives truly take the time to know you, know how you’re feeling and handling things, how your family is and so forth. They LISTEN to you and your needs and wants. It’s truly a freeing and beautiful experience.
If you’re familiar with the story of our fourth baby, I had tremendous fears before even conceiving that another natural birth wouldn’t be in the cards for us. You can read about it here. But I was hit with a strong fear that my last baby would have an emergency or something wrong that would require something different. Now, birth is birth and beautiful no matter what. Obviously what matters most is a healthy mother and baby; and sometimes things happen that are out of our control. But I knew that I truly wanted to end our birth stories on the same note, and had to pray hard about that. I had fears about MANY things that I had to overcome. From the minute of that positive pregnancy test, I began to pray for that beautiful birth to complete our story. And here we are!
Our beautiful full moon for all of our walks.
So many times throughout this pregnancy the Lord continued to tell me to trust Him. At 12 weeks a heartbeat wasn’t detected until the ultrasound machine was pulled up (I had never experienced this), our anatomy scan had some concerns (again never experienced and had to pray over) and lastly, an overdue baby. For the first time ever, I went over my due date! Our precious boy was born at 41 weeks and 2 days past my due date; something that I NEVER thought I would experience!
Normally by 38 weeks pregnant I am 3-4 cm dilated. By 40 weeks with this baby boy, I was barely 1cm. Of course I let fear creep in because I knew that my last boy was a bigger baby, so as the days ticked on by I feared he would be larger, but I remained confident in what my body could do. After years of being so vocal about letting baby come on their own, I had to endure that exact scenario and other than it being emotionally hard, physically I felt fine. But when you’re in the middle of a global pandemic where hospital regulations and things are changing daily, I wanted so badly to just have him already. I wanted to have him before more regulations changed, before the virus was even more rampant and the last place I wanted to be was a busy hospital. But again, I had to be patient and wait and pray.
I went in Monday April 6 for what I thought was a scheduled sonogram and appointment only to find out that I had the dates wrong. At this point I was emotional…I wanted (no had!) to see my baby on ultrasound to ensure that we had enough fluid and a healthy placenta to continue on with the pregnancy. Thankfully my midwife checked me (and stripped my membrane for the second time) and sent me over for an ultrasound to determine that everything was healthy. They saw I was emotional about it all and took the time to fit in my appointments that actually weren’t even scheduled for that day. I believe that knowing everything was healthy helped me to release some emotions which in turn would later help with labor (total mind and body connection). After arriving home, I made a smoothie with castor oil, ate lunch and went to rest. While resting I noticed I was having some good contractions and had lost a bit of my mucus plug. I had a feeling we were finally getting there!
By 3pm I called my midwife to tell her that the contractions felt pretty intense and were actually coming in around 3-4 minters apart. By 5pm we met the midwife at the birth center and all of my hopes were crushed when I realized I was only 1 cm STILL. It was assumed that the cramps/contractions were possibly “false” from the castor oil and would go away with some relaxation. So I went home, ate dinner and walked around the yard a bit. In a sense this labor was reminding me of my second child’s labor, which required me to do the Spinning Babies Lift and Tuck exercises to engage baby to drop down. I knew that since I was contracting fairly regularly but not progressing, that our baby likely wasn’t positioned 100% correctly. This is where this exercise comes in handy and helps baby drop down! It worked!
While soaking in the tub later that evening I started having intense contractions - the kind that make you cross your legs for a second. I decided to get out and walk around and time the contractions and don’t you know, it was all signs of labor coming. I was nervous though…I didn’t want to waste our time and waste our midwife’s time by going to get checked again, but I also didn’t want to deliver my baby at home. Finally, I made the decision to call our midwife and let her know that I really thought this was real, and she met me there around 9pm and thank goodness, I had progressed to nearly 4cm. PRAISE JESUS!
Walking is how I make it through my labors — I have to keep moving!
It felt so good to know it was real and that I had not wasted anyone’s time. I hopped out of the bed and my husband and I went walk around the birth center, outside under a beautiful full moon. It was actually quite serene to walk around in labor, in the dark and under a full moon, with a soft spring breeze. Peaceful. My mother showed up shortly and as always, she walked the rounds with me (she also got the essential oils going — Gentle Baby and Frankincense). Several times I would hop into their flower beds on our walk to grab the small utility pole so that I could grip something during the contractions, through every contraction we paused for me to grip whatever I could!
I have found that with each of my labors, I pray and I pray hard. In this case, I kept praying for him to be here soon (just as I had with my last). I think after you’ve had a few long births like I did, you eventually just want a quick one. I wanted him to be here so I could know that we safely did it. I wanted him to be here so I could snuggle him. And yes, I wanted him to be here so the pain would stop. Whether or not it’s “okay” to pray for it to be over, all I know is that I prayed the whole time. I gave the labor and the pain to the Lord and asked Him to take it away from me so we could have our new, sweet boy here!
Our wonderful midwife from the Birth Center of Baton Rouge
After walking a bit and using the birth ball some, I asked to get checked again. Progress motivates me and I wanted to hear good news. I found out I was around 6-7 cm and before she could try to break my water, it broke! We then got up to walk some more and eventually I felt the urge to push…however I was only 8 at this time and was encouraged to not push. So into the birthing tub I went!
While in the tub I reallllyyyyy felt the urge to push. I contemplated in my head delivering in the tub, but as always I wanted to lay in the bed and deliver my baby. The WHOLE pregnancy I envisioned laying in their beautiful bed and delivering my beautiful baby! That position always seemed ideal to me because it made for beautiful photos and just felt normal. But well, I changed the plans.
After getting out of the tub my midwife suggested getting on all fours and leaning over the birth ball. Well, little did I know that this would be the position that just felt right. Once my second contraction came while in this position, the idea of walking to the bed sounded crazy, so I began pushing. It was as if I had no choice…that baby was coming. And actually, I think this position helped me!
As I laid there over that birthing ball, squeezing the heck out of my husband’s hands, with my midwife behind me I delivered that sweet baby boy. My midwife so gently and effortlessly helped him out and laid him right there under me, so as I looked down there was a perfect little boy laying there between my legs waiting for mama. I scooped him up, held him close and cried tears of joy. I will forever remember that moment of looking down and seeing such a beautiful baby sitting there (already exercising his lungs). He was perfect and praise God, he was here! FINALLY. The baby that for so long I wasn’t totally sure if we were meant to have for so long, suddenly made so much sense. We were complete. We needed him all along.
My little answered prayer was here and safe. He was beautiful and perfect. He was the little part of my heart to complete it. He was the little part of our family to complete it. He is little and mighty. He is perfect in every way!
Jesus helped bring this child into my life by so clearly telling me all about him before he even existed. And Jesus helped me get through this birth and every birth. Since day one of my pregnancies, I have prayed for my body and my baby to work together to give us a beautiful, natural birth with a healthy mother and baby. I have never for one second taken our birth stories for granted.
It’s my hope and prayer that if a natural, unmedicated birth feels right for you that you go for it. While natural birth HURTS and lingers on for a long time sometimes, it’s truly the most amazing and empowering thing. The feeling of those contractions will eventually fade away into a distant memory. But that feeling of feeling your womanly body open and do what God created it to do, is a feeling (a burning in the crotch feeling) that I will forever cherish! But most of all, I hope that you find peace and grace no matter how your birth may go. I hope that you move on past the moments that don’t sit well with your heart and just embrace the beauty of bringing life into this world. YOU grew and brought life into this world. Women are simply amazing in every standard, every type of birth and in every way!
Genesis 29:35 says, “She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "This time I will praise the LORD." So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.”
A special thank you to our midwife at the Baton Rouge Birth Center and our wonderful nurse who were so amazing throughout the whole thing. Our experience was everything and more!
READ OUR THIRD BIRTH HERE, “THE LONGEST PUSH OF MY LIFE”
READ OUR SECOND BIRTH HERE, “I PULLED OUT MY OWN BABY AND SHE PEED ON ME”
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