Birth Story

So here it is, the birth story of Leland Brac Bertelsen. It was Friday night, and I had been having contractions all through the night. In the morning I woke up Neal to time them. They were consistent at about 8 minutes apart lasting a minute and a half each. They got to 4 minutes apart so we decided to call our midwife Suzanne and get everything ready to go. As we were doing that, my contractions died down and were coming about every half hour. We decided to postpone going to see Suzanne and stay home to rest instead. I took a loooong nap and we watched a couple of movies. I was very relaxed and comfortable, using hypnosis and breathing techniques through each contraction. Around 10:30 I felt like we needed to go see Suzanne to get checked. Previously, I had tested positive for Group B Strep and decided to do a wash before the delivery. We felt like the baby would come soon, and we wanted to be sure we had enough time to do the wash. Even though I was only having contractions about every 30 minutes, they were becoming more and more intense.

When we got to Bella Natal, Suzanne checked me and said that I was pretty much complete (meaning fully dilated/thinned). The only issue was the station of my cervix. The cervix is supposed to move forward, but mine was sort of stuck behind the baby's head. Suzanne explained that the cervix is like a turtleneck. Instead of pushing through the neck hole, the baby's head was trying to push through the chest and making no progress with that. Suzanne had seen this many times and knew what we needed to do. Either break my water, or she could pull my cervix forward and hold it there through a few contractions, hoping it would slip over the baby's head. I really wanted my water to break naturally so we opted to start with the second suggestion. This was pretty uncomfortable and didn't work right away. I decided I wanted to give it a little time and get in the tub. The water felt so nice and relaxing. My contractions went from every 30 minutes to every 15, and varied in length and intensity. During one of them, my water broke naturally. I was a little fearful that things would get really intense after this, but I can't say it did.

Here I am in the tub after my water broke and I had had a few contractions. I was still feeling great between contractions.

Here I am calmly breathing through a contraction.

It became apparent that I was stuck. The cervix still wasn't coming forward, and Neal says I really zoned out, and stayed that way even in between contractions. We decided I needed to move to the birth stool and Suzanne would hold my cervix forward while I pushed to try to get the baby's head past the cervix. This was the most uncomfortable/intense part. My plan was to breathe the baby down rather than push, so this was a little difficult for me mentally, as I wasn't prepared for it. I entered the part of labor where I began to feel like I just couldn't do it. I was tired, and all I wanted was to go home and lay down to sleep until it was all over. I wouldn't let myself say it though, because I knew if I did, I would really start to give up. Up to this point, I would have described my contractions as "surges". They were not painful, but more like a very intense tightening which I could breathe through. It was very uncomfortable to have Suzanne pulling my cervix forward during the contractions. I self-directed my pushing through a few contractions before the baby's head finally (it seemed like it took forever, but it was really only about 10 minutes at the most) pushed past the cervix. After that I pushed through another contraction and he came right out, and was put in my arms.

Neal was by my side the entire time, encouraging me and letting me lean on him or squeeze his arm. We were both very emotional and amazed by what we just experienced. I did it! I naturally birthed our baby! I used my hypnobirthing techniques to move through labor calmly and comfortably, and for the most part, pain free. I was able to make the most of my contractions by staying relaxed and letting my body direct its energies to my uterus which is what helped it go so quickly. We got to Bella Natal around 10:30 and Leland was born only 3 hours later at 1:31 am. I did tear and had quite a bit of bleeding immediately after the baby was born, but it slowed right down and I am doing great now! Nothing in the world could feel better than this. We made a birth plan, I practiced and prepared for a calm and comfortable labor, and it turned out almost exaclty as I hoped it would. And now, we have a beatiful, healthy baby boy. :)