Wintersong
Nation’s Birth Story
The following post was written by my wife soon after the birth of our son and has been imported from my old blog. I have changed my name to “Innocent” where needed.
Maieutic. (n): A mode of enquiry that moves one’s latent ideas into clear consciousness (from the Greek word maieutikos (to act as a midwife).
I have always loved birth. The idea of midwifery fascinates me. It goes without saying that I have been deeply honored to take part in it now three times. What a blessing.
In so many ways, our birth experiences have been unique. On the other hand, they seem to be everyone’s birth story – resonating with similarities that every woman blessed to participate has had. I praise God for making this ancient honor a continuing one that stitches all of us together in some timeless way.
Every birth of ours has had a song. Music seems to define times in our lives more than even words can; and lyrics touch the edges of our experiences with simplicity and complexity that only can be felt and not exactly explained. Nation’s birth was definitely surrounded by the song called “Wintersong” by Sarah Barielles and Ingrid Michaelson. (Note: The way music works in my life is really impossible to explain. Try not to read too much into the lyrics alone:). The whole song captures a sentiment).
When we found out we were expecting our third, our hearts were overjoyed. We knew that we wanted to have another natural birth . . . but we wanted to explore options that were not hospital births. We gratefully landed on a relatively new birthing center in town that provided the medical care we desired along with the beauty of the natural in a relaxed, supportive setting.
Our other two children had been born on their exact due dates or days early. We found ourselves with our third baby not only meeting the due date but exceeding it by three days. It did come as a surprise . . . and after a brief time of discouragement, we determined to welcome the wait with open arms. After three weeks (plus) of prodromal labor, the inevitable was certainly coming sooner than later.
On Saturday, December 6th, we had a normal day of family time. As our Saturday tradition, we go to Einstein Bagels and enjoy breakfast. After that, we went to Target (with the aim to keep me walking and moving around as much as possible). It seemed that things were progressing; but as usual, I had determined to keep my expectations low. We came home for a simple lunch (that also included some very much needed donuts, ha!) along with some relaxing and tidying up around the house.
I spent a lot of the day resting, sitting on the yoga ball, and doing my birth hypnosis practice. For no real ‘reason’, I decided that doing the affirmations of birth rather than just the hypnosis practice was a good idea. Innocent let me rest while he and the girls played. Innocent ran to Whole Foods and picked up a rotisserie chicken and salad and we enjoyed a more substantial than usual meal for a Saturday night.
When the girls were getting ready for bed, I noticed that there was an increase in the intensity and the timing of the surges I had been experiencing. Again, I tried not to put too much stock into it as there had been many times my surges had picked up and then dissipated. After tucking the girls in, Innocent and I decided to go upstairs and watch a movie to keep our minds off of things. During the movie, the surges were timing out at 10 minutes apart and then at 5 minutes. By the end of the movie, surges were about 3 minutes apart but not incredibly long. We decided I would stand in the shower for a while to see if things would slow down. They slowed to about 4 minutes apart but were getting more intense. At that point, we decided to try to get some sleep and see what came of the contractions.
Thankfully, we did sleep a bit on and off with the surges waking me up from time to time. At midnight, I got up to stretch and felt a huge shift in my body. Immediately after that, my water broke in two big surges. Wanting to make sure, I stood up for a bit longer and another huge surge came. Because I was strep B positive, I knew that I needed to contact the birthing center right away. But before that, we called my mom. She came right away to sleep at the house and stay with the girls.
Innocent called the birthing center and midwife Melanie answered. After asking a couple of questions, she said she’d meet us there. She asked us which room we wanted. Because we were the only ones laboring that night, so we had our pick of the birthing suites. We chose the “big room’ which was lovely.
We left the keys to our van with my mom and jumped in her car to go. With my greatest fear about this birth – the logistics of the “whos” and “whens” of our girls’ care during the birth – being graciously overcome, we pulled away in great peace as my mom waved from the front porch.
We drove to the birthing center in beautiful rain with the bright, clear moon making all the streets light. As Innocent drove, I listened to my hypnosis and got extremely focused. My previous labors and been excessively long (27 and 36 hours, respectively), so I didn’t realistically anticipate things to progress incredibly quickly. However, I got “under” very quickly and I’m glad I did.
Arriving at the birth center, we walked across the Koi pond into the dimly lit “home” atmosphere. We met Melanie who quickly set me up with the penicillin drip and started timing my contractions and observing me. My surges were about 2-3 minutes apart and lasting about a minute each.
Innocent talked me through the entire process with words of reassurance, prayers and constant reminders. He made sure I was present enough to remember everything but “under” enough to approach the pain of the surges as memories that I could look back on. We labored around the room and I was determined to stand or walk as much as I possibly could. We used a birthing swing and walking a great deal of the early labor. Melanie checked me again at 3:30 and I had made some significant progress. She gave me an extra ‘stretch’ and asked if I was interested in laboring in the bathtub (read: huge, luxurious, need a step stool to enter bathtub). I had never wanted water in my previous labors, but it sounded really nice. It was immediately comforting.
During my time in the tub, Melanie reminded us to keep drinking and eating whatever we wanted to and not let myself get too worn out without nourishment. What a great difference from hospital birthing! I couldn’t muster up the nerve to eat but I did enjoy chocolate milk and apple juice.
Innocent sat beside the tub and continued to offer constant words of reassurance, truths, and prayers for me. I was focused in on his whispering voice and deeply comforted.
My surges were really close together by this point and definitely more intense. I remember saying “O” a lot during the surges. I felt like I was loud, but Innocent says I was hardly vocal at all:). (We’ll go with his story, ha!). I was falling asleep between surges and feeling quite relaxed. I suddenly had a very intense surge that led to the transition (which I vomited through . . .which actually helped move the baby down). I remember Melanie saying that “things were changing” and it was encouraging. Immediately after that, I had a huge surge that was “pushy”. Much to my surprise, Melanie said that she was calling the birthing assistant, Alyssa, to start making her way there. It wasn’t even daybreak and I was nearing the final stage!
At 5:30 am I had my final dose of the penicillin (which would clear us of any concern from the strep B); and by 6:30, Alyssa had arrived. While I was still in the tub, I remember Melanie saying, ‘Whenever you’re ready to start pushing, we are all here and ready for you.” No further checks, no bright lights, no change in the atmosphere – just a calm invitation.
One of the great side effects, so to speak, of hypnosis is that time moves very quickly and not necessarily in a linear fashion. Innocent and I were aware of the time and the changing light outside the windows; at every point we were surprised that it was already “X” time. It was especially helpful in my previous (extra long) labors and was completely welcome this time, too.
At the next surge, I started the pushing process. I hadn’t planned a water birth per se, but it was a comfortable place to start. About 20 minutes later, I jumped up and said I was too hot and moved to a stool. I labored the baby down there for about 20 more minutes. The surges were so close together and so intense that I was starting to fatigue. Innocent, who remembered my previous labors, suggested I move to the bed. I was quick to agree and Melanie said it would be a relief to me, most likely. The baby was also showing some signs of head compression, which was good.
I stood up to walk to the bed and felt the baby immediately pushing down. Nearly falling on the bed on my left side, I remember Melanie jumping up on the bed with me and pinning my feet to her body. With only a few pushes, I felt the head crowning. With that came a vocal “YES!” from me. There was constant pressure and intensity at this point. Melanie told me to pause while she removed the loose cord from around baby’s neck. At the next push, she told me to keep pushing to ensure the baby’s shoulders would emerge. I remember her saying, “Come on, come on, come on. . .” With that, at 8:06 on that foggy Sunday morning, baby was born into Innocent's hands and placed on my chest. “It’s a BOY” were the next words I remember hearing. Nation Knight screamed out and looked incredibly pink, scoring an APGAR of 8 and 9 respectively.
Overjoyed with relief I held him close to my body while they did initial checks. The placenta emerged and I got to hold the cord while it pulsated for a couple of minutes. When it stopped on its own, Innocent got to cut it and Melanie clamped it.
After a quick shot to stop some hemorrhaging, I delivered the placenta and then Melanie did some quick stitching on me. Much differently from a hospital birth, they didn’t do weight or prints right away. Instead they let us have the moment all to ourselves. Nation nursed right away although a bit passively . . .and it was lovely.
Melanie and Alyssa left us on our own to bond with Nation and enjoy the moment. My labor had lasted 8 hours almost to the minute was our first daytime delivery. It was a truly surreal. We all rested and nursed while we took in the beauty of the whole experience. We didn’t call anyone or do anything for a couple of hours but just “be”.
Melanie ran to get green chile breakfast burritos for everyone and then came in to weigh and do all the measurements around 10. After that, Alyssa took me to have the best shower I can remember while Nation spent some skin-to-skin time with Innocent. After my shower, I held Nation while Innocent put the birth announcement on the birthing center kiosk and rang the bell in the bell tower. Ill never forget that moment- the bells intertwined with the sound of the wind chimes outside of the room window.
After making sure everyone was remaining stable and not in need of any other checks, they released us to go home. At 1:00 we were home and introduced the baby to his adoring sisters and grandmother.
I’ve had 3 unique experiences with birth, and I’m grateful to say that this one was one that lived up to every hope and desire we have had. I’m eternally honored to have experienced in each one of the births. I praise God for His glorious grace toward us in them.
Nation Knight Green
8:06 Sunday, December 7th, 2014
8 lbs 15.5 oz
20 inches long