Hattie's Birth Story

October 7, 2020

On October 7th, 2020, I was 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant, and on my second week of having

consistent, daily prodromal labor. This was my second baby, and I was emotionally and physically

drained from thinking I was going to meet my girl at any time, from 38 weeks on. My parents came over to have cake and spend time together for my dad’s birthday. When they came over, my mom could tell how uncomfortable I was from a very low baby, and irritating contractions that didn’t seem to be going anywhere. She offered to use some Clary Sage oil and acupressure points with massage to see if that might encourage my body to move into an active labor pattern, and I was more than happy to try anything to get the ball rolling at this point.

For the next couple of hours, my dad and daughter played together, while my mom put on soft

music and performed acupressure and massage. I was having little contractions, but didn’t think much of them, as this was the norm for me at this point. We had cake together, and then eventually, they headed home for the evening. I was still contracting, but feeling better than I had in days, so I decided to make some butternut squash soup with a salad to distract myself until my husband got home from work. As soon as Ben walked in the door, my mind and body seemed to instinctively relax further, and my contractions picked up even more.

We sat down to eat dinner as a family, and I swear to this day that that was the best soup I’ve ever

had. I was able to eat heartily, but had to pause occasionally to allow myself to relax through the surges as they continued to increase in strength. I remained distracted the rest of the evening while I focused my attention on spending quality time with my 2 year old, giving her extra love and attention. I remember feeling so raw and sentimental, realizing that this was likely the last night she would be our only child, but also knowing that the sibling she was gaining would be the best gift we could ever give her.

As the night progressed, I took our daughter up to bed. The contractions were coming in stronger

and very frequent at this point, but I was able to read my little girl a story, sing her a song and put her to sleep. Ben and I decided to try to watch a funny movie to relax, but I found that I couldn’t lie down or stay still. I was only comfortable when I was kneeling on the floor, with my head on the bed. At this point, I decided to start timing my contractions, and quickly realized they were less than 4 minutes apart. During this entire process,I had leaned heavily into my contractions, and kept telling myself “This feels good” and “Ride the wave and let it be big." This method had worked so well for me. Too well in fact, to the point that I had completely missed that I was in very active labor, as did my husband. When I started timing my contractions, I realized they were 2 minutes apart, lasting 60 seconds.

This was the first time I lost my flow, and started panicking, thinking that we had waited too long,

and that our baby was very likely right around the corner. Ben contacted our midwives and started packing our bags into the car to drive to the birth center. I called my parents to tell them to hurry as fast as they could to watch our older daughter, because they were living about 45 minutes away at the time. While Ben packed up the car, I quickly realized that if I wanted my midwives to be present for this birth, I was not going to be able to wait for my parents to arrive. I called my next-door neighbor, who was a mother of 5 and asked her if she could come wait at my house until my parents could make it. She arrived quickly and instantly upon seeing me said “Yeah, you need to go. That baby is coming now.”

As we drove into the birth center, I couldn’t get into a comfortable position, and was genuinely

afraid we were going to have a car baby. I was begging Ben, who is a notoriously cautious driver to get there as quickly as he could. I remember walking into the center as fast as possible, trying to get as far as I could before a contraction would hit, and having to take breaks to hang onto furniture while trying to get back to my birth room. It felt like being on a ship, during a storm, and trying to find purchase on anything nearby before a new wave could hit. My midwives helped me into the bathtub once I got to my room, while Ben provided counter pressure. I found instant relief in these measures, and was able to get back into the driver’s seat of my labor, after feeling out of control during our transport.

After spending some time grounding myself in the birth tub, I got up and walked to the bathroom to try to pee. As soon as I was done, I immediately felt my baby drop deep into my pelvic floor, and started involuntarily pushing. My midwife reminded me that we would rather not have a toilet baby, and she and Ben practically carried me back to the bathtub where my body promptly started pushing as soon as I hit the water. After 10 minutes of pushing, her head was out, and my midwife did some gentle internal rotations of her shoulder to help her move into a better position since she was still facing my left side, and brow presenting. She emerged quickly after that. The second I felt her tiny, warm body on my chest, I felt and intense sense of euphoria, and knew exactly who I was looking at. “Hi Hattie! You’re here!” I called to her.

My placenta came quickly, with no need for encouragement soon after Hattie’s birth, and I was

given some pitocin to slow the bleeding that followed. I spent two hours at the birth center, resting and bonding with my sweet little girl and husband, at which point we were declared stable to come home. I stared out the window, looking up at the stars in the night sky while we drove home, holding my daughter’s tiny hand. We made it home in time for a small rest before our toddler woke up. We all curled into bed together as a family as she met her new baby sister.