My Perfect Water Birth Birth Story
March 12, 2016 is definitely a day I will never be able to
fully describe. Both because of the immense joy that came on that day, and
because I was probably asleep/not exactly in a present state of mind to be able
to explain it to you! Gabriel Andrew Wiseman was born on that day and that
makes it one of the best days in the world.
Now, before I go into details, I want to explain my
reasoning for desiring a water birth in the first place. I felt the Lord tell me that he was going to
draw me into a deeper relationship with him through my birth experience. I would lean into him and trust him with my
labor and pain, knowing that everything would be ok. So I opted for the drug
free route and decided that a water birth sounded the most appealing for a
natural birth. With that decision made,
Shane and I started taking a 12 week Bradley Method class to help us navigate
the birth process and pain management techniques. Shane was going to be fully equipped to be my
birthing partner and coach and I felt completely ready and prepared to face the
challenge of labor along with the potential detours that can happen during
labor that might not be exactly what you had planned. We had Bethel Pandora radio station all set
up to play during my labor and snacks and water/Gatorade for me to eat and
drink between contractions to give me some energy. We had a meal planned for when I went into
early labor (deer fajitas… yummm) so that I would be fully energized and ready
to get through an incredibly physically exhausting time. We were excited to
meet our little boy.
Our plan didn’t start out like we though. I completely skipped
early labor all together and woke up in active labor with contractions 4-5
minutes apart at 1:30am. The night
before I wasn’t hungry, so I ate a piece of banana bread for dinner.. And I
definitely wasn’t in the mood to eat anything while in active labor. So I started this beautiful journey just a bit
hungry and not very energized. Shane and
I started our relaxation techniques and he was absolutely excellent at making
sure I was getting water after every contraction and changing positions every
few minutes. Once my contractions were 4
minutes apart, we left for the hospital.
We got to the hospital at 4am and I was already dilated to 6.5
centimeters. The nursing staff there was
absolutely wonderful and were all ready to encourage me with this natural
birth. I got changed into my cotton gown
that I had picked because it was comfortable and Shane put on my non slip socks
and we labored a bit in the room till my midwife got there and said I could try
to labor in the tub for a while.
Unfortunately, the tub made my contractions space out. In the moment, it was nice for me because I
was so exhausted and I was sleeping between my contractions. During most of the
labor, I don’t even remember having my eyes open, that’s how exhausted I was. On
top of being exhausted, every snack we had packed to give me energy between
contractions made me sick except honey sticks, so Shane was trying to force me
to eat honey when he could because it’s the only thing that stayed down. Shane
had my Pandora station on and I prayed through most of my contractions. But
because my contractions spaced out, I had to get out of the tub and try
different positions to progress. At about noon, I was so tired, that my midwife
suggested an IV to try and give me fluids to boost my energy. Shane and I talked about it and agreed to try
it, because I would definitely need more energy to push. During this whole process, I not only felt
the love of Shane just pouring over me, but the love of the Lord and I had no
fears or anxiety. During transition labor, I was definitely feeling ready to
throw in the towel, but Shane was so good at encouraging me and reminding me
why I was doing this. It was truly beautiful. I finally reached 10 centimeters
at 12:30. Because the tub spaced my contractions out, my midwife wanted me to
try pushing in the bed first, then if that was going well, we could move to the
tub.
Once I started pushing, my midwife found out that the baby
was in a posterior position. This means that instead of being face down when he
comes out, he would be face up. This is the cause of a lot of back labor and it’s
harder for the baby to come out because it’s more difficult to get past the
pelvic bones. I pushed for an hour and a half before my body had hit its
physical exhaustion climax. My body was exhausted,
my uterus was exhausted, and I was only able to push for about 3 seconds at a
time before needing a break. At that
point, my contractions also spaced out to 7-9 minutes apart. My midwife knew I
didn’t want interventions, but suggested an epidural to give my body relief and
sleep, and Pitocin to get my contractions to get closer back together because
the baby wasn’t progressing at all.
Shane and I discussed it, and decided that we trusted our medical
professionals and we knew we had done everything we could to get the baby out
my own. Epidural it would be.
That was probably the most amazing 4 hours of sleep I have
ever had. I received the epidural and
don’t really remember getting it because I was falling asleep while he was
administering it. I was also still having contractions and feeling the urge to
push. I don’t think I could ever describe just how tired I was. During the 4 hours I was able to sleep, they
had the Pitocin going so that Gabe would progress on his own, slowly. At 6pm, I
started to push again, completely energized and fully alert, ready to meet my
son. However, he got stuck and ended up
needing to be vacuum suctioned out while I was pushing. At 6:45, I delivered a beautiful, perfect and
wonderful baby boy and it was absolutely amazing.
This was not exactly the birth story I had thought I would
type up, but it’s my birth story, and it’s perfect. It’s a story full of love, and hardship, and
hard decisions, and new life. Its proof
of how much I can truly rely on Jesus that everything will be ok and just to
trust in him. And its proof of how much Jesus pours out his love on me through
my husband. I couldn’t have asked for a
better labor experience than the one that Shane and I were able to have
together. The amount of patience,
kindness, and love that he poured over me during this labor was just too much
to describe. And at the end of it all, I got to enjoy my wonderful baby boy.
