Welcoming Baby Isaiah: Birth Center Birth With Doula Support

We are thrilled to share the heartfelt birth story of first-time mom Miranda. Join us as we recount the arrival of baby Isaiah!

On 3/12 at 11:30pm I woke up to use the bathroom and got back in bed. If felt cramping in my lower abdomen but nothing major. I assumed just Braxton Hicks because I had been having these for quite some time now. Shortly after I was back in bed I felt a trickle down my leg. I couldn’t stop it. I went into the bathroom and sure enough the trickle continued down my leg into the bathroom. This was clear amniotic fluid; my water had broken. Withing a half hour the cramps became more intense, these must be

contractions. They only lasted 30-45 seconds but were every few minutes. After a few hours I lost my mucus plug and had some bloody show: I tried to rest through the night, but between the adrenaline, excitement and the nervousness, the frequent urge to use the bathroom, and the discomfort from the contractions I didn’t get much rest. As the night turned to morning my contractions started to intensify and lasted longer- 1 minute. Around 7am we called the midwife. Shortly after she told us to head to the birth center. At 9:00am we arrived at the birth center.

Soon after arrival the midwife checked me and I was 6cm dilated, 100% effaced and baby was at 0 station. I was THRILLED to hear this. In my head I thought only a few more hours, he will be here by lunch time, I can do this. Throughout the night and into the morning I primarily stayed in forward leaning positions- on my hands and knees, standing leaning forward on the bed or kneeling forward on pillows. These were the most “comfortable” positions for me. Although the contractions were INTENSE I could tolerate them better in these positions, any change of position felt unbearable.

Quickly after arriving at the birth center I began having the uncontrollable urge to bear down. This was good they said as it meant baby’s head was likely moving down and putting more pressure on the cervix to fully dilate. Hours passed and before I could be given the green light to push the midwife checked me again. It was not the news I wanted to hear – my anterior cervix had swollen. This was around 1pm. She felt it was due to all the forward leaning positions for so long and the bearing down when my cervix wasn’t fully dilated.

She and my doula made me change positions and I was told I could not bear down. Initially we tried side lying positions with the peanut ball. This was BRUTAL, I kept saying “I cannot do this.” My doula kindly reminded me “you are doing this” and Spencer kept telling me “Yes you can”. From there we moved to some side lying release which was again excruciating. We did 3 contractions in each position. This helped me get through the changes. Soon after I got into the warm tub. This provided some relief; the warm water helped me relax a little. Being in the tub though I remember getting urges to bear down. I had to fight it each time, sometimes I couldn’t. This was mentally and physically the hardest part, with each contraction and urge to push or bear down I became tense. After some time in the bath, I got out and tried some more position changes, then got back in the water when I needed a change of environment.

Begging my midwife to check me again, she did, and I had dilated to 7.5cm but still had some anterior swelling. Two hours later I asked for another check, I had just an anterior lip. She said I could now push this over the baby’s head with each contraction. She did this and finally I was able to begin pushing and could stop fighting the instinctual urge.

I think I began pushing around 4:30-5pm. By this time, I felt completely exhausted. I did not think I had the energy to do it, but I wanted baby out so badly by now that I somehow found a way. I was pushing in several different positions, in positions that

were most comfortable for me. My legs started to cramp so I had to move. We went through several push cycles on my back, side, kneeling in bed and seated on the toilet. I kept hearing that we can see his head so he’s close. So with every push I thought, ok this is it. I’m going to push him out with this one. But he didn’t come…for what felt like forever. I felt my contractions start to weaken and I had trouble connecting my pushes with my contractions. At one point my midwife suggested I rest through a few contractions before trying to push anymore. This sounded nice, but as soon as she said it I felt a strong urge to push again. So, I kept going, a few more cycles of pushing and baby FINALLY made it out at 6:33pm. I was so drained yet so relieved. I did it. We did it.

He was finally here. I could finally rest but then I sensed something wasn’t going right. My placenta wasn’t coming out as it should. Finally, after what I think was 45 minutes, the placenta delivered with a big gush of blood. I had hemorrhaged…Isaiah was given to Dad while the midwife did bimanual compression to stop the bleeding. OUCH! The bleeding had controlled after this, but the midwife was highly concerned about the amount of blood loss. I also was informed I had a pretty severe tear; this was devastating for me as it was something I hoped to avoid having a natural, out of hospital birth. The birth assistant called EMS after the placenta was delivered and I hemorrhaged. I was informed it was necessary due to the amount of blood loss and needing to have perineal sutures. So I went and Spencer came along.

Our sweet baby boy was left in the hands of our doula, someone we felt very confident in leaving him with but still devastating. I got to the hospital quickly and within 1-1.5 hours our doula brought our baby boy to be reunited with us, such a relief. We are forever grateful that we had her with us throughout the birth and especially for the after birth.

Authored by Miranda, proud mother of a sweet baby boy, Isaiah

Congratulations on behalf of our entire doula agency!

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