The telling of birth stories is important for all of us. It’s important when you are young, to learn to not fear birth. It’s important when you are preparing to get pregnant, to know how and where you want to birth and during pregnancy to prepare you for what will come. Listening or reading someone’s story, and really hearing how real birth can unfold, how birth felt inside someone’s body, and what they were thinking during birth, can be SO helpful to others going through this transformation. Birth can be unexpected. Birth can be raw. Birth can be fast and furious. Slow and steady. Frantic. Blissful. All of it !

Here is my client’s story from her perspective.

Ann Arbor, Home Birth

“That day I had been cooking away as efficiently as one can with a 2 year old assistant - moussaka, cauliflower shepherds pie, miyeok guk, curried stuffed peppers, red date chicken soup all tucked away into the freezer. A couple days into maternity leave past 41 weeks, I was still in catch up mode preparing for the new baby. 

When my husband came home around 6:30pm, I went to lie down and take a nap. Minutes within falling in my bed exhausted, a mild wave came - was that Braxton Hicks? Then 5 minutes later another came and I notified my husband. The 60-90 second tightenings began rolling in every five minutes, less frequent and intense than the start of my first birth. Hence, I wasn’t sure if this was the real deal, but the midwives and Jenn dropped everything to come as soon as possible. The first quarter of my labor, my toddler played horse on my back shouting “baby out, baby out” as I rode the waves in cat and cow with an electric warmer, listening to my HypnoBabies soundtrack with binaural beats; my husband somewhere in the background, preparing the birth tub, communicating with the midwives, and arranging for dear friends to watch our toddler last minute. 

Time seemed to not exist in the moment and yet the intensity continued to crescendo. Peppermint alleviated my nausea and my body began shaking out of my control, but I didn’t feel any pain. In my quiet zone of relaxation, I cycled through hydration, chia pudding, and breathing with a focus on the word peace, all while bathing in a warm feeling of confidence that my body can do this. Shortly upon stepping into the lusciously toasty, yet only half-full birth pool with my husband, who was thoughtfully reading me encouraging Bible verses and birth affirmations, I heard a pop of my waters bursting. I felt the nausea rapidly fade and the nature of the waves shift. I adjusted my position in the warm water and continued to focus on peace and letting go with each tightening pressure wave. I never intentionally pushed and still don’t really understand what it means to do that after giving birth twice. Suddenly to my surprise, his head emerged from my womb on a wave. Without much of a sense of time, I calmly rested there in a somewhat physically awkward position, waiting for the next wave. The wave rolled in and without any effort on my part, slid the rest of his body into the waters. In sheer shock and joy, I reached down to pull this new life up out of the water and onto my warm chest. Voilà baby boy! 1 hour 48 minutes. Let’s do this again! 

Most birth stories stop there, but dwelling in our surreal golden hours was simply sacred and precious. Our family - my husband, daughter, and I - nestled together in the warm water for awhile, getting acquainted with this new little person whose presence surprised us, despite our long anticipation of his arrival. I felt proud and full of love, as he naturally found his way to my nutrition source in my embrace. Together, we marveled at the organ I grew to support him in utero. We counted his fingers and toes and listened to his heartbeat. Dad cuddled with him while he sucked his thumb in our bed and I ate away, feeling thankful, content, and accomplished. After all this glowy golden time together, our beloved midwife Patricia guided my husband in severing the cord to the placenta, and took the baby to weigh and examine him thoroughly in our bed. 

Time simply paused that sacred evening in thankful embrace of our new, vigorous, little gift from God. “

Birth Photographer: Jennifer Mason 

Midwives: Patricia Couch and Celeste Groenenberg of Gentle Mama Holistic Midwifery