Aulive's Birth

Birth Center Water Birth at Baby+ Co, Cary, NC
**Pictures and birth story shared with permission from client**

      On Sunday, July 5th at 6:09am, Vanessa sent me a text. She said she was in early labor, and that she’d been contracting since 3:00am. She said contractions were anywhere from 6 to 15 minutes apart, and most were lasting over a minute long. She said they were painful, but very bearable. She thought it would be a while, but would let me know as soon as she needed me. At 9:12am, I checked in to see how things were going. Vanessa said things were still going slow. She said the contractions had spaced out a bit and that they were thinking about going to the mall to walk around a bit. I agreed that walking would be good. Then I suggested that if things hadn’t picked up a lot after walking that Vanessa get a good lunch and try to take a nap. I wanted her to try and get things going, but to also pace herself. I didn’t want her to wear herself out too much, before labor really got going.
               
     At 2:55pm, Vanessa sent me another text. She said they had walked around the mall, but things had slowed down so she decided to go home and rest. She ate a sandwich and tried to nap. She said when she laid down the contractions got really bad, but that she was also really tired. She said the last 6 contractions she had were 5-8 minutes apart and lasting anywhere between 45 and 122 seconds. She said she was about to get in the bath.  I told her I thought that was a good idea and that hopefully the bath would calm things down enough for her to rest. At 4:07pm, I checked in again. She said she was feeling her contractions mostly in the front, and that unfortunately every time she was about to fall asleep she’d get a really painful contraction that would wake her up. I suggested that if she wasn’t able to rest in the bath at all that she might want to go ahead and try the nipple stimulation. She said contractions were all getting to be about 5 minutes apart. I asked her if she wanted me to go ahead and come in. She said she was going to try pumping first.
               
     At 6:41pm, Vanessa sent me a text saying that she was thinking about heading in to the birth center. She said she was running out of ways to handle the pain at home. I told her that I felt like it was a good time then and that I would meet them there. I arrived at the birth center around 7:45pm. Vanessa and Jeremy were in the back room. Vanessa was sitting on the birth ball and Jeremy was sitting in front of her. There was another woman giving birth at the time, and the midwife was in the other room with her. Vanessa was doing a beautiful job working through each contraction. She felt better standing during contractions, but wanted to be able to sit in between them. We put the ball next to the sink so that she could sit on it between contractions, and stand up and lean on the counter during. I applied pressure to her hips during each contraction to help with the pain. At 8:26pm the midwife came in. She checked Vanessa and said that she was 8 cm dilated, 100% effaced, with a bulging bag of water. She encouraged her, and said the baby was still pretty high, so all that was left to do was to have the baby come down some.
               
     Vanessa wanted to get in the tub, so I began filling it up. As it was filling up we did some squats in order to try to help the baby come down. Once the tub was full Vanessa got in and squatted some in there. She was doing an amazing job doing deep moans through each contraction. She was laboring so beautifully. Jeremy sat on the side of the tub next to her, helping and encouraging her. I continued to apply pressure to her hips. After a while of laboring in the tub, Vanessa got out to use the bathroom. She labored on the toilet through a few contractions.

     Around 10:10pm, Vanessa got back in the tub. Jeremy got in the tub with her. Vanessa was starting to feel like she couldn’t do it. She was reaching that point that so many women do during labor. I reminded her that she was doing it and she could do it and that she was almost done. She asked the midwife if she could break her water. The midwife replied that she could, but suggested to wait until 10:30, about two hours after the first check to do it to see if maybe it would break on it's own before then. Vanessa agreed and continued to labor in the tub.
               
     At 10:25pm, Vanessa asked what time it was. She was so ready to get the baby out and into her arms. The midwife and I encouraged her then to really start listening to her body’s urge to push. She had been doing little involuntary pushes during contractions prior to that, but she was resisting that urge. She said it felt painful to push. I suggested she try really pushing through that pain and to see how it felt. She did and said it actually felt better. She continued to work hard on pushing, and it wasn’t long before the midwife could see the baby’s head beginning to come out with the amniotic sac still intact. As the baby’s head began to come out the rest of the way, the bag burst. Vanessa was on hands and knees. The midwife guided the baby’s head out and Jeremy was able to catch the baby as the rest of the body came out. Aulive was handed immediately to Vanessa. Vanessa and Jeremy were so excited to meet her! Vanessa got her dream birth, and she was so amazing doing it!