Full Circle Midwifery

Tyven Marcel Knudsen 12/04/2015

Tyven’s birth story starts the same way as my previous two, with a few nights of false alarms. Playing the game of “when do I call the midwife?”. But, as with all three of my previous births, it became obvious quite quickly when I was actually in labor. I woke up to use the bathroom around 4:00 a. m. and began having regular contractions about 8 to 10 minutes apart. After about an hour of this I climbed out of bed again to use the bathroom, which was fortunately close at hand, as I had a VERY hard time getting back to my bed afterward. Apparently, standing up was the key to moving this labor from mild, to wild.

I  was contracting almost nonstop, at least, it felt that way. So we made the call. I realized at the rate this was moving I had better get into the position I wanted to birth in, I would not be moving for a while. The first to arrive was Rachel, who was part of the team so she could take midwifery experience back into the mission field, (wicked awesome). She probably asked me some questions…I may have answered. What I remember is by the time she got there, I was starting to feel pushy. Barb Olson came next, before my water broke, I think. I was just concentrating on breathing steadily and keeping my hands relaxed. It was somewhat difficult, because I was on hands and knees. My poor husband kept trying to be helpful, but really had nothing he had to do. Sorry hun!

I was relieved when my water finally did break, but whoa! what a hilarious mess. My previous birth was in water, so amniotic fluid was not real noticeable. Before that, I was on the floor surrounded by blue pads, and it didn’t break until the last second. And before that, it was a slow leaker. So this was kind of a first. I’m pretty sure the waterfall I imagined was not really as bad as it turned out to be. The bed had been prepared ahead of time for the birth, so nothing was lost, it was just REALLY wet. Anyway, I felt like I could finally get this watermelon out. I focused very intently on letting my breath out s l o w l y while he crowned, and just let him slide out without really clamping down. It worked well, I highly recommend it. Waiting for the placenta was actually more annoying. By then I was on my back, trying to enjoy my new baby!

This baby boy came out, ate a bit, snuggled a bit, let Barb examine and weigh him, and cried not once his whole first day of life. Patrice did finally make it, post baby, pre placenta, I think. Good thing she has a team! Start to finish Tyven’s labor was 2 ½ hours. Intense, but not scary. My warmest thanks to Patrice and the team at Full Circle Midwifery for attending my fourth wonderful home birth!

-Autumn Knudsen