Full Circle Midwifery

The days leading up to my sons birth were filled with “false labor”. Every night as soon as I laid down, I would have contractions start and they would last all night, some I could sleep through some not. Some woke me up they were so strong. They were consistent and each night I thought I would be going into active labor as the morning came. When morning came, the contractions would dissipate. Then one night, as I’m sleeping through contractions, more like in the first stage of sleep where I’m sleeping but also being conscious of my body and what’s going on there, I keep dreaming of this ball of energy, about the size of a softball 🥎. It kept creeping into my mind and I was not getting the needed rest. When I awoke in the morning I was like a zombie. Tired. Weak, ready to be done with pregnancy. My due date was the following day, and I remember thinking, boy I better not have this baby today, I need sleep!! We werent sure what was going on, were those contractions being productive? So we scheduled with Patrice and had an appt that night, we decided not to do a cervix check as to not interrupt the natural process nor instigate labor so we could get some sleep. As we left Barb said, “see ya in a few hours!” HAH!!My husband and I got home from our appt relaxed for a few minutes then crawled into bed. Just then I felt the baby kick and hit that thing he’s been hitting which gives a noise/feeling of tendon going over a knuckle or something. Then I thought “was that ‘The Pop’ of my water breaking?” So I pushed a little and felt a little liquid. Got up and left a trail of fluid and vernix to our bathroom! SO EXCITING!!! Oh my gosh, this moment!🥰💜😆😆 this was it!! So I texted and we waited for contractions to start. First one came, then the second one came 8min later, then the 3rd 2 minutes later, the 4th contraction 1 min 50sec later, the 5th 1min 40sec 6th 1:36. I get in the bath to slow things down a bit so Dorothy can arrive, and getting in the bath did just that! (LISTEN TO YOUR BODY AND INTUITION.) Barb gets there and I’m so thankful to see her face, then shortly after Dorothy arrived ( Patrice had just broken her foot) After about 20mins I’m really uncomfortable and want to get on the bed to birth instead, so I go from sitting back to leaning forward to get on my hands and knees but there’s another contraction coming so I know I’ll have to wait one more before we can transition out of the tub. My belly hit the water in the hands and knees position and OH MY GOSH HEAVEN!! 

Then…. remember that little ball of energy I was talking about, here it was! That same feeling I had in my ‘dream’ drops down between my legs and my body is pushing. I wasn’t pushing, my body was pushing and I was just along for the ride! Two things came to mind, it was as if I got kicked in the stomach and my body naturally reacted with contracting my abdominal muscles, and the other thought was (gross alert) how this felt a lot like when you have eaten something bad and your body is forcefully ejecting it from your hind side. Idk if anyone else knows what I’m talking about but it’s natural and you really have no control. So there I am, my son dropped quickly and my body is ejecting him. I remember thinking, what if “i” push and I tried pushing for a second, it hurt when I did it. So I sat the and let my body do its thing. It pushed that ball of energy right through my body and out of me! It was a such a spiritual moment, I was physically there but my mind was with that energy. He was out in just a few contractions. When he came out I was so confused because he looked like a black baby from all the bruising, (fast descent) but I didn’t know that at the time. I was kind of chuckling on the inside because I’m sure my husband was like, “wait, what?” 🤣 good thing he looks just like him! Lol