Preface: I was induced with my first, induced again with my second, and for my third I was bound and determined to go into labor naturally, which I did. For my fourth my desire was to experience an unmedicated birth. Hunter and I took the Mindful Birth childbirth series with Julie (10/10 recommend!) and she filled our minds with peace and knowledge and the belief that I was capable and prepared.

Although I kept hearing recommendations to induce by 39 weeks, I politely refused and at 40 weeks, I took a natural induction cocktail at 7pm, setting my alarm for 1am. If I wasn’t contracting when I woke up I was to take round two of the cocktail.

When I woke up I wasn’t feeling much but couldn’t go back to sleep. I didn’t wake Hunter but decided to do my breathing exercises and stretches that I’d been doing every night for weeks. I walked around the house some and eventually was just sitting in my chair in the dark listening to my birth affirmations when my water broke! It was only at that point that I realized I had actually been in labor that whole time. That was 2:40am.

My contractions immediately intensified and my whole “non-medicated birth” plan went right out the window. I told Hunter we needed to go, and fast, and “I want an epidural, I don’t think I can do this.” I was holding a towel between my legs, walking when I could, and trying to rock and sway and not make too much noise so as to not wake our three children. I vomited at some point. His parents only live half a mile away and by the time they got there I was low moaning (groaning?) loudly through each wave. I went outside to wait for Hunter to get his parents inside and while I was leaning up against the passenger side door, I remember Suellen coming up and talking to me, maybe asking how I was (time and such was a bit blurry) and just moaning and squatting or swaying through a contraction the whole time.

On the ride to the hospital, Prisma Laurens County, I timed my contractions and they were two minutes apart. Thankfully, again, our hospital is not far away. When we arrived, Hunter pulled up to the ER doors but I told him to park, that I would walk in. In between contractions I was calm and felt like anything was possible; during contractions I was ready to throw in the towel and get drugged up. We had to stop once on the way in for a contraction and when we walked in the doors the only person we could see was a security guard. No one was at the desk. The befuddled security guard went searching for someone to help and I remember seeing a housekeeping staff member stop to watch the show; I can only imagine how I looked at this point. At this point it’s about 3:15am.

While I was trying to check in, manage contractions, I remember Hunter repeating “I know her social security number if you need it. I can tell you her social security number.” Our childbirth instructor had impressed upon us how helpful it is for the spouse to be able to answer questions upon arrival and Hunter was doing his very best. About this time a contraction took me to all fours and I thought for a few minutes I was going to deliver a baby right there in the ER. At one point the nurse said something like, “she’s picked a position that works for her, we will just wait.”

Once I felt like it was possible to move we made it upstairs, got in a room, and at that point standing was so painful all I wanted was to get in the bed. I could only lay on my right side, gripping the bed rails for dear life and bury my head against them, growling groaning moaning through the contractions, and begging for an epidural. I’m pretty sure the nurse laughed at me. She had checked me when I got in bed and said we were “ready to go.”

I don’t even know who the OB on call that night was; whoever she was did not deliver my baby. An ER doctor came in at some point. I remember very clearly saying, “I know you all just think I’m pooping but is that not a baby head?!?!” To which the nurse turned from the computer, gave a peek and said, “OH, YEP!” Doctor didn’t even have time to put a gown on and I got to feel my fourth baby slide magically into the world with the next contraction and big, wonderful, relieving push. The relief and the joy and the instant change in my body was miraculous. She was born at 4:07am.

We didn’t know the sex prior to birth but I had a suspicion it was a girl. She was placed on my chest and I was the happiest, most delirious woman alive. The word euphoria comes to mind. The nurse was worried about how purple our girl was but I was blissful and knew she was ok. I don’t know where the doctor went or when. I held our girl while they checked her and tried warming her for a while. Suellen walked by, hurrying to get her camera out to photograph the birth as she had for the other three, and while she was bending over her camera case I said to Hunter, “does she know that we have a baby?!”
Madeleine Jordan came into this world like a freight train. And I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything!