Lucas was born by water birth with the help of CNM Brittany Hall from Greenville Midwifery – Easley location. We had never met.

The week before Christmas I started to feel very mild period cramps that came and went a day here and there for about two weeks. Then on January 7th around 11 pm I began noticing contractions that had an obvious start and stop. These continued all day Sunday & Monday and into Tuesday  early morning where they were averaging about 2-4 minutes apart. But then they spaced back out to 15 minutes apart. We called our doula, Lindsay Hughes – she suggested we get some rest because I had been awake since Sunday night at midnight with no relief.

The sporadic contraction pattern made us all really unsure if I was having false labor or if this was just early labor taking a long time. 8 am Tuesday morning I tried to go back to sleep, but the contractions when they came were unbearable while in the bed laying down. I got in the bathtub and I noticed what I had seen the day before – a real change in what felt like his position in the uterus. I began freaking out that he had moved from vertex to transverse. I told my doula and we wondered if that was why my contractions were so all over the place.

I contacted GMC and around 1 p.m. headed to the hospital for the midwife on call to do a scan to confirm vertex or not. He was – but he was OP. She also did a cervical exam, but I requested not to know where I was because I didn’t want it to mess with my mental space. She also knew how committed I was to an unmedicated vaginal delivery and she wanted to make sure we weren’t put on the hospital time clock. We made a plan & she sent us back home to labor some more. I was still hungry at this point so we got a smoothie on the way home. The midwife called Michael and told him how dilated I was and Michael had a great poker face. He let nothing on.

Once arriving home around 3:15 pm I continued laboring leaning over my birth ball or standing leaning/pushing down on something. Brittany wanted us to do the miles circuit but I just absolutely could not. The pain was too much. Our doula suggested we try sifting. So Michael sifted my belly for who knows – 30 minutes to an hour. At one point I thought I was going to vomit and asked for a trash can but none ever came.

I kept telling Michael I wasn’t coping well and that this was miserable. I asked him multiple times to make it stop and told them that when we got back to the hospital I was going to give up and get an epidural- I couldn’t take it anymore. He told me he supported my decisions but until I used our code word for epidural he wouldn’t let them give me one. I continued to say “I’m going to get an epidural”. At some point I felt like my bladder was full so I made my way to the bathroom- when I pulled down my underwear there was blood. And more blood came. I tried to leave the bathroom but contractions kept coming and I could only stand and lean on the sink… maybe 3 contractions after using the bathroom I felt a trickle down my leg and saw some drops of water on the floor and knew my water broke. Michael called the midwife and our doula – they heard me roaring and were debating about whether we should wait a while longer or leave for the hospital. Then I told Michael I felt pushy and if he didn’t want to have that baby at home maybe we should leave.

We left home at 5:20 and arrived around 5:35 to the hospital. I was roaring as I tried to walk to the front entrance and a staff person asked if I wanted i wheelchair to which I responded “it sure would be faster than me walking” – they rushed us inside and up to OB triage where I was an immediate admission. They got me in my room and began to fill up the birth tub. They did monitoring and all was okay so Brittany checked me at 6:15ish and asked if I wanted to know how dilated I was. I told her “only if it’s good” and she said mama you are at a 9cm +2! Let’s get in that tub. – side note: when we went for the scan at 2 pm I was between 4/5 -1.

Around 7:20 I was complete and at 7:56 I pushed Lucas out!!! Michael helped catch him. It was the most painful thing I have ever done in my life and I honestly am shocked that I actually had the natural water birth that I wanted. I kept telling them I wasn’t coping well – and so many of the comfort measures that I had planned to use never even came out of their bag. Looking back on the moments at home I wanted to give up, I’m think duh you were in transition. Julie taught you this. But I’m the moment I thought I would die if I didn’t get relief soon.

Mostly everything went according to my birth plan, and the few things that didn’t (pushing in a reclined position and with coached pushing) were offered to me with my choice to accept or not and ended up being exactly what I needed to birth my baby.

Brittany Hall was a great midwife – I felt extremely supported and heard and respected during the whole process. They honored my choices – like when they wanted to clamp the cord at 4 minutes, I asked if we could wait until 10 and they said yes.

Michael was a great support partner, which I had no doubt about, but many things he did he heard in our birthing class. We really think that class made all the difference!