We had our beautiful son on 12/26/2024. He was born at 1:20 am with 7 lbs 10 oz and 20 inches.

I wanted to thank you so much again! Because of your Mindful Birth course, I changed my OB provider and hospital in the 36th week of my pregnancy. I was with an OB group that didn’t really care about my birth plan. So, I changed to Greenville Midwifery Care. Gladly they took me this late.

About my labor: I started having contractions on 12/24. Very noticeable ones but not regular enough. In the night, I couldn’t sleep anymore around 2am. I had contractions every 5 to 10 minutes and I just stayed in the bathroom the whole night walking. I went in the tub, went in the shower, and did my breathings on my birth ball. I texted my doula, Lindsay Neal, and we both thought we would see each other soon.

As soon as the sun came up, the contractions slowed down and weren’t that accurate anymore. But I still had the whole day of strong contractions. Some 3 minutes apart then 5 then 2 then 8. There was just no pattern.

Flo and I went for walks and took naps as good as the contractions let me.

My doula suggested that I could try the miles circuit around 9pm. And oh wow this kicked in!!

I only came to step two. As soon as I laid down on the left side, my contractions got so strong and I started shaking like crazy. I had to cry and told Flo that I couldn’t handle this one more night. It was totally in the transition phase but I just never thought I could be that far along. Anyway Flo called the doula and we decided to meet at the hospital. We arrived at 11:45 pm. My water broke 40 minutes later and our son was here at 1:20am. Everything was so fast at the end and I had a beautiful water birth. Almost didn’t made it to the tub but well, we wanted to labor as long at home, and we definitely did.

I’m so proud of my body and very thankful for this experience unfiltered without any medications. It was so intense but also so empowering.

We are so in love with our son, Ian, and couldn’t be happier.

[Editorial note: Lea and Florian are in the US from Germany. Birth in a different country brings extra challenges. Finding the right match for birth support is crucial and I’m so proud of them for pursuing the care they deserved]