Emily’s Birth Story: “Birth is something that really pushes you to the end of yourself”

Andaluz client Emily shares the encouraging, positive story of her second birth. Below are Emily’s words:

Friday morning I woke up and I could tell things were different. I told a few people that I thought this weekend would be it. Ben went into work like normal and I went about my day as normal. As the day went on I was having regular contractions around 6-8 min apart but not overly painful. I was able to put Ezra down for a nap and sleep for a couple hours as well.

My contractions became more painful in the early afternoon only to slow down around dinner time to every 15-20 minutes. Just in time for us to have a nice homemade dinner with my brother in-law. We put Ezra to sleep and I ended up being close behind, trying to conserve my energy just in case. I prayed that God would give me rest to sustain me through whatever would potentially come.

I was waking up at least once an hour to my contractions and by 2:30 in the morning they were painful enough I couldn’t stay in bed. I got up and started pacing our living room while timing my contractions before calling my midwife.

After about 30min I woke up Ben and told him I was calling my midwife. We went over things and decided to meet at the birthing center at 4am. That gave us enough time to put everything in the car, make sure Ezra was looked after by a family member and drive into Portland. I will say, driving over the bumpy Portland roads mid contraction was not an enjoyable experience.

We arrived at the birthing center just after 4am to my birth team greeting us and bringing us into the same room I had birthed Ezra in. The lights were dimmed, the gorgeous birthing tub was filling up and there were candles lit around the room.

We settled in and once we were comfortable and I had changed into the birthing robe I had brought with me, they checked my vitals. At that point I asked to have them check how dilated I was. I wasn’t overly optimistic since it took so long for me to dilate with my first. So when Megan said I was 7cm I was absolutely overjoyed.

After that they left me and Ben alone for a while and I moved between laboring on the edge of the bed and in the tub. At that point I started feeling very overheated and exhausted. That’s when I really started praying for God to give me strength.

To conserve my energy and get off my shaking legs I ended up laying in the bed on my side with Ben rubbing my back. Then my best friend McKenna arrived to help at 6:15am. She jumped right in getting me cold compresses for my forehead and holding my hand during contractions. About 10 minutes after that my water broke and I began pushing soon after.

Because I wasn’t progressing on my hands and knees, my wonderful midwife suggested I try the birth stool to get things moving in the right direction. Ben sat right behind me on the bed holding my hands and McKenna kept switching out the cold rags since I still felt incredibly warm.

After what seemed like a long while I finally was making progress thanks to a lot of coaching from my midwife. At that point to help reserve my energy she suggested moving back to the bed or to the birthing tub. It seemed a lot less daunting to move back to the bed and so I got back up and everything went really quickly from there.

I felt her crowning and after a few large pushes she was born. She made her appearance at 7:44am weighing 7lbs 12oz and measuring 21” long. Holding her in my arms immediately after was one of the best moments of my life.

Birth is something that really pushes you to the end of yourself. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done and there is no quitting. There is no way around it. I’m so thankful to God for giving me the strength to overcome the difficulty. Praying for strength and remembering that he created me to be able to do this is the thing that kept me going and helped me to get through the hardest moments.

I’m also so thankful for my incredible birth team that supported me through the whole process before, during, and after. It is no small thing to go through. I never thought I would have such a positive experience giving birth. Especially in having a fully unmedicated birth. It really changed my perspective on how birth could be and how much I can overcome.