Evelyn Grace was born at home via an HBAC (home birth after cesarean), and it was a WILD ride. I wish I had Liam do a better job of keeping track of time, but obviously he had bigger things to focus on. So time stamps are VERY rough speculations based on the photos we have.
May 28, a day after her due date, I started having early labor contractions at 2am. They only lasted about 30 seconds, but were coming every 3-5 minutes very consistently.
My mom came and got Miles around 11:30am. I tried to rest as best as I could, but with the contractions coming so close together it was difficult. Around 2:00pm I got in the bathtub, and stayed there until my doula and midwife showed up around 3:45/4:00pm. Based on the sounds I was making they decided to go ahead and fill up the birthing tub, which I got in a little before 5:00pm.
Things were getting very intense, and I started to hit that “I don’t think I can do this” phase. I decided to let my midwife check me and I was 9.5 cm, so she confirmed I was in transition. This is where things got wild. Typically transition (the hardest part of labor) lasts about 15min-60min - mine lasted HOURS.
My water wasn’t breaking (which ironically is what I wanted…thank you Vitamin C lol). However, they discovered she was in an OP position so that on top of the barrier of the water sack was making it very difficult for her to descend, and was causing lots of back labor. I got into a ton of different positions, and finally my water did rupture. And then, with my permission, my midwife went back in at one point to fully break it.
However, we were still dealing with an OP baby. Babies can be born OP, but it can take extra long, be extra difficult, and cause lots of back pain/pressure - all of which I was experiencing.
I had been pushing in the pool, but because of the OP position they wanted to get me out and on the Rebozo for some gravity work. We did this for a bit, and then they decided to put me in bed in a side lying position and have me rest (as best as I could) in order to avoid maternal exhaustion. I was doing lots of horsey lips and only pushing if I felt the unbearable urge to, which was happening at the tail end of every contraction.
I finally had enough and let my midwife help manually rotate her. This worked, and made contractions a little more bearable - it took a ton of the pressure off my back. However, she rotated back at some point.
Finally, we decided to start trying some guided pushing. Before labor I wouldn’t have wanted this, but man did it really help. I’m not sure exactly when this started, but somewhere around 10pm. I guided pushed for a hot minute, and then she finally rotated again on her own and I was able to push her out on my own at 11:30pm.
At one point I truly thought I may be the first woman in history to not have her baby come out and just stay in labor forever. Lol! It was definitely not for the faint hearted, but when she came out...talk about an incredible experience!
My blood pressure remained normal the entire time (I had pre-eclampsia and postpartum pre-eclampsia with my first), and I had very minimal bleeding afterwards. I had zero external tears or stitches, but did need a little inside work done. Her chord clamping was delayed for an hour, and she was able to breastfeed almost immediately.
It was truly a night and day difference in care from my last birth. All thanks to my incredible birthing team - who if you’re reading this I’m SURE I botched so much of the story, but I was in la la labor land extreme.
After debriefing with my midwife at my two day in-home follow up, she told me (which I suspected) had I been in a hospital they absolutely would have called it and pushed for a repeat c-section saying my pelvis just isn’t shaped right to push out a baby. I am so thankful for a team who believed in me and trusted in my body!
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