Hailey Auve

Birth Story of Lilee

I was 41 weeks and 3 days pregnant, and I had tried everything to get her out naturally. I spent my time trying to stay busy by making an entire Thanksgiving feast in October and about 12 dozen gingerbread men. Then one stormy morning my water broke and woke me up. I remember it just kept gushing while we stared at it before I eventually said "Maaaaybe we should get a towel." We laughed and were excited this journey was finally beginning. Granted we also took castor oil the night before. 

I told my mother-in-law and my mom to go ahead and come over. Then we went to take a bath and call the midwife. She said, "oh it will probably be 5-6 hours before things pick up". Well, we called her back in two hours with rip-roaring contractions 5 minutes apart. She arrived about an hour later and around four hours I was fully dilated with 2 min apart contractions. I had really bad back labor because my daughter was OP or facing her back to my back. I was getting counter-pressure for each contraction from my husband and mother-in-law. My mom couldn't physically push hard enough to help, that is how hard everyone had to do the counter-pressure I needed. 

Well despite all the hard work my body did to quickly prepare and be ready for birth, my daughter had another idea. She was essentially stuck on my hip and wouldn't go down. She was in there holding on for dear life. The midwife had me doing various positions through contractions, which were all horrible, especially the ones I couldn't get counter pressure for. Eventually, she told me, "This is the last one we can try, but usually, it works." Sure enough, that last one finally worked, and 10 hours after I was fully dilated, we had our daughter. 

The only problem with birthing her was that I didn't. I pushed and got her low enough to feel it start burning, then between contractions, she jumped out of me like a rocket with no push and almost hit the side of the birthtub. This, unfortunately, took away all opportunity to stretch, and I tore in five places all 2nd degree. I laugh at this story so much now, but I always tell clients who are worried about pain with tearing that I tore that much and then went on to say, "I don't even think I tore" to my midwife. My naive self had so much confidence in that sentence, too.

Well, all fine and dandy up till now. My placenta didn't deliver for over an hour until she finally had me stand up and push. Meantime, I had been bleeding in the water a wonderful amount that no one was paying attention to. Eventually, a few hours later, I got out of the tub with the help of 3 people because I was so dizzy. I went to the bed and laid down shivering with four blankets on me and a bucket below me for nausea. My husband spoon-fed me some fried rice and black beans, and eventually, I got stitches for an hour and a half, and then everyone went home. 

I remained dizzy and drained for almost three weeks. I never got IV fluids or was even told I hemorrhaged until the midwife for my second looked over my chart from my first and told me. I lost a lot of blood and was severely anemic, to begin with. I couldn't bathe, dress myself, or care for my new baby for almost three weeks due to dizziness. 

I dressed myself for the first time postpartum, around two weeks, and it took me 30 minutes because I had to do one item at a time and then rest. Then I went to hold my daughter, and she needed to be changed, so I began to change my first diaper. She farted, and I thought how cute of a little toot, then she explosive pooped all over my outfit. I laugh now but didn't then. 

Birth Story of Jerry IV

My son was a completely different experience. He was born at 41 weeks along and 1 day, and I had tried all the things to get him out. I had walked 4 miles pushing my daughter in a stroller and all the other natural induction methods in one day. That evening my back hurt and I couldn't sleep. I thought I had just overdone it with all the natural induction methods and had no contractions. I called my midwife just telling her about the backache and that I was going to take a bath. I felt much better after the bath and remember right as I sighed finally laying down and relaxed, I had a huge contraction. Then quickly I had another and another and began to time them. I began with 3-minute apart hard contractions and called the midwife to come. 

By the fifth contraction, I was on my hands and knees already, just hurdling through super intense labor. My water broke about 30 minutes later when my husband was starting to freak out that he was going to catch a baby. The midwife stayed on the phone with me and told me to side-lay to slow contractions. The midwife arrived about an hour and 15 minutes after the first contraction. I asked her if I could get in the tub, hopped up faster than ever, and ran across the room into the tub. Then I had two more contractions with pushing, and my son had arrived. 

This was a very fast labor, so it felt like being hit by a train on and off for an hour. I have to say I preferred this experience over my daughter's birth by far. My bleeding was minimal, tearing minimal, and I was up a few hours later walking by myself to and from the bathroom, enjoying postpartum and my son. 

I am happy I personally got to experience a miscarriage, a longer back labor experience with a hard recovery, and a smooth "Butter Birth," as we call them. I also had my fair share of interesting breastfeeding experiences as well through my two children. All of these experiences helped to create a wide perspective for midwifery. I got to experience not-so-great midwifery care and how it affected the patient, and I got to experience amazing midwifery care and the difference it makes. All of these things happened how they were supposed to for help in my journey to become a well-rounded midwife.