It was only a few days after her 40 week date, and she had been experiencing contractions all night. They were inconsistent and she didn’t think they were intense enough to pay attention to. So she was laying in bed trying to rest, and then she suddenly felt wetness.
Her waters had ruptured every so gently. Now she would pay more attention to these contractions.
An hour later the rhythm of her birth dance had taken hold and was now demanding her focus.
The waves were coming every five minutes and lasting about a minute long.
She needed to breathe, and she preferred to move through them.
30 minutes later she updated her Doula about these contractions and said “I did not like my last one!”
It was time. Time for me to go to her, or time for us all to go to the Birth Centre?
We weren’t sure but knew that by the time I was on my way to her, we would know.
Twenty minutes later she messaged that she had woken up her husband and he felt it was time to go and she was feeling she wouldn’t want to be home anymore if the labour got more intense.
So we went!
Two and a half hours after that gentle start, we were walking into the Birth Centre.
The Midwife on call for her was recovering from an injury, and so an alternate Midwife was there, waiting for us. She had already started prepping the birthing room and was able to just be present while we settled in, giving this Birther a bit of time to become comfortable with her.
But not too much time because it was obvious that this birth journey was well under way.
She was swaying and moving and squatting and breathing with intuitive grace.
25 minutes of this and the Midwife suggested it might be good to check her cervix just so that she could calculate when to call for the second Midwife to come for delivery.
The cervix was stretchy and 6-7 cm at rest.
The Midwife made her calls and this Birther went back to the ladder rungs she had been hanging off of and we could see her squats getting deeper and deeper, as did her focus.
Soon she was so fully in tune with the waves of contractions, it was almost as if she was in a trance.
I was supporting her with counter pressure and touch, while her husband was right by her side offering water, ice and most importantly his hand for her to grasp. As centred as she was, this was a powerful and intense path she was moving through.
Less than half an hour later she slipped into the tub. At first she wasn’t sure she liked it, she had gotten into a rhythm and this felt different. She wanted to stand and squat. And then she found her way, and the water helped her move through the increasing intensity.
There was such peacefulness and calm in the room that it almost surprised us when 30 minutes later she told us she was feeling so much pressure. Already?
We kept encouraging her to breathe, the whole room was breathing with her.
Then her body was pushing her baby down with focused intensity.
She couldn’t stop it, she didn’t want to.
She was so ready to meet her second baby.
Leaning forward on her knees, moving with her body’s reflexes, and suddenly after only ten minutes of responding to her body’s reflexive urges, this baby’s head was out!
She glided into a reclining position, still in the tub, before the next contraction, and her Midwife caught baby as she slid out.
She scooped her up and held her close. Their daughter was born.
We had been there for an hour and 43 minutes.
The gentlest of births from start to finish.
