The Most Precious Valentine's Day Gift {A Natural Birth Story}

Written by Kari @ Living Strong Health & Wellness, Contributing Writer

After having my daughter, my first child, in a hospital – I knew I didn’t want to go through that experience again. I knew without a doubt that God did not create His daughters to bring children into the world in the way I had experienced. Although I came home with a beautiful and healthy little girl, the experience left me lacking respect for the medical industry.

Without focusing on all that happened with the birth of my first child, I will say that it made me consider other options for baby #2! This time around I chose to go with a local midwifery/birth center that was absolutely amazing!

Once I began my time at the birth center – it was amazing. Every visit was wonderful, personal and so comforting. The rooms were decorated in beautiful colors and they had hutches with tons of books in each room – such a cozy and inviting feeling. The midwives were wonderful and I can’t say enough about them to show my gratitude!

Fast forward to my 39 week check-up on a Wednesday when I was feeling like my son was going to slide right out any moment. I don’t say that jokingly at all – it truly felt like he would just come out any minute. I walked funny, it felt weird to sit and I could tell it was close. I had my check-up and found out that I was already at 6 cm, 80% effaced and my son was already at a station 1 (which means he only had 2 more stations to go before coming out) – hence me walking funny!

{photo taken from internet back in 2009 – I don’t recall the source}

I wasn’t having any contractions though, but the midwife said he’d be here by the weekend, so I went home excited to know that I would be meeting my baby boy soon – even though I was a week early.

That night I started having mild contractions and those continued for two days. Of course I thought they were pretty intense – not having ever felt them with the birth of my first child. I remember calling my mom and she would tell me that I wasn’t in hard labor. Then I’d call the midwife and she said the same thing. Ugh.

After two days of having contractions every couple minutes, they had me come in to get checked again. I was 6 1/2 cm now and he was getting lower, but nothing was progressing. The decided to sweep my membranes to help this along a bit. The contractions continued and grew more intense and that night I had called the midwife and she suggested I try to naturally start the labor process. The reason was – my body had been having pretty good contractions for two days and she was concerned that by the time I went into hard labor – I wouldn’t physically have the strength in my uterus to contract enough to help my baby out, which would force me to the hospital and possibly an epidural. I didn’t want that.

So – out of all the options, I chose castor oil. This causes the bowels to contract and release as well as the uterus. I took my serving of castor oil around 11:30pm while in a warm bath. About 1/2 hour later – all my contractions stopped.
This was a little frustrating, but decided to get some sleep while I could. I awoke at 5:00am still not having any contractions, called my dad to tell them we still hadn’t gone to the birth center (my parents were watching our daughter) and I laid back down. About 5 minutes later I had electricity shoot through my body and it was like nothing I had ever felt before. This was it.

We headed to the birth center and went into the Aspen Room and worked through my contractions. I was free to walk, sit, squat, lay down – whatever I wanted to do in order to be comfortable. My husband was right by my side being the best comforter I could ask for. At about 7:45am I decided to get in the birthing tub since the contractions were a bit intense and it helped ease the intensity of each contraction. Once I felt a burning, the midwife checked and told me his head was out, so I just needed to push a couple times and he’d be all the way out. I breathed right, mustered up strength and pushed. Nothing. Three times I did this and now I was in pain. I got up a bit to move positions and I came out of the water a bit and I was not allowed to get back in since my baby had breathed oxygen, so they got me out and laid me on the floor.

A couple other midwives who were there heard me expressing my pain (aka screaming) and they both came in, one of them felt my abdomen and gave a big, but gentle push on the side of my stomach. My little guy came out in a flash at 8:19am – about 3 hours and 15 minutes after going into hard labor. She told me his shoulder was stuck in my pelvic bone (he nestled himself snug over the prior week or two), so every time I pushed, I was causing myself pain and putting stress on my baby.
As I laid there feeling a physical relief and thinking how great it felt, I heard the midwife, nurse and my husband conversing and I realized that my baby was not breathing and they had to resuscitate him. We had prayed over my pregnancy and our baby for over 9 months and I knew that I would go home with my healthy little boy, so I had a peace over me knowing that God’s Word would manifest and my son would live and not die.

After 5 pumps of oxygen, I heard the sweetest cry in the world and they placed him on my chest and he immediately started nursing! I remember looking at him with so much love in my heart – I couldn’t contain it. We remained at the birth center for 7 hours while they took care of some concerns with me, but my little guy was thriving at 8lbs 2ozs and already had a love for nursing! Being able to sit in a comfy bed surrounded by pine furniture on a snowy Valentine’s Day holding my newborn was an amazing feeling!

God was with us throughout the entire process and He brought peace, comfort, grace and life to my husband, me and my child. I’m forever grateful that I brought home my little boy with big blue eyes and am happy to say he celebrated his 5th birthday a couple weeks ago on Valentine’s Day! The most precious valentine’s gift I’ve ever received!