T's Birth

I had been seeing T all throughout this pregnancy as well as her first pregnancy. A student midwife and I had caught the baby last time. I was looking forward to catching this baby myself! T was kind enough to go into labor during my weekend on call :)

T is an herbalist and does not believe in taking any man-made medicines with the exception of life-saving. Her first labor and birth was done naturally and this one would be the same.

I had just left the hospital to go meet my mother to try and do some christmas shopping when T called me. She told me she had been contracting through the night and the contractions were pretty intense. They were also about every 6 minutes apart now. Her water had broke earlier that morning. I told her it sounded like she needed to come on in.

When she arrived, I was a little nervous because she looked very comfortable, even when having a contraction. She would breathe through the contraction but there were no other signs that she was having one....meaning her body and face were very relaxed. I was thinking that she might be very early in the labor. But I also know that everyone handles pain differently.

We got her settled in her room, got a quick strip of the baby, who looked great. Then we got her in the tub. Her cervix was dilated 5cms at this point! Woohoo! T and I sat in the bathroom for the remainder of her labor. Well, she was in the tub while I sat on a stool beside the tub :) T was amazingly relaxed and seemed to enjoy the tub. We talked about all kinds of things....from family to spirituality! I was worried that I was distracting her from her labor but she assured me that everything was fine. Her contractions eventually began to move closer together, until they were about 2-3 minutes apart. I was really enjoying watching her labor. I was able to tell when she moved into transition...not because she made more noise or anything, just because she stopped talking but still maintained a very relaxed appearance. I could tell that she was becoming more focused and drawing inward. She looked beautiful!

Eventually she told me that she could feel the baby moving down. I rechecked her while she was in the tub...she was 8-9cms now. However, I had a feeling that would be changing quickly. We waited a few more contractions until she felt like she needed to push. I rechecked her to find the baby at +2 station (+3 is crowning) and told her she was definitely ready! We moved her to the bed, where she made herself comfortable. She pushed when she needed to, focusing on her husband, who stood at the bedside. She was absolutely silent. She looked exactly how I would imagine a labor goddess to look :) She pushed with great control for about 6 minutes. She delivered another beautiful baby girl over an intact perineum approximately 2 hours and twenty minutes after arriving!

Congratulations T and I can't wait until the next one!!!!!!!