The Free Birth of Everett

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EsViMonday, January 6th 2020

I woke up and it started just like any other day, my 2 year old and 3 year old needed breakfast, RV needed cleaning, husband needed breakfast and coffee before work; just the usual weekday routine, except that I had been having prodromal labor for the last 6 weeks and today was no better. By lunch time I noticed the contractions were almost around 30-40 min apart but today they felt real! All day that day they stayed the same length apart but were noticeably stronger than any of the other previous days. That night, I woke up every 30 minutes with strong contractions that got me up and walking around and sitting on the exercise ball to ease them.

Tuesday, January 7th

After waking up all throughout the night with those pesky contractions, I was tired and exhausted but our normal weekday routine needed to be kept. After I got my husband off to work and the kids fed breakfast, I rotated between sitting on the ball, doing stretches, and resting on the couch. By lunch time my contractions were only 20 minutes apart but the pain wasn’t unbearable so we ate lunch and the kids and I went for a nice 2 mile walk since it was so sunny and beautiful outside.

By dinner time, around 5:30 PM, my contractions were 15 minutes apart and were definitely getting stronger and I did not feel like eating dinner so I skipped out. I got the kids to bed and then headed to the shower house to take a hot shower and relax. Since we live in an RV, we walk to a building that has shower rooms and a laundry room. After a very long hot shower, I went back and sat on the ball and watched TV with my husband for a few hours. At one point I started craving oatmeal so I fixed myself a bowl and scarfed it down. Note to self: labor does not stop pregnancy cravings!

The clock rolls around to 11 PM and my contractions are 5 minutes apart and too painful to sleep so I send my husband to bed and I stay up. I didn’t see much point in keeping my husband awake when I prefer to deal with pain in quiet and on my own. I always find it much easier to focus and relax this way. While my sweetheart slept, I walked the floor and sat on the ball to relieve pain. The feeling of contractions is like no other feeling. It’s like an ocean wave; it slowly builds up as it rolls along and then slowly fades out. Throughout each rolling pain, I close my eyes and breath in a soothing rhythmic fashion, moaning deeply on the breaths out to help relax my muscles.

Wednesday, January 8th

3 AM comes around as my contractions get closer and are averaging 2-3 min apart. They are more difficult to handle and just like any labor, I needed to use the bathroom! Once I sat on the toilet, I had no idea that I would not be getting back up until my baby started coming out. I moaned and rocked back and forth with every earth shaking contraction. At this point, my husband could not stay asleep because I was being a bit loud but he stayed in bed and rested until I finally called him over.

I felt my body pushing and bearing down on it’s own. It was something I could not control. My uterine muscles had pulled up as far as it could go and was ready to push the baby out! It is such a strange feeling when your body is doing something that you have no control over. In a way it made me feel helpless since I couldn’t stop it. After that first push, I told my husband to bring some towels and lay them in the floor in front of the toilet. I was in too much pain to move any farther than just off the toilet. He laid them on the floor and brought me a pillow to lean on which helped a lot! I only pushed maybe 4 or 5 times but it definitely felt like forever.

With each push that my body did, I leaned into the pillow and bit down on it and tried my hardest not to scream. I went back and forth from hands and knees to sitting on my knees and using the door frame to hold onto. I could feel my baby making its way through the birth canal and it was such a new feeling both physically and emotionally. I kept telling myself “just one step closer”, “Just one push closer”, “this pain is not for nothing, it will bring me my baby”. Telling myself these things truly did help. Throughout this process, my husband was behind me rubbing my back and reassuring me it is all ok. I was shivering and cold and he made sure my blanket didn’t fall off and didn’t get messy even though at this point, my water had not broken yet.

I felt a burning fire! This was the ring of fire that everyone speaks about; my baby was crowning!! I reached down and felt my baby’s head still inside the water sac and then seconds later it burst which relieved some pressure. I looked down and could see my baby’s head coming through. I kept telling myself that I’m almost there and my baby is almost here. My body pushed again and this time with an agonizing scream! I couldn’t help but worry about the kids waking up but surprisingly enough they didn’t. My baby’s head came through and boy did that feel great! My husband was excited and was getting ready to catch the baby. With one more painful push, my body ejected the rest of our baby out in a slippery plop into the hands of my husband.

4:50 AM and it was such sweet relief to feel empty. I looked back to see my husband holding out baby and smiling the biggest smile I had ever seen on him. He looked at me and said “it’s a boy!” He finally got his first boy and he couldn’t be happier. He passed our slipper baby to me and I sat there on the floor with trembling muscles and my brand new precious baby. I sent my husband next door to get our neighbor, who is an experienced free birther. She came over and they helped me get up and sit back on the toilet so we could clean up.

Right as I sat down, the placenta just plopped right out with ease. We tied off the cord after it turned completely white and then cuddled up in bed to rest and rehydrate.

My husband and I are so thankful that we had decided to downsize and move into an RV. It gave us the opportunity to live closer to families who believe the same as we do, including beliefs in free birth, and I believe living small has brought our small family even closer together (not just physically closer haha). Birthing at home with just the two of us has also helped our faith and trust in Yahweh. He built our bodies to naturally know how to grow, birth, and nurture our precious babies.