Ethans Birth

By amandapanda :: Monday September 5th, 2005

Ethans Waterbirth Story Ethan Isaac was born on 4/9/04 at 7:11am weighting 9 pounds and 22 inches long. He is a blessing and such a wonderful child. Here is the birth story: Background to the actual birth was that I had complete placenta previa up until 36 weeks, I ended up in the hospital 2 times for bleeding and preterm labor but it moved to low lying at 36 weeks. I tried my hardest to make Ethan come a little early because he was getting really big and I was afraid that if he was too big that he would put too much pressure on my low lying placenta and cause premature separationa dn hemmorage so 2 weeks before my due date I walkedfor a 3 mile hike on trails through the woods at Radnor Lake and also 4 days before my due date it was the SAME thing, 3 mile hike through the woods at radnor lake, NOTHING worked, he wanted to come when HE wanted to come. I went into labor at about 11:45pm on April 8th but contractions didn’t start to really pick up until about 3:45am, that is when I called my midwife and asked her to come over to the house. Between that time I just spent it cleaning the house and getting things in order. At 4:45am my water broke and I decided it was time to fill the birth pool up with water so PJ and I started to fill it and as soon as it was about halfway full I got in, that was HEAVEN!. At about 5:15am my midwife, her assistant, and the photographer Sam showed up. At this point I was having hard contractions but they were very manageable and even though I had to stop and concentrate, in between we were all just in there laughing and talking. Sam, the photographer, pretty much stayed out of the way and made himself unnoticeable, I actually never introduced myself until AFTER the birth lol. Contractions slowly intensified for the next hour and a half. At about 6:15 I felt the need to start vocalizing through contractions. I took deep breaths and moaned through them. At about 6:30 I hit transition really really hard. I was no longer just vocalizing but pretty much yelling. From 6:50am until 7:00am it was one big contraction. I would hit peak and only come down a little over half way then peak again making me think why in the world I ever wanted to do this. I knew at this point though that he was pushing past the last part of my cervix and it was only a matter of minutes until I was pushing. At 7:08am I felt the incredible urge to push. I didn’t want to sit anymore so I got up on my knees (almost like a squatting position but on my knees instead of feet) making sure my lower half of my body stayed under water. The contractions were so hard they were pushing him out on their own, He was coming so fast. After about the 2nd contractions I felt his head coming halfway out. At this point my midwife thought she would need to work his shoulders out because he was so big but with the next contractions I felt his head slip out and I knew to make sure not to push and I put my hand onto his neck and felt the cord wrapped around the neck and just then Kathy (the midwife) unwrapped the cord and as soon as that was done I pushed his body. It was so amazing. He slipped into the water and I immediately picked him up and put him on my chest. At this point they noticed lots of blood in the water (you all know that you are not supposed to get bloody until after the placenta comes out) so they quickly but calmly gave me a shot of pitocin to stop my bleeding. It is believed that since my placenta was still a little low that the bottom part of it separated during pushing causing me to bleed. After this point I got out of the tub and onto the bed and exactly 4 minutes after I gave birth to Ethan my placenta came out. I was still bleeding a little too much so they gave me a pill (cannot remember what it is called) that is supposed to make my lower part of the uterus contract and stop the bleeding. The bleeding slowed down lots after that and I feel great. Jennifer (the assistant midwife) immediately went and made us breakfast, eggs and toast.