Clairen’s Birth Story: “Baby was coming fast so I focused on deep breathing during each contraction”
Andaluz client Clairen shares the story of her son’s birthday, a castor oil induction followed by a fast delivery:
41 weeks and 5 days. We had done every natural/gentle way to get my body to get labor started (soooo many dates - if you know, you know). So we decided to try castor oil. Castor oil starts sounding reasonable when you can’t tie your own shoes, are in constant pain, are still throwing up from nausea, and keep falling from your hips dislocating.
Under the direction of midwives, I took it. Within 15 minutes a real contraction hit, and I knew this was it! It was 3:45 in the afternoon on Tuesday, the 24th of May. I know you don’t necessarily have control over how long your labor is, but I know some things can help keep it going, so I stayed on my feet washing dishes and doing laundry. We called my mom to come pick up our 2-year-old. As I watched his little face disappear around the street corner, all the emotions began to roll in. I cried for a minute, knowing the next time I’d see him, he’d be a big brother and that a sweet season was coming to a close. I cried for the work immediately in front of me, and the postpartum season was around the corner. Too many feels.
After three hours of housework, my feet were hurting, so we got out the birth ball. Contractions really slowed down as soon as I sat down, so I took 2 more ounces of castor oil to keep it going. We also called our doula at this point to keep her in the loop. We agreed she could wait a while because it felt too early and I was doing well.
We turned on a movie, and though the contractions were no more than 45 seconds long, they began to get intense. So much so that I needed to stand, sway, and have my husband Paul help me breathe and count through them. They were also getting close together (3ish minutes apart). Also, the noises from the movie annoyed me.
We called the midwife again, and she said to come in. And we agreed to meet at the birth center at 9pm. In the 40 minutes it took us to get there, I had nine contractions in the car. That was truly the worst part.
As we crossed the Ross Island bridge, my body began to shake, and I knew I was in transition. I told Paul this, which made him think I was going to push now. Poor man.
We got to the birth center at 8:45pm, and since we got there early, it wasn’t opened yet. I couldn’t stand sitting anymore so I got out of the car and had two transitioning contractions on the sidewalk, at night, in downtown Portland.
One of the midwives arrived a few minutes before 9pm and let us in. She turned on the tub in case I wanted to get in. The rest happened so fast. The other midwives arrived, and as soon as the business of last-minute prepping seemed to cease, the first pushing contraction hit.
My bag of water exploded as I stood in the middle of the room. Realizing I wasn’t having the baby on the bed or in the tub, the midwives quickly mobilized things. I “pushed” for a total of seven minutes. I put that in quotes because I didn’t actively engage with the pushing contractions. The baby was coming fast so I focused on deep breathing during each contraction. Then in a moment, he was here. I was on my knees on the floor and the midwife handed him to me. After a check to ensure baby and I were good, we moved to the bed, and then our doula ran in. The look of shock on her face was priceless.
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