The Birth Of Isla

Isla (pronounced eye-la)

Born March 19, 2023 at 12:14pm

7 pounds, 20 inches long

The Story

At 40 weeks and two days of pregnancy, I was awakened at 3am with painful lower back pain. It felt like indigestion pains so I assumed it as such and tried to go back to sleep. The pains kept coming consistently and closely at about 2-3 minutes apart and for 40 seconds in length. I realized I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. I got up in hopes that my body would clear out quicker. I went to the bathroom and swayed with each contraction.

An hour later, I began to realize that I am probably having labor contractions. I felt discouraged by the pain of the contractions in my lower back. I had back labor with my first baby, but those were intense. These were painful.

The contractions grew closer together to about 1-2 minutes apart. I got my exercise ball and labored a bit on the ball. I noticed it was decreasing the intensity of the contractions so I got off of it in hopes of speeding up the process.

I felt hungry but didn’t want anything heavy so I ate a few mandarins. I kept having hot flashes.

Around 4am, I KNEW I was in labor. I had a bowel movement. Through each contraction, I continued to sway and vigorously rub my back with both of my hands to ease the pain of back labor. My contractions continued to lengthen. I texted my sister to tell her I was definitely in labor. I felt disappointed for staying up late and only getting an hour of sleep.

At 4:30am, my daughter woke up and wanted to nurse to fall back asleep. I nursed her through one contraction and then attempted to nurse her through another, but it was so painful that I couldn’t. I asked her to wait through the contractions, but she grew frustrated and began to cry. I woke my husband up, told him I’m in labor, and asked him to turn something on for her because she refused to fall back asleep without nursing.

I labored in the living room for an hour or two. I craved darkness and seclusion but my daughter cried when I would leave her sight.

At 7am, I peed, wiped, and noticed that the toilet paper was tinged with light pink. At this point, my daughter was calm and I was able to move to the bathroom to labor in privacy. I like to labor alone, without anyone touching or talking to me.

At 7:30am, I began to vocalize through each contraction to cope with the intensity. I continued to labor, and the contractions stayed at the same consistency and length, just increasing in intensity. I was holding off getting into the shower/bathtub for as long as possible because it was the only relief I had available so I didn’t want to get in too soon.

At 10am, I decided to get into the bathtub. The water felt amazing. My contractions slowed down so I could rest. During each contraction, I had to get out of the water to sway and vigorously rub my lower back because it was too painful to sit or lay in the water through them. In between each contraction, I slept. I had about 5 contractions in the half hour that I was in the bathtub.

At 10:30am, I decided to get out because I was too uncomfortable in the water. This is when things became really confusing to me. My contractions shortened in length and eased up in intensity. I didn’t need to vocalize anymore through them. My husband even asked if I was okay because I was quiet. It seemed as if my belly had moved up and wasn’t low anymore. I began to wonder if I had regressed in progress.

I continued to labor quietly. I moved to the bedroom and paced back and forth. I was so annoyed and confused. The process wasn’t making linear sense. I became frustrated from the pain of the contractions. I kept repeating the birth affirmations that came to mind. I prayed. I wished to go to the hospital for relief. I developed an immense understanding of why women request pain relief in hospitals. I was exhausted from only sleeping one hour that night. I doubted my body. I tried changing positions to hands and knees but nothing was comfortable.

At 11:40am, out of surrender, exhaustion and frustration, I lied down flat on my back on the edge of the bed to rest for a minute after a contraction. Then I moved onto the floor onto my hands and knees, swaying dramatically back and forth.

Immediately, my body pushed twice. It was so powerful and I yelled deeply with each push. It felt GOOD.

I felt wetness in my vaginal area, reached down and swiped, and saw bright red blood. Confused, I checked inside of my vagina with my finger and felt nothing inside. My finger was covered in blood. I texted my concerns to a friend who is a traditional midwife. She encouraged me to listen to my body.

My body continued to contract without pushing. My baby still felt very high up. I checked my vagina twice. When checking the third time, I felt the bag of waters at the tip of my finger.

I had another contraction and my body pushed again. My waters opened and poured out onto the chux pads under me. I noticed that my waters were lightly stained with meconium.

I had 2-3 contractions and pushed 6-8 times.

I stood up at some point in between the contractions but squatted as my body pushed. I yelled to my husband that the baby is coming. He and my daughter came to the bedroom.

I pushed and felt my baby’s head crowning. I was surprised because I expected her to be breech. My mind told me to stop pushing, but all of the sensations were so intense so I pushed as hard as I could with my body. I felt her head came out, along with a nuchal hand, all in one contraction. I saw her head turn and without waiting for a contraction or an urge to push, I easily pushed the rest of her body out, on my hands and knees.

Isla was born at 12:14pm into my husband’s hands. He gently placed her down under me and I picked her up. She was covered in a light coat of meconium and amniotic fluid. She smelled so sweet, like fragrant wildflowers. She had no vernix and had a good amount of lanugo. Her juicy cord was on the shorter side. She was immediately breathing but sounded a bit gurgly so I suctioned her mouth and nose with my mouth. Her color was great, with only slight cyanosis in her hands and feet. She let out a few loud cries. I rubbed her. We checked her sex and saw she was a girl. She latched on and I nursed her on the floor. All of my exhaustion disappeared and my mind was so clear. I felt an immense amount of joy, bliss and relief.

About 5 minutes later, the placenta came out.

I bled a lot but felt fine so I wasn’t concerned. As a precaution, I took a couple tinctures several times after seeing that blood kept gushing out.

We moved to the bed about half an hour later.

I had an urge to pee and tried to pee on a chux pad but couldn’t because I felt blood gush out every time I tried to pee.

Finally, I went to the toilet and put some peppermint essential oil in the toilet bowl. I peed a little and then, an enormous clot, the size of two fists, came out. I then was able to pee freely, and my body immediately felt lighter and my bleeding minimized.

I went back to bed. I felt a little lightheaded from walking. I had no issues peeing after that and continued to lightly bleed.

I nursed Isla, ate, and rested in the comfort of my bed. Everything felt so normal and peaceful. It felt like any other day.

At 5pm, we clamped and my husband cut the now limp, white cord.

The rest of the day passed by quickly and blissfully. I felt great, physically and emotionally. I had no vaginal, rectal or pelvic pain. We rested, shared the news with family and friends, and spent the evening getting to know our newest daughter.