15/01/2025
One year ago we welcomed this sweet new human earthside with an amazing birthing experience.
Truly a wondrous birth.
This baby's Mama chose Doula support to help avoid some of what she had experienced during her first birth. While the birth itself had gone fairly smoothly, in her words she had felt "violated and disrespected" during her labour in the hospital.
That is obviously not acceptable, no one should ever feel that way during this sacred journey.
After several preparation sessions, Dad and Doula had clarity on what Mama was okay with and definitely not okay with happening during this birth.
We were ready to protect her Hopes and Wishes
The day of the birth she had a gentle lead up so due to the hour drive to the hospital we headed in once it was clear this was baby meeting day.
In triage Mama was clear with the staff that she was not okay with any cervical checks and wanted minimal staff in the labour room, and Dad said he wanted to catch his baby.
The Doctor was open to helping Dad catch baby but spent some time explaining why the Nurses needed to know Mama's cervix dilation in order to do their job properly...
We shared the past birth trauma, and Mama said that she did not consent, and the Doctor quickly got her into a room and the staff was incredibly respectful of her need for privacy and a "hands off" approach!
She never got a single cervix check.
We did all the moves and jiggles and Mama could feel baby shifting down during strong surges. After a few hours baby was clearly staying lower down because she started feeling more pressure and back pain during the surges. She was standing on the bed leaning over the squat bar facing Dad who was supporting her in her favourite position when the Nurse came in to monitor baby and offered sterile water injections for the back pain to which Mama agreed. The Nurse said she would be back in 10 minutes.
1 minute after the Nurse left we heard Mama say "It Popped!"
Dad and Doula bent down to confirm this was the waters and we saw baby's head!
Another contraction and the head was out!
And then, their baby was born into Dad's hands!
(Continued in comments)
