04/04/2026
✨ Last year I was invited to consult on a Breech birth for a first time mama, and she has graciously allowed me to share her pregnancy and birth story here. Thank you so much Lexi!✨
Things I did to Prep for birth:
I started with reading Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth. This really helped me develop an image for what I wanted my labor and birth to be like. It speaks of women and their spouses doing what felt natural to them, very mammalian. From this I knew that I wanted labor to be pretty hands off, with a midwife (or 3) and my husband there as I needed. I then read hypnobirthing. I did not do any of their online courses, but I was able to practice getting myself into a hypnotic state. I was confident I could do this because I was hypnotized 5 years ago. I also listened to different podcasts that spoke of how to transition your brain waves to ultimately shut off your mind, it's the same as what is supposed to happen while meditating. Which brings me to my next thing I did to prep: breath work and meditations. From lifting I already knew how to control my breath, but I did not necessarily know how to breathe properly and into directed spaces. Yoga and my pelvic floor therapist helped teach me that, plus a very specific video on instagram utilizing my hand and a yoga ball. Side note: I was not expecting at my 6:30 am appointment for my pelvic floor therapist to be giving me a vaginal exam while guiding me how to utilize my breath. I knew contractions would become uncomfortable at some point, but pain is definitely a mindset, besides your body physically can not hurt itself. To help teach me how to sit in the discomfort I would breathe through holding an ice cube in my hand changing amount of time and frequency. I also ended all of my showers with a cold shower for about 10 breaths. From working out and hiking in general, I was a regular at the chiropractor and would do craniosacral off and on. Later, I ended up adding in some spinning babies. Besides that I was a regular in doing different tissue work and releases to keep my body optimal from “the ready state”. With my husband being a gym owner and personal trainer, I felt very inclined to stay active and use pregnancy as a time to focus on building muscle mass. However, the first 12 weeks were really rough for me with nausea and fatigue. But starting around 16 weeks, I was training for the “Murph” which then transitioned to hyrox along with some pretty crazy hiking days and the final event of potato bag strongman competition. In hind sight, hiking the Grand Canyon rim to rim was the most physically and mentally helpful due to knowing I can do hard things, which ended up being my mantra.
At 28 weeks there was a hard lump up by my ribs and we decided to do an ultrasound to see how Babe was positioned. She was breech. When selecting my midwives I did not really know what questions to ask, as I did not have much knowledge on possible complications with pregnancy and birth. Also call it naive, but I did not really want to learn because I felt if I focused on possible problems then I would end up manifesting them. Well I did not straight up ask if they would deliver Babe if she was still breech, but I also was not really given a direct answer either. I just remember everyone telling me “there is still time.” At this point I started alternating chiropractor care with Webster technique and craniosacral each week and had the pelvic floor therapist do some dry needling on my glutes and sacrum along with giving me different stretches and releases for abdomen and pelvic floor. I added in spinning babies exercises around 30 weeks. I had been listening to a lot of podcasts of birth stories and different educational things surrounding birth to help prepare for possible decisions I had to make. At 35 weeks I went to an acupuncturist to try to get Babe to flip along with starting Moxi or as I liked to refer to it as “burning my pinky toes” because in Chinese Medicine they are linked to your uterus. My Chiropractor recommended I talk to Babe and help describe to her how to flip. I also did a few handstands against the wall, tried hot and cold therapy, moving a flashlight in hopes she would follow it, and anything else the internet told me could possibly help. I really deep dove into Breech stories only because at this point that’s what my story would be. Instagram had videos along with YouTube. There was one specific video that was used to educate a remote clinic in Africa that did not have access to much medical equipment on how to handle breech presentation in labor. This video I found to be the most helpful because it went over the possible maneuvers with live babies instead of the rubber pelvis and baby. I remember this video giving me so much confidence to the point that I felt like I could do the maneuvers myself. So I was set, just needed to get confirmation that the midwives were willing to deliver Babe at home too.
Finally, at 36 weeks was when I asked if I would actually get to have my home birth with Babe still breech. I was told yes if I am willing to. From my understanding, with first time moms that present breech, is because we do not have “a proven pelvis” which is mostly irrelevant because depending on Mom’s position different parts of the pelvis opens up. I was recommended to do an ECV, but no part of me wanted to, because the hospital would not give me specific providers statistics on success rate of flipping the Babe and rate of needing an emergency cesarean. And at this point, I had also tried manually shoving Babe around myself and would not advise anyone to try that.
An in depth ultrasound was required to ensure there was not something wrong with the cord that was preventing Babe from flipping. There must have been some miscommunication because the ultrasound tech essentially did a 45 min anatomy scan and did not look at the cord or placenta, but kept telling me how much hair Babe had. After my midwives got the results I was pretty much told I need to either get Babe to engage in my pelvis or get her to flip so I did a lot of unilateral lower body movements to get her engaged. I am unsure when the midwives I was working with brought in Elizabeth as a consultant and to be at Babe’s birth, but I was informed it was due to her having more experience which seemed to put everyone at ease. At my 37 week home visit I got to meet Elizabeth and I remember her talking about how my husband can support me during labor, and I was like "Actually if it's during coaching hours he will be doing that because who knows how long this will take and like what is he supposed to do?” I realize that was a little strange to say but it was not as bad as him saying “All I know is that I died twice when I was born.” That’s how we transitioned into risks with breech, like possibility of needing resuscitation and cord prolapse. The home visit ended by the midwives palpating and decided Babe was engaged. So at this point I decided to stop spinning babies and burning my pinky toes, because we were set to go with vaginal breech delivery and I wanted to relax for the next 4ish weeks. (In my mind I was going to have babe at 42 weeks.)
With that in mind, I had started my version of “nesting.” As in I decided to learn how to can and make apple sauce and pickles and organize my kitchen. I had already. Set up the nursery and bassinet (both ended up being pretty useless as a mom who chose to co-sleep). It was also Labor Day weekend so I got Monday (37w+6D) off of work. I used this time to do my full squat workout, which I had not done since about 30 weeks (would regret later). I went to get lunch with a friend and was feeling a little “blah” after that but I decided it was from the food that I typically did not eat. That night around 7 pm I lost my mucus plug, so I was instantly excited and thought the baby was coming tonight. For that reason, I barely slept. Bad Idea. I am now officially 38 weeks and running on about 4 hours of sleep, with very sore legs, digestive stuff being weird, and a poor attitude unfortunately. I was happy I had an appointment so I could leave work early, but part of me was determined to not have to come back so I packed up some of my stuff I would keep at the office and left for my appointment. I remember specifically saying I better not have Babe tonight because I need to sleep. I was asked if I was feeling more cramps or contractions or anything and I was like “I don’t know, I have never experienced labor before.” (I was definitely having contractions.) I got home, still with my crappy attitude and decided to use my hand pump to collect some colostrum. To my disappointment I didn’t get any with that. Then I thought I should do another yoni massage, to better connect myself with my womb and cervix. Around 6pm I went to clean the gym and try to do some tissue work on my legs because I was in pain. Came back to the house, ate supper, watched some Netflix then got ready for bed. I thought of rubbing a magnesium lotion on my legs and calves to help with soreness, so I am sitting on the edge of the tub in our bathroom and I’m bent over my belly between my legs and I hear a pop and there is a gush of water. It is 9:32pm and all I say is “oh no.” My husband, who is already in bed, asks “What?” I say “I’m pretty sure my water just broke.” He says “So now what?” I say “I don’t know, I didn't read the papers because I thought we had more time.” He goes and gets the papers from the birth kit and we call our midwife. Her husband answers and in my mind I am like “well crap we don’t even have the right phone number.” We ask for Ashley and he gives her the phone, she asks about contractions, I tell her no. And she then asks if there is a cord hanging out and luckily there is not. I get cleaned up and she tells my husband she will be there around 11 pm.
I am now panicking because the kitchen is a mess, I need to sleep, the labor bed needs to get set up, and anything else my brain could think about. My husband made me go lay on the couch in the basement and he took care of the dishes and making the bed. I couldn’t sleep. I did start having very light contractions, but I did not want to talk through them. My understanding was the more I can “allow” my body to do what it needs to do, the quicker labor will be. I started texting him times they started and they seemed pretty consistent dropping from 10-7-5 min over the course of about an hour.
Ashley showed up around 11 and I’m on my hands and knees already. She ended up doing a cervical check, which I allowed, but did not want to know what I was at, because I did not want to get upset if I was not as far as I thought I should be. I noticed she was staying, so I took that as a good sign. As Adam was setting up the birth pool, I ask him to get me a bucket because I am going to puke. I did. I had a meditation on my phone that I would start with each contraction, it was just a random one from a playlist. During each contraction or wave or whatever you want to refer to them as, I focused on relaxing my eyebrows, jaw, shoulders, and hands.
I am not really aware of time at this point, but the pool was ready and so was I to change some things up. I was checked again, because pretty much the only caveat with Babe being breech was that I couldn’t deliver in water in case they needed to do the maneuvers. I was a 7 at this point. I was hungry and cranky and uncomfortable, really not loving life. I was helped into the pool and it was very warm. I am aware that’s the point, but I personally knew I did not like hot tubs because I get too hot and I did not like my hands being wet. During my short time in the birthpool I was a bit of a hot mess. Adam gets me an apple sauce packet which I end up throwing at him during a contraction. Then I end up puking. I remember someone saying “that’s good, its moving baby down.” I then was given a soft Carmel that I spit on the carpet during a contraction. Someone was whispering during a contraction and I could not focus on my mediation. My hands were too wet to start my phone and the cool washcloth was dripping on me. To say I was over stimulated was an understatement. I decide I need to get out.
I meandered to the bed where I had set up my salt lamp, but did not get around to hanging up my words of encouragement or lighting my beeswax candles. I am on my hands and knees again. I have my yoga bolster and pillows and I’m in child’s pose for who knows how long. I then puked again. It was suggested to change into a side laying position and I was propped with pillows and one between my legs to keep my pelvis open. That was awful. I managed to kick that pillow away and just laid on my side. I gave up on starting the meditation and just decided to breathe. I had hiked the Grand Canyon rim to rim last September and remembered hiking out. That was tough, but I counted my steps, just like I counted my breaths during each wave. It was about 4-5 breaths at peak and only 8 total, however I math things weird to make it seem like not as long and did not start counting until it was “hard” for each one. I had Adam start applying pressure on my sacrum, but really not pressure, just putting his hand there. I could not really speak at all. I was just in a trans state, but exactly where I needed to be. I communicated by swatting hands away and grunts. I knew it had to have been late because someone was snoring. (Was not expecting that.)
Eventually I was told it was time to get up and go to the bathroom because I had not for a while. Again, I have no clue what time it is. Walking with contractions was awful. Adam practically held me up the entire 10 feet, stopping for contractions. Then I went to the bathroom and Jamie said I should probably eat and drink. In the bathroom I remember saying “I want to die” but Jamie gave me a concerned look so I followed up with something along the lines of “well not really, but kind of currently.” Adam ran and got me some maple syrup electrolyte packets and made me some peanut butter dates. Peanut butter was hard to swallow so those did not get touched, but I did have 2 oz of maple syrup just in time for my body to start involuntarily pushing as I’m still just on the toilet. Jamie said I could see if I felt babe. She was about a whole finger away and then probably after 10 min she was only the end of my knuckle away. I still didn’t understand Babe was coming at this point, but was told we needed to move back into the bedroom. This was no fun. Adam was holding me up.
We make it to the bedroom and I’m at the foot of the bed and I can actually feel my body pushing Babe out. Breech babes “rump” instead of crown. I did not feel a ring of fire, but I recall feeling like there is a bowling ball in my pelvis. As someone who has had no experience pushing out a babe either way, I was very annoyed that Babe would come down then go back up. I believe I pushed for about 5 minutes. Her little butt eventually stayed out. I squeezed p**p out of her which was very interesting to see in the video. Then one leg popped out followed closely by the second. I did not push the legs out, I am pretty sure gravity did that since I was standing up and my lovely husband was forced to hold me there. Then Babe did little “tummy crunches,” which are a good sign!. Ashley is there holding Babe so she isn’t just dangling. More of Babe’s body came out and her arms were next. Her first arm came out and in the video it looked like her fingers caught and that is when I ended up tearing. Ashley described how Babe was “positioned” with her second arm still up by her head. I asked if I could wait for a contraction and was reassured I could. With Breech babies, contractions can kind of stop after the belly button has been delivered. I am pretty sure mine stopped. They checked the cord to confirm it was still pulsating and I heard them say “we will just go off of how pink the baby is.” So I ask “Is Babe still doing okay?” And everyone confirmed with confidence “Yup… you are so close to meeting your baby…You’ve got one arm, where the hand is just a little bit inside still, and then Baby’s head.” There are whispers about where to put the receiving blankets. I then push one more time and with a big relief of pressure she is out and I say “Oh my God” as Babe is passed through my legs into my hands.
I got situated on the bed and that’s when we found out we had a baby girl! Alayna was born at 3:02 am on Wednesday September 3rd. It’s a bit of a blur after this but she had good Apgars and did not need any help and ended up latching well right away. I do not remember her crying much or being in shock, but personally I was in shock. Due to being frank breech her little legs were still up by her head, not really allowing us to put clothes on her without pushing them down, so she was a naked baby until we got her into craniosacral on Friday.
A few remarks I remember saying: “That was wild,” “I have a proven pelvis,” and “I’m never doing that again.” Reflecting back, it really was not bad. Per my Oura ring, while I was laying on the bed in Transition, it said I took a 26 minute nap, so clearly I was chilled out. From my water breaking to Alayna being born it was 5.5 hours and I will most definitely be having a home birth again. I am incredibly grateful for Elizabeth to be there to help if needed and to guide Ashley and Jamie. Also, she really added to the vibe of labor, very fairy-like. I think my biggest take away from this birth and Labor experience is that you cannot have fear. Trust that your body and your baby know what to do and just let it happen. Your baby is smart.
