Birth Story

I've been telling people that I had Grace at home and recounting my birth story. I've had two moms-to-be tell me - thank me actually - for telling them about my positive experience. And it occurred to me: people rarely hear about positive birth experiences. It's always about the episiotomies, the forceps, the c-sections, the hours of pushing, the "failure to progress", and of course, THE PAIN.

The truth is: I don't think I could have had a more positive birth experience. Grace's birth was so oddly textbook, that it wasn't textbook. My water broke just after dinner at 7:15. I started my contractions at about 8:15 - just in time for Jesse to put Audrey to bed. I laboured for a couple of hours before calling Chris, my midwife, at 11:00 when my contractions were about two to five minutes apart. She came over at 11:45. I went from 4cm to 7cm in an hour and a half ("good" progress is usually one cm an hour). And then sometime around 2:45am, I got that urge to push. Chris asked me to hold off partly because she had to call her backup.

I think that lasted all of 30 minutes, because by 3:30, I definitely couldn't "hold off" any longer. By 3:50 I was definitely in stage two labour. Tia, my backup midwife, barely made it in time to see the shoulders birthed.

Grace was born by 4:11am.

All without pain medication, at home and with my previous delivery being a c-section (yes, the dreaded "VBAC").