Anya's Birth Story: January 23, 2007

I guess Pat and I couldn't have asked for a more satisfying and (almost) uncomplicated natural birth. Bridget, our midwife, said the birth was "textbook." She said I progressed nicely without stalling. So much so, my total time in active labor was probably about 9 hours once the contractions started to be consistent.

Irregular contractions started on January 20. There would be a few and then nothing for hours. This picked up on Sunday but I still took a long walk. On Monday (Jan 22) I thought it would be safest if I stayed home from work. That night Pat and I were able to walk 6 blocks down the street and back (don't tell our midwife, but we went to Starbucks and Tim Hortons :) ) around 8:00pm. As the night went on and it became Tuesday January 23rd, the contractions started to pick up in frequency and intensity. I paged the midwife student (Jasmin) about 2:30am'ish to tell her the contractions were 5 mins apart, 1 minute in duration, for 1 hour (our 511 guideline). She went through a few with me on the phone and said she wanted them to all be the same level of intensity before she and Bridget would come over. I called her back about 4am. Jasmin and Bridget arrived to our house around 5:00am, and made sure the baby was okay. Jasmin did an internal exam and found I was already 7cm dilated. They were in such a rush to get us out of the door that Bridget told us leave our bags behind! But Pat grabbed everything (except the snacks we packed).

We drove to St. Michael's hospital (~2miles away). My butt was hurting so I faced backwards in the front seat. We got out and Pat parked the car while Bridget and Jasmin took me upstairs. I walked because I didn't want to sit in the wheelchair. I think the constant walking helped to progress the labor (a tip provided by a nurse colleague here). Once Pat arrived the contractions picked up even more. At some point Bridget had me get in the bed with the head up and face back into it which was really comfortable. My water broke soon after around 7am. Bridget noticed a very light tinge of light green meconium in the water. It wasn't too concerning but enough that they had to put the heart monitor on my stomach to monitor the baby and a pediatrician would have to be present when the baby was born. This prevented me from staying in the position I was in so I stood on the side of the bed and Pat stood in front of me. By 7:21am though I was fully dilated and ready to push. Jasmin brought out a birthing stool around 7:45am (see picture of what one looks like since a few of you have asked). These open your pelvis 30% more than lying in bed. I squatted on that and pushed until the head appeared. Pat was behind me on the bed to support me. They were almost ready to call an OB in because the external monitor wasn't being very reliable (lots of "artifact") but we never needed to get to that. Once the head was out partially I had to move into bed and finish pushing there because the pediatrician would be in soon. So for about 10 minutes I did that and Anya was born at 8:11am. Total I had to push for about 30 minutes, boy was I lucky! There was a nurse practitioner there instead of the pediatrician (he showed up a while later but didn't stay). They cut the cord and took her next to us to the warming table and suctioned her out and stuff, she was nice and pink and had RED hair, just like Pat. Later they let Pat cut the rest of the cord. They had to repair a small 1/2 inch tear.

Pat survived the whole process too! He was such a wonderful support person that Bridget commented on it a few times. He remembered to do everything he had to do (from making sure I stayed hydrated to the support he gave during the birth). Jasmin showed us the placenta and went over all the parts to it (and wanted to know if we wanted to take it home, but we declined). I took a shower while Pat dressed Anya and we were discharged by 11am that day! The midwife will come to our house the next day, day 3,5, and 10. We called the few necessary people (grandparents and Sonja) and then settled into our baby honeymoom!