To Willow: Who we didn’t name you for 3 days. You were always Willow Sol. Meant to be born on the full moon!
I have been waiting to experience your birth, the birth of my baby but also my birth into motherhood. ​

On 10/23/18 around 8:30pm I was stretching my hips (nightly occurrence) when I had a gush of water. Dave was in bed and jumped up as I ran to the bathroom. Luckily it wasn’t enough to get on the floor. Dave was confused as to why it wasn’t a big gush! I called our midwife to let her know things seemed to be happening but that contractions had not started. We hoped to be able to get in bed and go to sleep. I laid there making a plan. I was going to fall asleep wake up early with contractions but be able to make it to my 9 am Chiropractor appointment. That didn’t happen!  Dave got a few hours, but contractions started around 9pm and I was finally up at 11 pm because as hard as I tried, I couldn’t sleep. I told Dave to get the birth pool ready/set up while I showered. The shower felt great, but it kicked my contractions up a notch. I started being vocal during contractions and even felt the urge to squat down for a few of them. I thought to myself that it seemed odd how fast things were moving. Once I shaved my legs and washed my hair I got out and started getting sick. I sat on the toilet, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart lasting for a minute and around 1:30 am I had Dave call our Midwife and tell her to come. I was really regretting eating shrimp green curry for dinner!

My birthing area was perfect. I had the pool in our living room. I had hung lights, mantras written from friends, a candle burning from my Blessing Way, an awesome play this, fake candles all over the place and lots of crystals! I kept looking at the mantras and as I rocked in the pool, I repeated that I was safe and capable of birthing my baby. I am a firm believer in creating a space that feels safe and empowering.
Around 5:45am I told the assistant that I felt pushy and that contractions felt a lot more intense. 30 minutes later I got out of the tub hoping to progress with a change in position. Once I was out, there was a bigger shift in sensation, and I asked to be checked. I was SURE I had to be in transition.
At 6:20am my midwife came down to check me and I was 9cm 100% effaced with a cervical lip (a bit more cervix) on my right side. I was so relieved to be 9 cm and we decided to do standing lunges on my right side to create space and remove the lip of my cervix on that side. By 6:30am I was back in the water on my hands and knees pushing! 10 minutes later I felt her move down farther and I knew she was coming fast. My bag of water was bulging. I had intense pressure in my bottom. I remember not feeling like I was getting breaks between contractions. With every contraction I was getting pressure applied to my hips, everyone in the room was working hard to help me.  My midwife and I discussed that I wanted to rupture my waters to allow her head to move down farther.
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Around 7am she ruptured my water and 20 minutes later I was feeling her head as I pushed! I felt her head and it was so smooth I thought she didn’t have hair, with the next push I felt her head again and yelled that she did have hair, LOTS of it! I was born with a lot of hair so her having hair was important to me. Another 10 minutes passed, she had fully crowned and with one push her head came out. I remember looking up at my midwife and telling her to pull the baby out. I couldn’t imagine willingly pushing her out. Of course, my midwife smiled at me and said to push. I did and there she was!
Our baby girl was born at 7:44am, as I squatted in the birth pool, my husband caught her and we both carried her out of the water. I laid back in the pool and held her on my chest. Dave came behind me and we took it all in! I was so relieved, so unaware of the pain I just experienced. Her face was really swollen so her nose looked big and the first thing I said was, “she has your fucking nose”. We joked in pregnancy that she could look like Dave, except for his manly nose. There she was, so cute with a full head of hair and his nose. I have a potty mouth and I guess that came out in birth!​

Three meconium poops later she had to be washed off because it’s like TAR! We got into bed as a family, had our vitals done and finally got to weigh her! She was 19 inches long and 8 lbs 5 oz. Soon after we were settled and everything was cleaned up our birth team left, and we got to sleep. ​

Special thanks to Stephanie of Stephanie BC Photography for our amazing birth photos and this beautiful video of our birth. It still brings me to tears to watch. 
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I want to focus on helping you build a great birth plan. I am going to walk you through what I talk to all my clients about. There is so much information out there about birth plans and I am sick of referring my clients to templets that just aren’t extensive enough.

It’s time to plan, we all know a stork doesn’t just drop off your baby, so you need to figure out what you want for your birth.

A birth plan is necessary in hospital births so that you have a written plan for what your wishes are for you and baby.  This gives you a voice and the ability to feel empowered.  Most expecting moms have an idea of what a birth plan is and what it consists of in general terms. It is a buzz word these days. I ask my clients to start with just a bullet point list. Things they know they want and do NOT want for their birth. This is just a starting place. Even if you aren’t sure of all your options or what you want.   Don’t get over whelmed!
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Example:

Want/YES:


Do not want/NO:


This information helps you start to think of your day of birth. I then have my clients spend some time thinking about what that day looks like. Do they envision birthing at home? When would they want to go to the hospital or birthing center. How do they envision the atmosphere being when they give birth? Do you want dim lights, your favorite slippers, your own pillow? Who do you want in the room? What about a pushing positon or baby care postpartum?
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I then I go over their bullet point birth plan. It gives me a good idea of what sort of research they have done. I may point out options or areas to do more research in. I then ask them to write more details/specifics in these main stages of labor.

The main points to focus on when writing a more complete draft of a birth plan are; admitting, labor, pain management, pushing, third stage(placenta), after birth for mom, and after birth for baby.

A good sample birth plan to look at is Healthwise. This gives you a format to follow if your feeling stuck. I don't recommend this format as a final draft.

There are some things I would like to point out, that you might want to do your own research on. It will help you decide if you want to include them in your plan.  During labor not having vaginal exams done, eating/drinking during labor, your preferences for music/ lighting in the room, how much staff you want allowed in the room, clothes you want to wear, having your water broken and continuous fetal monitoring. After birth Pitocin after birth to deliver placenta, how you want to deliver the placenta (unassisted or Pitocin/care provider assisted), placenta (are you keeping it to encapsulate), delayed cord cutting (for how long), chest to chest bonding (for how long), baby led breastfeeding, medications for baby (Vitamin K shot, eye ointment, hepatitis shot, circumcision), and delaying babies first bath.

I also like to remind my clients that just because you have a birth plan; detailed or not, it might go out the window because of a medical reason that warrant intervention or your choice to medicate/use interventions. In that case you still are informed and know how to handle those decisions if they were to arise.

​Creating a birth plan insures that you don't give someone else the ability to form decisions for you and baby, you allowed them to make necessary lifesaving interventions for the best outcome or interventions you felt comfortable with.

Once I email them back with those suggestions I tell them to print what they have and bring it to their next appointment with their care provider. It is so important to talk to them about all the details. This way they know where you stand and they can tell you beforehand what they will or won’t do. You then have the choice to change providers if necessary. Most of my clients want to have a natural birth but will be in a hospital with either a Dr. or Midwife. If you are having a home birth, then it would change your birth plan and you might not feel you need one. Kristen Burgess at Naturalbirthandbaby.com has a great birth plan templet for a home birth.
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Again let the focus when creating this birth plan be about learning your options and preferences for Your birth. This gives you a voice when you talk to your care provider. Feel empowered! As always comment below if you have specific questions or email me. I would love to help you.

I talk with my clients about the importance of relaxation in pregnancy and ways to help them relax in labor. It can be  important  to use visualization and mantras during labor and to ease anxiety in pregnancy. I figured I would share some of my favorite visual mantras, that you can print out and hang up during your birth to create a birthing space you love. 

​Remember that this is just a part of your coping techniques and needs to be practiced! Having a birth plan (envisioning the birth process) along with other coping techniques like essential oils and movement are necessary components of birthing your way! Check out my other blogs on creating a birth plan and essential oils.

​Hope you feel empowered by these cute images.