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I took Bradley classes
in Tampa and moved back to my home town towards the end of
my pregnancy. Although I received prenatal care in Tampa,
I kept in close contact with a midwife in the city I moved
to and after our move, we transferred to her care. I was blessed
to have had an extremely healthy pregnancy. The only complication
was that our baby girl, Katie, was in a frank breech (butt-first)
position. An OB in Tampa had advised me that since I was not
a candidate for external cephalic version- because I had an
anterior placenta - that I would be having a c-section unless
our daughter turned.
Our Bradley Method instructor, Melissa along with my midwives
Nancy and Jennifer gave us several other suggestions to try
to get our daughter to flip. We visited a chiropractor who
performed the Webster technique, who also became a source
of good information and positive encouragement. We set up
our ironing board on our steps of our new house, so I could
lie upside down to allow the baby to fall out of my pelvis
and have space to turn. I also visited an acupuncturist, reflexologies,
used Moxa, did flips in our swimming pool, used hot and cold
applications, played music, used a flashlight, along with
several other suggested ways to get our daughter to turn.
You name it, we tried it! Sadly none of them worked and we
were running out of time.
We were disappointed that it appeared that we
would not have the natural, un-medicated birth that we wanted
for our daughter. We prayed that God would deliver her to
us safely and healthy, no matter how she arrived. It was a
tough place for me to be emotionally because I realized that
we had exhausted all of our options and that it was totally
out of our hands. But deep down, I knew that God’s plan
would prevail regardless of my actions so I surrendered my
desire to control the birth and the frustration that I had
been feeling to Him. I just prayed that He make His will known
to me.
At about 35 weeks I had gotten the name of an
obstetrician in the area that would occasionally deliver a
frank breech baby vaginally. We were hopeful that this doctor
would see that ours was an otherwise perfectly healthy pregnancy
and would allow us to deliver naturally under his care. He
reviewed my chart and agreed to meet with us, but only when
I was 37 weeks. We continued all of our efforts to get Katie
to turn while we waited until my 37th week.
But that all changed on Mother’s Day 2009
when I was just 37 weeks. I woke up around 4:30AM feeling
very uncomfortable and decided to turn from my left side to
my right side. Just as I had gotten all the pillows repositioned
and was on my right side, I felt the most intense and dramatic
movement from our daughter that I had ever felt. Did she actually
flip?! I had a little residual discomfort from the movement
so started to turn back over to my left side when I felt some
fluid on my upper thigh. I jumped out of bed and ran to the
bathroom and sure enough, it was amniotic fluid. It was only
a small amount but it started to flow again when I stood up.
Since we thought we still had at least 3 weeks
before her arrival, we didn’t have our bags packed at
all. Luckily I had done some shopping a few days before and
had some disposable underwear in the car. So I ran downstairs
and slipped on the underwear until I figured out the next
step. I still didn’t believe that our baby was arriving
that day!
I wasn’t feeling any discomfort or contractions,
and the amniotic fluid had almost stopped. So instead of going
back to bed, I decided to hang out downstairs (on the tile
floor and away from the carpeted bedrooms!) and see what happened.
I started to fold laundry when I felt my first contraction,
which I dismissed because I was still in disbelief that I
was actually in labor since this was our first baby and we
still had 3 more weeks until her due date. But about 15 minutes
later I felt another contraction and decided that I needed
to start keeping track of them. Over the course of the next
30 minutes, I had 3 low-key contractions but they were very
irregularly spaced. Nonetheless, I decided to call the midwife
to let her know what was going on and to get some instruction
from her. It was almost 5:15AM.
Jennifer advised me to draw a bath and relax.
We agreed to meet at the birthing center around 8:30 so she
could assess how things were progressing and also make some
phone calls about where to transfer me if the baby had not
turned during that intense movement. If our daughter was still
breech, she would transfer me to an OB so that I could have
a c-section.
So I went upstairs and woke my husband, Jimmy,
and told him what had been going on the last 45 minutes. (Since
I didn’t know what was going on, I decided to let him
sleep since it could turn out to be a very long day.) We drew
a bath and as I sat there, we finished writing our birth plan
so that we had all the details around the c-section included.
After that, he started to get a bag together for both our
daughter and I. While Jimmy was gathering some things, my
contractions started to intensify and they were all focused
in my lower back. He used some racquetballs covered in a soft
old t-shirt to massage my back as the contractions came. I
soon got out of the tub and sat on the toilet backwards so
that he could have better access to my back. Jimmy was really
wonderful with all the back massages, identifying tense muscles
and helping me to relax them and just generally being a positive
and encouraging element for me.
As I sat there, it dawned on me that this was
our daughter’s birthday! In my head, I started to sing
a portion of a hymn -“This is the day, the Lord has
made; Rejoice! Rejoice and be exceedingly glad!” over
and over. I knew that how ever this day turned out, would
be God’s plan for our family. It gave me such a sense
of peace.
We called my parents who lived about 10 minutes
away and let them know what was going on. When Jimmy got off
the phone, my contractions were about 5-6 minutes apart and
lasting any where from 30 – 65 seconds. Poor Jimmy –
as soon as a contraction stopped he ran from my side to gather
a few more things for our bags. As soon as I felt the next
contraction coming on, I would knock on the wall and he would
run to my side to massage my back through the contraction.
It wasn’t long before he broke into a sweat after all
the running up and down the stairs!!
About 15 minutes later, we decided to call them
back and ask my mom to come over and help us get the final
things together. My mom got there around 7:40 all dressed
for church – little did she know, she wouldn’t
even see church that day! As soon as she saw me, she realized
that today was it!
She helped Jimmy get a final few things together
and we left the house around 8:20 to get to the birthing center.
My mom drove our car while Jimmy and I were in the backseat
so Jimmy could more easily massage my back and coach me through
the contractions. In her excitement she took a few speed bumps
rather fast and we were all slightly airborne! We arrived
to the birthing center around 8:35AM and were met by Jennifer
and her husband Bob.
Jennifer got us into a room and had me lay down
on my back on a bed so she could assess the situation. She
then examined me and said that I was fully dilated –
all 10 cm!! She quickly started to listen for our daughter’s
heartbeat to determine if she had flipped and she said that
her heartbeat was low in my belly so Katie might have flipped!
Jennifer got herself positioned for another internal examination,
but this time during a contraction. To our disappointment,
she said that no, Katie had not flipped. But in the next breath
she said that her butt was “right here” and that
whatever was going to happen with our daughter was happening
at the birthing center because there was no time to transfer
us. We were startled but yet excited!
Jennifer left the room to make a few phone calls,
which included calling 911 to summon an ambulance. Moments
after Jennifer’s return to the room, Christine, the
midwife’s assistant, and Sarah, a doula, arrived. They
helped to get me further situated and prepare the room for
our daughter’s arrival.
We had done research on positions that were
best for a frank breech delivery, expecting that we would
be meeting with this special OB in a few days to discuss natural
breech delivery. Who would’ve known that the information
was going to come in handy before then! Jennifer directed
me to get on my hands and knees on the bed, and she saw that
our daughter had continued down the birth canal.
In the meantime, I started to push. It was such
a surreal moment – the pushing was such a natural, visceral
thing for me to do. In just a few short pushes, Katie’s
butt was emerging. At that moment, the paramedics arrived.
My mom stepped out into the hallway and all I hear is “Are
you one of the Whitmore boys?”. One of the paramedics
was someone I had grown up with at our church! I immediately
said “No!”, meaning keep him away from the door!!
Since Katie was already partially delivered, we declined any
transportation to the hospital. Luckily, none of the paramedics
wanted to get involved with a breech delivery so all of them
stayed in the hallway.
I continued to push and I hesitated as I felt
my body stretch for Katie’s arrival. Sarah said, “Don’t
stop pushing. Remember, trust your baby and trust your body!”.
That was all I needed to hear - a few moments and 2 pushes
later, Katie’s butt and legs were delivered. I continued
to push and in just a few minutes Katie’s torso was
also delivered. Jennifer used her fingers to gently bring
Katie’s arms down from above her head so that all that
was left to be delivered was her head. From being on my hands
and knees, I looked down and saw our baby almost completely
delivered. I was waiting for a contraction to start pushing,
but I didn’t feel one coming. I decided to go ahead
and push and 2 pushes later our Katie was born!
I was in awe – our baby girl was here!
My mom, who originally said that she wasn’t going to
stay in the birthing room with us, stayed the entire time.
As her granddaughter arrived, she exclaimed “Oh Rachel!
You did it!”. Indeed we did! Jennifer needed to use
a little suction to clear Katie’s airway and gave her
a little oxygen to get her started. Otherwise she was a perfect
little angel.
After the umbilical cord stopped pulsing, Jimmy
cut the cord which had connected Katie and I while she was
in the womb. Now the three of us were forever connected as
a family. Our Katie was born at 9:33 AM Sunday, May 10th 2009,
Mother’s Day, and weighed in at 5lbs 10oz and 21”
long. She arrived only 45 minutes after we arrived to the
birthing center. And all those Kegel exercises paid off –
I didn’t need a single stitch!
Jimmy and I have said numerous times how amazing
Katie’s birthday was. We had been armed with so much
knowledge from Melissa during our Bradley Method classes and
given a warm and caring environment at the birthing center.
But the ultimate gift was that God answered all of our prayers,
and our daughter arrived into this world in a safe, healthy
environment and instantly filling our hearts to the brim!
Note: Vaginal breech birth is generally
not an option for this Birth Center but Rachel's advanced
state meant they had no option and emergency services were
called, per protocol, in case of any issues.
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