Trudy's Story

I had an appointment on October 28th and I asked for a membrane sweep since my due date was only 3 days away. After I got home, I had mild cramps all day but they disappeared by evening so I thought for sure that labor would take a while yet, but the next morning I had back pain and mild cramps. They were so uncomfortable that I could not sleep anymore. At 6:30 am I got up and started walking around and squatting every time I had a contraction. At 7 am I called The Birth Center and since I live an hour away and had a very fast birth with my daughter, they wanted me to come in right away.

We arrived at The Birth Center at 9:40 am. They checked me and I was 5 centimeters dilated. I didn't want to sit around, because that was so uncomfortable, so we went for a walk for half an hour. At 11:00  I asked if they could break my water. And they did because my contractions were still 2 to 7 minutes apart. So I thought it would still take a long time. 

I got into the shower. It felt like my contractions weren't as sharp. So I stayed there for 2 hours until the water was cold. They prepared the bath. I got out of the shower to eat lunch and I felt the urge to push but I didn't think that that's what that was. I just thought my contractions were getting sharper since I was out of the water. 

I climbed into the tub, which made my contractions not as sharp again, but the urge to push was still there. That's when Katy came and sat by the tub and encouraged me. Before that, the midwife and birthing assistant came every 20 to 30 minutes to check on me and baby, which was very nice. The room felt so much like home.

I started pushing at 2 o'clock and he was born at 2:16 pm. At 8lbs 9oz and 22 ½ inches long. I never had regular contractions—they were 2 to 7 minutes apart the whole time. 

They got me out of the water immediately since I was bleeding more than they liked and they wanted to check where the  bleeding was coming from. It would have been scary, but they handled it so calmly and talked me through everything they were doing so that I stayed calm as well. They had to call in another midwife to look me over and I had a piece of placenta that hadn't come out. They scraped my uterus (which is the only thing I would change if I could but I know it was necessary).

It took an hour to get me to stop bleeding and stitch me up. But afterward we got everything ready and left 2 hours after I gave birth. I'm very thankful for the birthing team I had. If we want more kids, this is where I'm going again.