Chika's Birth Story

I actually had a false alarm on a Tuesday night. I thought my water broke and I felt liquid so I was like, “Oh babe it’s go time.” We started driving to Roots and I was thinking, “If this is what women complain about it in labor this is nothing.”

We got to Roots and as we were coming upstairs we saw Rachel, one of the midwives, and she said, “You seem chipper and happy,” and gave me a look. I thought, “No biggie we got this.” Rachel offered a check to see how dilated I was. After she did the check she said, “Yeah, you’re not in labor yet.”

“But I felt water.”

“You’re 2 cm. Do you want to stay or go home and get some rest?”

I decided to go home, and on the drive home I realized the comment she made when I was heading upstairs was about how I wouldn’t be this happy and chipper if I was in active labor. So we went home and both my husband and I napped. We went about our day after our nap and nothing happened until that evening.

Wednesday morning at 12am my husband was totally asleep and I couldn’t get comfortable, and I was tossing and turning in bed. Just as I fell asleep and I felt wet everywhere. I went to check and I saw water and speckles of blood, and then I felt the first real contractions. I woke up my husband and he said, “Are you sure?” By then I was already holding on to the door handle thinking, “Let’s go NOW!” So my husband started looking for the GoPro because we wanted to record the birth, and I told him I’d meet him in the car. I headed downstairs and I waited at the car, and when I got in I was really feeling it. Everything was uncomfortable, so I knew it was time. 

I called my doula and we met at Roots. I wasn’t as smiley and chipper this time - there was nothing funny now. My doula, Tabitha, met us and we went upstairs just as they are filling the tub. We’d already practiced breathing and staying calm, and my husband was pressing on my back. Every now and then I’d want to get out and walk around, so I started pacing in the living room and doing stairs. I also sat on the ball, then the ball wasn’t great anymore, so I sat on the toilet and eventually got back in the tub. We went through the whole gamut and did all the positions. I was progressing but it was slow going. Baby’s heart rate seemed like it wasn’t loving labor so we kept checking it, and still baby wasn’t where we wanted it to be. The team decided that an ambulance was needed, so they called and put me on the stretcher, checked the heart rate again, and baby’s heart rate was fine. We decided to transfer to the hospital anyway since baby’s heart rate was not sounding great. 

When we arrived at the hospital they tried to place an IV a couple times and they were having trouble. I had my monitors on and IV and my doula came with me to help me. We told the hospital staff we wanted delayed clamping and would be doing placenta encapsulation so we’d be taking our placenta with us. We also told them my husband would be doing a prayer, so to hold off on doing anything right after the birth and let him pray over baby. Everybody was on the same page and super supportive.

We continued laboring and the doctor suggested because my water broke I needed to have a baby sooner rather than later and offered pitocin. We decided it was a good idea to start pitocin to speed up labor. Pitocin kicked in and my breaks between contractions were so much shorter then. I started to get scared about not having a break. I started to get anxious, and Tabitha my doula helped me get through it. As we got further and further along it felt like I had no breaks at all and I was exhausted. I got stuck at 8cm and the contractions were on top of each other, and by this point it was many hours into the birth.

I channeled all my energy into breathing and the doctor said, “You’re at 9 with a lip, and it’s just a little edge.” I begged to push, but the doctor did not think that was the right thing, so they started offering an epidural. I remember saying, “Don’t check me anymore unless we have to,” and the doctor agreed to check only one more time. They said , “If you haven’t progressed by then we can do the epidural to help you dilate the rest of the way.” I talked with my husband and decided it’s fine whatever way we do it. I went to pee and I heard them mentioning a catheter and I thought, “HELL NO! I’m not doing that epidural!” I braced myself and had some self talk and told my baby, “It’s time to do this.” The doctor came back in 15 minutes and the lip was gone and it was time to push. 

I was exhausted and tired, but this is why every person should have a midwife and doula. They suggested tug of war - all they needed to do was tell me we have a competition, and I’ll win that tug of war! The minute I felt the ring of fire I knew he was close, so I pushed one last time and he was here. I DID IT NO EPIDURAL HALLELUJAH!

He peed on the doctor. 7lbs 13oz Taneem (arabic for blessed one)