Micah's Birth Story (Mom)

Micah Weeks was born on Wednesday, January 7, 2015 at 8:41 p.m. after a 36 hour long labor! Though the labor itself was long and grueling (intense contractions and really painful back labor), I barely had transition (thank God), and after an hour or less of pushing, he was out with two final pushes. He weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces, was 21 inches long and is as adorable as ever!! So around the 25th-30th hour my water broke and it was stained with meconium, a clear indication that my baby was a little stressed out. More water stained meconium came out a couple hours later...and this was probably the first time I'd ever seen Tiffanie look a little worried. She mentioned that baby is in distress and it was because of how he was positioned, hence the painful back labor. We tried side lying with tones of towels between my legs, but after half an hour or so, it was obvious that it really wasn't helping reposition the baby. She mentioned the option to transport to a hospital (my heart sank) but before doing so she would have Sherry (her partner at WRM) stop by as well as a Stacey (a chiropractor) to see if they could realign Micah first. In no time at all, Sherry was at my house and ready to help. She came in during an intense contraction, and was able to turn Micah's head because it had already molded. She also mentioned that I was about 9 cm dilated, which I remember being such a relief to hear at that time. As soon as she had turned Micah, Stacy then made me lie on my side, she did some magic on my lower back – it felt as though she was hitting my tail bone with some kind of metallic gadget ... whatever it was, it heavenly and it helped ease the pain significantly.

As soon as the baby was realigned, I wanted to get into the birthing pool immediately. The warm water felt so good, and it wasn’t too long before I started feeling the urge to push. I recall Tiffanie’s intern telling me to give it all I’ve got when I feel the urge to bear down. I can’t really tell you what came over me, all I know is that my inner mama bear growled hard and long and all of a sudden I could feel a head. I growled again and behold....out came his body!! I had to stand up in the pool because poor Micah had somehow managed to get the cord wrapped around his neck, his back and around one of his legs – the woes of having a long umbilical cord. This was the reason for his distress – he was so wrapped up in cord that he couldn't get into position.

My goodness I’m I ever so thankful for knowledgeable midwives and home-birth teams. Had I been in hospital I would for sure have had a C-section. With the first sight of meconium, doctors would have rushed me to the ER faster than I could have given my consent! My experience taught me one thing… that midwives are just if not MORE qualified than obstetricians. Unlike obstetrics where they’re very scalpel-happy and tend to treat everything as a life-threatening emergency, midwifery understands emergencies and seeks to use natural methods first to achieve results. If natural methods fail or don’t work then a good midwife will tell you it’s time to go to the hospital. Tiffanie knew early enough what the signs were and had planned out enough time should the need to go to the hospital came. She assessed my situation carefully, called for support and helped me have the home-birth I had desired to have without medical intervention.

My homebirth was truly was a marathon, but a very worth-while one. I'm so thankful for Tiffanie, my birth team and my husband, who willingly took Bradley Method Birthing classes with me and was the most amazing birth coach ever. What a wonderful experience! Thank you God for motherhood!!

– Diana Weeks