BORN TO BE LOVED
Natural Childbirth
The VBAC Births of
Kyle, Juliette and Jesse
Ginger's First VBAC ~ Kyle
October 12, 2012
Ginger had four vaginal hospital births, then her fifth baby was delivered by cesarean because of being in breech presentation. When she became pregnant with her sixth baby, she knew she wanted to VBAC.
We started seeing Faith when I was 32 weeks along with Kyle. We had been planning a VBAC, and because our local hospital has a ban on them, we decided to use a midwife, but due to unfortunate circumstances, our original midwife wasn't able to continue our care. Some of our really good friends had used Faith as their midwife and when they heard about our predicament, helped put us in touch with her. Thankfully, Faith agreed to take us on and continue our care. We immediately loved Faith and her knowledge and her calm presence.
My due date was October 13th, and on October 11, we had a prenatal appointment and had just returned from Tulsa, which is about a 2 hour drive to our home. I was really tired and I felt like labor was coming so I decided to nap.
I laid down and within a few minutes I started having contractions. I let Faith know and she said to shower and then rest. I did both and when I laid back down they had stopped so I got comfortable and was almost asleep when they started up again! It was about 11:45pm and I was so pumped that labor was starting but it wasn't very painful and it was pretty slow. I ended up being able to sleep for a while through the beginning stage of labor.
Faith and her assistant at that time, Andrea, showed up at noon on the 12th and things were moving, but still slowly. My husband and I started walking around the house and down the driveway to encourage my labor to progress. We walked as much as I could and then we came in and I continued to labor in our bedroom. My husband would bring in food and drink when I needed to eat. The contractions started getting serious about 5pm and I would sit on my ball or the edge of my bed and sometimes I would tense up and the pain would hit me, and then Faith and Andrea would be there and would use their touch to remind me to relax, and the pain would immediately go away. I was tired and would sleep a bit between contractions but both baby and I were doing just fine.
I started to feel the need to push and when they did a cervix check they could feel his head but my water had not broken yet and it seemed to be holding him up like a balloon. Andrea had said she thought if they broke my water that he would come on out. Faith told her to go ahead and break my water (with my consent), and suddenly I could feel Kyle dropping really fast. It scared me a bit and I crossed my legs to slow him down. Faith and Andrea quickly got everything together and after a couple pushes Kyle was born at 7:57pm and was 7lbs!
With the help of both of these incredible women I had my first home birth and it was amazing! My previous births in hospital had been hard and painful, and they had always stressed my husband which also stressed me. This time he was so calm and I am sure its because of Faith's energy, she is so calm and reassuring.
Ginger's Second VBAC ~ Juliette
October 24, 2014
When we found out we were expecting again, we knew immediately that we wanted Faith as our midwife again! We started seeing her around 14 weeks for prenatals and she was always so on top of all of my bloodwork and supplements, to make sure I was in good health and that my iron levels were in good shape.
My pregnancy was healthy and uneventful and we found out we were having a girl! With that ultrasound we also found that my placenta was anterior (attached to the front wall of the uterus). And although it's not a complication, it was making baby girl sit funny, so she was posterior (face up/sunny-side up), which is not ideal for a good labor pattern.
One day right about when I was due, we went to the store to get car seats, and my labor started, so we began to rush home. We got half way home and it just stopped! Since it was right by my due date, we just figured it would start back up again soon. But no. Several days passed, and we had only had a few more contractions here and there, so six days past my due date, we went in for another ultrasound - a biophysical profile, in order to be sure everything was fine with baby girl. We found that everything with baby was still looking good, but my placenta was starting to calcify. Faith said that we might need to consider trying an herbal induction, so we made the two hour trip to Tulsa and got the induction supplies from her.
Eight days past my due date, on October 23rd, we began taking the herbs for the induction. Labor started up slowly and we waited until it seemed like it was really going to have anyone head out. Faith and her assistant, Sarah, got here about 10am on the 24th, and just after they got here my labor stopped again! I wasn't progressing! We talked about it possibly being related to the fact that baby girl was still favoring her posterior position and wasn't descending into the pelvis well.
Then suddenly the midwives heard from another client who had gone into labor and was progressing fast, so they had to rush off.
Don and I decided to make the drive to Oklahoma City and see the chiropractor there in order to hopefully get baby into a better position so my labor would kick in effectively. As soon as we got in the van to go, contractions started back up. I labored all the way to the chiropractor's office, and while they did two complete adjustments, and then all the way back home.
Faith and Sarah were still finishing up their other delivery, so they had another midwife, Elizabeth, come out and check on me. Elizabeth came out around 8pm and she helped me to labor until Sarah could return. I laid down to rest, but because baby girl was still being stubborn with her positioning, I had to lay with my leg bent and my knee up as close to my head as possible to keep my contractions going. I would fall asleep and wake on the serious contractions.
Elizabeth got called to another birth and so then she also had to rush off, but Sarah was back at this point, so stayed with me. A while later Faith got back and by this time it was late. Faith and Sarah rested on the floor next to my bed, and Don rested in bed next to me, and whenever I had a contraction he would give me gentle massage and talk to me.
After a while I had a really strong contraction and I felt my water broke and then a strong urge to push. Sarah checked to make sure I was dilated and discovered that Juliette was still crooked and trying to enter the birth canal at an angle, with her head stuck up on my hip. During the next few contractions, Sarah helped guide the head into the birth canal and suddenly I felt it moved down.
I had to push several times, as Juliette was a chunk. She was finally born but she wasn't breathing. Don and I were in shock, but Faith and Sarah were moving quickly and in perfect sync. They laid her next to me on the bed and immediately started giving her breaths, and they told us to talk to her. We started saying her name and she started to move and then cry. They gave her to me to hold but continued blowing oxygen by her face for a little while. Then they got me situated in bed so I could nurse her. She was perfectly fine. She weighed 9lbs 12oz and was 21 1/4 inches long.
This time my pregnancy was longer (41 weeks and 3 days), labor and birth was harder and was so much longer as well, but it was still perfect, and Faith helped make it perfect.
Ginger's Third VBAC ~ Jesse
March 19, 2016
We were excited to again find out that we were pregnant, and we were even happier to find out Faith could take us on again! My pregnancy started out pretty normal and I was taking extra supplements for my low iron. We found out we were having a boy and we named him Jesse. Faith continued to check my blood levels and we realized my platelets were falling, so she had me start up even additional supplements to try to get them to go back up.
As my due date got closer, my body would start to have contractions in the evening that felt like labor, but then my husband would leave for work and everything would stop. I started to stress out a bit because I didn't want him to be gone while I was laboring. He's a trucker, and often his jobs send him several hours away. I was worried that he might not be able to get back in time if true labor kicked in.
Five days before my due date, on March 17th, I wasn't feeling well and I had some swelling on my fingers. I decided to check my blood pressure and it was on the high side, especially for me. I rechecked it with our other monitor and it was still reading higher than normal. I immediately told Faith and she told me to take a short nap and recheck. I did and it had gone down some, but not back down to my normal.
She ended up calling and telling me that she had gotten my latest blood work back and that my platelets had fallen again. She thought it was time to have Jesse, and asked if we wanted to herbally induce again. We decided it was time, and we went and got the herbs that night. We came home and I went to bed in order to get good rest before labor.
We started the herbs the next afternoon, on the 18th. When I finished my first round of herbs at 10pm I wasn't feeling much in the way of labor so I decided to take a nap. I woke up sometime
after midnight and felt like I needed to pee and my pants were a bit wet. I got up and went to the bathroom and that's when I realized my water had broken.
It was about 1:00am now, and we sent Faith a message and she said to use the amnio test swab to confirm. We did, and it showed that it was the amniotic fluid that was leaking (and starting to gush more and more).
When I tried getting off the toilet my contractions started hard and fast! They were suddenly about 2 minutes apart and about 30 to 45 seconds long. My labor continued going fast until the contractions were only about a minute apart. I started to feel like I needed to push and we sent Faith a text letting her know.
What we didn't realize was that she had fallen asleep and hadn't gotten my other messages and now she was awake and rushing to get here. She called Yvonne, another midwife in Oklahoma City, who lived closer to me, and so she started on her way here too. I got on my knees and rested my head on my arms, breathing deep against the pushing urges, trying to keep him from coming for a while. It worked, but not for long.
At 3:15am we realized that Faith was still 30 minutes out and Yvonne was 15 minutes away but Jesse was coming now! We called Faith and she put us on speaker while she was driving. She told us we could call 911, but I could tell Jesse was coming quickly and Don and I agreed we would be ok on our own until the midwives arrived.
Faith told me to stay in in hands and knees position to deliver, and told Don to get some chux pads under me and the bulb syringe and towels ready. Don ended up delivering Jesse at 3:23am and clearing his airway with the bulb syringe with Faith on the phone telling him what to do. We all were so happy to hear him cry! I turned over from the hands and knees position, laid down and held him. We were still on the phone with Faith and she instructed Don on how to massage my uterus to make sure there wasn't any bleeding.
The placenta had just started to be delivered when Yvonne got there and she helped Don with the rest of the placenta delivery and checked on Jesse and I. We were doing great!
Faith arrived and kept monitoring to make sure my bleeding was under control. Then we weighed Jesse. He was 9lbs 8oz and was 22 inches long! Altogether, my labor was 2 hours and 23 minutes from when my water broke until Jesse arrived!
We will be forever thankful for everything Faith has done for our family and the beautiful births she helped us have! She is an amazing midwife and a great friend!
