Everly's Birth Story

It was Monday, November 9th, 2020. It was the first day of maternity leave, I spent the day reading and bouncing on a birthing ball. Then at 3pm Simon came home and we went on a car ride and to get an ice-cream. I had a few light cramps though I had no real contractions all day. Dinner time came and we had dinner with our girls and our oldest daughters later moved downstairs in the playroom for some family time before bed.
Then, fairly suddenly, around 7 pm, I started having contractions. I tried to ignore the first few but they were long, close and frequent beyond the measure you can ignore or expect to have at a beginning of labor. Simon sprang into action and set up a few things though he didn’t have much to do because he had curated the birthing setting to great detail and had things truly ready to go by default. He suggested measuring the contractions and they were about 4 min apart, about 1 min 30 sec long, and medium to high intensity. While I was still in denial Simon had to win some of my resistance but then took over, and without procrastinating he called our birth team. They soon converged at our place. While I was drifting into hard labor, my kids where in their crazy time after dinner, running around and offering me and Simon spoons of imaginary soup and cups of make-believe coffee and tea. It was surreal.

About an hour into my labor, things were getting intense and overwhelming, I could just be on all fours and my pelvis felt like it was getting ripped apart. Our midwives Debbie and Shoshannah arrived, calmly laid out their equipment, and they checked me and baby and allowed me to get into the birthing tub that Simon had been preparing.

Being in the water helped make the contractions less intense but the experience was not nearly as calming and soothing as when I had labored in the water for my second born.

So, contractions were back to back, I was afraid and panicky, and I felt like I was out of control and being run over by a truck. The water was helping to some extent, but my best companion throughout the labor was my husband Simon performing high intensity counterpressure on my back through each contraction.
My experience of labor was so intense and panicky that I have a blurred recall of this event.

Very suddenly I started feeling downward pressure and started grunting as I pushed. Shoshannah ran to get our older girls as we wanted them to be present for birth. I felt like pushing but it didn’t feel like I was having a “productive” pushing. However, when Debbie checked me she could only get part of her fingers in before touching our newborn’s head.

Our initial plan was to have our oldest daughter catch her baby sister so she was instructed by Simon to pull her sleeves up and prepare to immerge her hands and arms in the warm water to catch the baby.

When Debbie checked me she broke my bag of water. Then I experienced a couple of contractions during which I felt my body was being torn apart. Then I felt the head and when I pushed the head of our newborn out and her little body out, I was both relieved that it was over and very afraid because I thought I had torn severely due to the intensity of the experience. I was also very happy to learn that Harper was able to catch her sister.

Debbie helped streamline baby expulsion but Harper and Simon definitely caught the baby together. That was epic. Our third daughter, was born in the water, in her sister & dad’s hands at 10.30pm.

Our newborn was handed over to me as I turned around and leaned against the side of the birthing pool. We all marveled that she had so much hair, and a remarkably long umbilical cord with a true knot. We took pictures of it of course.

I was assisted out of the water and in birthing the placenta while Simon cut the cord in front of two very curious wide-eyed girls. Dad was holding the baby. Then I was handed the baby for bonding time and the first breast feeding attempts. We just spent time there on the bed and sitting around bonding. Later Debbie and Shoshannah examined her.

Simon buzzed around for a few minutes, bringing me a full meal, decluttering and restoring full order and cleanliness to our space in the room.

There was a very festive vibe in the air, everyone was chatty. Like the time spent with friends and family after a high-tension athletic event while leaving a stadium.

After our midwives left, Simon and I stayed awake a little longer, processing our experience and appreciating that our world’s axis had just shifted once again by another mile. In a beautiful, intimate way, our third daughter had come to the world.