We found out that we were expecting an amazing gift in the summer of 2012. We were surprised, overjoyed, happy and overwhelmed. We knew this baby was going to come to us in one way or another, but we weren’t quite sure what that looked like. We honestly weren’t even aware of all of our birth options. We are fairly easy going people and were initially open to exploring them all. But, upon some reflection, we decided birthing our baby at home under the care of a midwife best met our
personalities.
We are forever thankful that we made this choice. Bringing Sem into this world was a tender, spiritual, emotional and thrilling experience.
Long story short, our little boy decided to show up eight days late. My water broke around 8pm on Tuesday evening March 12th, 2013. Contractions started straight away. They started rather intense. About an hour after they started I wanted to get into the pool. Was I ever glad that I did. The warm water took the edge off of contractions and let me float and move around as much as felt comfortable. We never really timed contractions, but we decided to call Heidi when things started to feel quite intense. This was around 1am. Heidi arrived shortly after. Heidi’s presence and soft reassurance was exactly what I needed. I was a rather inquisitive labouring woman, haha. Meaning, I felt most comfortable asking Heidi questions and talking through what was transpiring. She and my partner both played along and we continued talking things out.
The time seemed to go by very quickly. After Heidi arrived and I found a groove in which I felt comfortable, things became manageable. I would not describe the hours in labour as easy, but they were manageable. They were also beautiful in such a unique way. This is hard to describe in words. I felt so empowered, so capable, so strong, so beautiful and so loved throughout the entire labour. I felt God’s presence in our home throughout the night. I welcomed God into what was transpiring. I truly believe that knowing that a loving God was present in my labour was my best labour ally. This made labour manageable.
At around 4am I felt the urge to push. Heidi checked me for the first time and I was 8.5 centimetres dilated. I waited a bit longer and Heidi helped my cervix get out of the way so baby could come. I pushed for a little over two hours. I found pushing to be a huge relief. I could feel Sem moving down my body and getting closer to his arrival. It was so amazing to be able to feel him move down as the contractions came and I pushed with them. I felt like the contractions were doing the work and my body was naturally shifting to bring my baby to me. It was indescribable. So, so amazing.