Lincoln Michael Hall – Born August 18, 2014 at 8:18 am (8 lbs 8 oz and 21 in long)

Lincoln’s birth was such a sacred experience for Matthew and I. It was a very different experience than what society teaches us to believe about birth. It was intuitive and beautiful every step of the way. We had a natural birth, with midwives and a birthing tub, right in the front living room of our small, peaceful and very comfortable duplex apartment. I can’t say what really motivated us to have a home birth; it was a combination of many things that made us feel this was the best option for our family. For the last two years, since we’ve been married, we’ve consistently met more and more wonderful and influential people who all had home births. I became intrigued very quickly because I had always been slightly afraid of hospitals and completely against drugs and medications.

Matthew and I took a birthing class together while I was pregnant. The class is called Hypnobabies. It was a very unique type of birthing class that promotes and encourages natural birth while teaching relaxation techniques to help you during your birthing time (labor). My favorite aspect of the class was how much it emphasized the power and capability of women and their bodies. We used affirmations to counteract any of the negative beliefs or doubts that may have gotten in our way. I loved listening to my affirmations every day building my belief in myself, my body and also in my baby. Birth is truly a unifying experience where mother, father and baby all work together.

As the guess date (due date) got closer, I felt more and more excited, more and more ready to bring my baby into the world. People would ask me if I felt nervous and I could honestly say that I was only peaceful and joyful about it.

One week before Lincoln arrived, I started to have pressure waves (contractions) that were stronger and a little bit more consistent. It was right around the time of the full moon and there were a few stormy nights where I really thought I might start my birthing time. After one night where it was difficult to sleep with my pressure waves, we went to visit my midwife, Sherri Price. She checked me and discovered that, during the last couple days, I had effaced about 70% and I was dilated to a 3. I felt like this was great news. I had learned through reading different books including, “Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth” (my favorite of all the books I read about pregnancy and birthing) that effacement is the most important part because dilation can actually happen very quickly. My baby was coming at anytime. Sherri told us that we could most likely expect him to come anytime in the next day or two. She rushed a birthing tub over to our house and instructed me to get lots of rest.  My waves started slowing down drastically after that. We went 4 or 5 days without too much excitement.

Sherri was still a little worried about our baby’s heart rate which had always been a little slow. The average healthy range for babies is between 120 and 160 beats per minute. Every prenatal appointment we had during the last couple months of my pregnancy, his heartbeat was in the low 120’s and 110’s. Sherri recommended we go see a doctor, one that she personally really trusted, to do more tests to see how healthy our baby was. This worried me a little bit because I didn’t want a doctor to try and scare me into anything. I wanted a faithful and fearless birth, natural and safe for my baby and me. Although I felt a little hesitant, we really trust Sherri and want the very best for our baby. If she was a little nervous we needed to do something to confirm that everything was okay. The doctors appointment went well. He was kind, respectful, and actually quite supportive of our decision to do a home birth. He was honest with us and we felt safe with him doing tests on our baby. After multiple tests (testing the heart rate as well as many other things) our baby scored a 10 out of 10, meaning he was safe to have a normal and natural birth. His heart rate was right at the very bottom of the safe zone but never dipped too low to be on the dangerous side. This gave us added faith and excitement. We walked out of the office cheering to ourselves and praising our little boy for getting such a great score. We felt like the proudest parents in the world.

On Sunday morning, August 17^th, my pressure waves started picking up again. This made me excited because every other day my waves picked up it was about 7 or 8 at night and then they slowed down in the morning. I anticipated that my waves would continue throughout the day and then maybe I would go into more active labor at night. We went to sacrament meeting, timing my pressure waves, which came every 5 minutes or so, and left a little early to visit my family. We switch off going to dinner with our families each Sunday. I asked them if we could visit earlier than normal so that I could get to bed fairly early. (My intention was to get plenty of rest if this was the special night.) We left their house pretty early in the evening and rested as much as we could going to bed a little extra early.

At around 3:15 or so in the morning, I woke up with the feeling that I had just peed in my sleep. I was sleeping on the couch in the front room (it was much more comfortable than our bed during my pregnancy), and Matthew was sleeping on the floor below me. I was so alarmed that I hollered to Matthew as I ran to the bathroom. Halfway down the hall, I realized that I couldn’t stop the flow of liquid. There was no way I was still peeing… My water had just broken! We were both shocked at how much water came out but more importantly we were feeling excited and a little anxious about what lie ahead of us. We didn’t really know what to do from there. We decided to time my contractions and make sure that they were effective before calling the midwife. The first pressure wave after my water had broken was really intense and it caught me off guard. I was standing in the hallway when the wave overcame me and I dropped to the floor, letting out a yell. It was time to start using my hypnobabies techniques. Once on the floor, fully supported, I turned myself “off” which means in hypnobabies terms to completely relax every muscle in your body going completely limp and loose. This really helped reduce the intensity of the pressure wave. Timing the waves, we discovered that the first two waves were 5 minutes apart and then every wave after that was a consistent 3 minutes apart. After about 30 minutes of timing them, we decided to call our midwife. Sherri contacted the other midwife, Roxanna, and the assistant, Autumn, who all made it two our house within about 30 minutes.

While waiting for the midwives, Matthew helped me draw up a bath to help with some of the pressure waves. It felt really good to be able to relax in the warm water and work with the waves as they came. I loved having Matthew with me during each wave so I could just relax into him, resting my head on his shoulders. He felt so calm and strong and he really helped me to stay centered and focused.

When the midwives arrived, Autumn came back to assist us in the bathtub while the other midwives set everything up in the front room. We spent about an hour and a half in the bath.

Sherri came to tell me the big birthing tub was all set up and ready to go and I really wanted to spend my time there. My waves were so close together that Sherri suggested that we stop in the hallway and have a few pressure waves on the birthing stool so she could check me. I liked that idea because I had wondered for a long time what it felt like to use the birthing stool. It is a stool that is shaped like a ‘U’ and it puts pressure upwards in exactly the right spots. I loved the way it relieved pressure from a new direction. Working with the midwives it seemed we had pressure in all the right places, pressure upward into my gluts, and pressure into my lower back, knees and hips. I only experienced a few birthing waves on the birthing stool then because I really missed the warm water, but Sherri was able to check me and discover that I was all the way effaced and dilated to a 5.

I climbed into the birthing tub and the water felt AMAZING. It was hot and it immediately helped my body to relax even deeper. I felt so comfortable in the birthing tub and all the midwives and Matthew were surrounding the edges of the tub encouraging me and waiting for the next wave to come. I felt so supported and so abundantly loved as I worked with the pressure waves to bring my baby down. It was in the birthing tub where I really felt like I learned what it meant to ‘ride the waves’ and flow WITH them in bringing my baby down. It would have been so easy (yet much more painful) to fight with the tightening sensations when they came and tighten my body even more. It was an amazing feeling to drop down and relax into the wave letting it push my baby down, down, down even further with every exhale. I remember one point when the waves were really intense and I would let out a loud higher pitched yell moments before reminding myself to relax and drop down. Roxanne said to me, “I feel like maybe you are letting the surges get on top of you before you are able to get on top of them.” This comment made so much sense to me. The contractions truly are waves and you can feel them start. This gave me more understanding of what to do. When I felt a wave coming on, I would look around at Matthew and the midwives, get into a good squat position in the tub and I would say, “Okay, I’m ready.” Then I would let out a soft sigh and relax every part of my body, resting my arms on the edge of the tub and resting my head into Matthew’s chest. It was beautiful how my body just knew what to do when I was calm and confident. When I relaxed my mouth and jaw a low humming sound would accompany each wave. I didn’t know I could make a noise like that but it felt powerful and effective. Resting between each wave I could look into Matthew’s eyes and feel how proud he was of me. His strong, calm centeredness helped me to feel safe and confident during the birthing time. We were doing it! We were bringing our baby into the world.

Roxanne was an essential part of the birth. Somehow she intuitively knew what I was going through at each moment and she was able to softly and almost reverently coach me through each wave. She talked about finding courage as I inhale and finding faith as I exhale. She talked about feeling gratitude to Heavenly Father for a strong, loving husband and a healthy baby. The whole experience was sacred and beautiful.

Sherri asked to check me again and discovered that I was already dilated to a 9 and so she started monitoring the heartbeat. It was difficult to get an accurate reading and she wanted to have better access to the baby so she asked me to get out of the tub and try the birthing stool again. I got out as quickly as possible and sat down on the birth stool. I felt heavy and weighted outside of the water. It was interesting not having the water to lift me up. My pressure waves were really intense at this point and I felt a little more vulnerable outside of the water. I was so thankful to have my husband and the midwives surrounding me continuing to support me through every wave.

As Sherri continued to monitor the heart rate, she became really concerned with how low it was. He must have been a really big baby inside my small body because Sherri suggested that he must be really cramped. She started working really hard on my perineum stretching and opening me up as much as she could. I was still working with the waves and focusing all my energy in helping each wave be effective in bringing my baby down further and further into my birth canal. A few of the waves got on top of me very quickly and I felt a little overwhelmed by the strength and power behind them. Although I felt overwhelmed I felt so much gratitude for the power behind them. It made me happy to know that the more intense the waves became the closer I was to seeing my baby. Matthew and Roxanne helped me to stay focused on each wave one at a time as Sherri continued to monitor the baby and work on my perineum. There was SO much going on down there and we were all working very hard.

We started pushing and it felt hard but not painful. At one point Sherri became even more concerned because his heart rate dropped below 90. They got the oxygen mask for me and we continued working. At first the oxygen made me feel weak and powerless but then Sherri pointed out that every time I took a deep breath our baby’s heart rate went up! This gave me something so important to focus on. I regained confidence and peace when I knew that I had something specific I could do to continue protecting my baby. I just wanted more than anything in the entire world for my baby to be safe.

Sherri told me, “We have to get this baby here now!” and I got so focused. I started pushing with everything I had in me. Roxanne coached me through every push helping me remember to breathe and where to direct my pushing for the most effective results. I had Matthew close to me on my left side holding me and encouraging me.

There was one moment when the pushing was so difficult that I cried out, “I don’t know if I can do this anymore.” I felt so tired and weak. That is when Sherri grabbed my hand and let me feel my baby’s head! I could feel him! It felt so empowering to know HE was REALLY right there, almost in my arms! I continued to push even harder with renewed determination.

Sherri told me she was going to give me an episiotomy to get him here faster. There wasn’t a single moment of hesitation, only a firm knowledge that it was exactly the right decision. I knew that God blessed me with that kind of immediate confirmation because my entire pregnancy I had been incredibly anti episiotomy. I had been pleased to choose Sherri as my primary midwife for many reasons and one of the main reasons was her extremely low episiotomy rate. She told me later that I was 1 of maybe 10 episiotomies between her and the other midwife ever performed in their hundreds of births.

The feeling in the room was phenomenal. Everything was intense and yet everything was calm and purposeful. Every moment Matthew and I were blessed with peace and a sure knowledge that our baby was safe. Sherri numbed me and performed the episiotomy. I could feel it happen but I was numbed enough that there was no pain, only continued intense pressure with the baby so close.

We had just a couple more really big pushes left. One of the midwives asked what his name was and Matthew and I both said, “Lincoln” at the same time. There was no need to look at one another and confirm whether or not we had really decided. We both just knew he was “Lincoln”. Immediately everyone started talking to him saying, “Come on, Lincoln!” It felt amazing to hear them talking to him. Like we were all working so hard together. That was one of the most sacred moments of the entire birthing time. I felt him come right out and into Sherri’s arms. He curled himself up into a little ball as they handed him to me. I didn’t really know what to do, everything happened so fast and I was a little shocked that he was outside of me.

I held him so close to my chest as the midwives laid me down onto the floor behind the birthing stool. I just held him and held him. He was crying and the midwives told me he was cold because my bra was soaking wet from the birthing tub. I took off my bra, held him up to my chest again and his crying stopped. He was so peaceful and perfect!

He had so much vernix all over his body and his head was coned more than most babies. He had molded so much to help with the birth. I felt so proud of my baby and I felt so much love overwhelming me.

It was a really neat experience birthing the placenta as well. It was really easy to birth the placenta. The neat part was how they wrapped it up and put it right next to Lincoln on my chest to help warm him up. I found it really neat to see what had provided my baby life for so long continue to serve and support him.

I handed Lincoln to Matthew who was so excited to get to finally hold him. They were able to sit and bond for a long time while the midwives stitched me up. I was exhausted and weak but felt more joy and gratitude than ever before. Looking over my left shoulder at my two boys, my loving husband and my sweet baby, everything felt so complete. Matthew’s eyes gave it away as he gazed at precious Lincoln; He was just as in love, just as mesmerized by our perfect baby boy as I was.

Post by: Seantay Hall