Our precious daughter's triumphant birth story

by Connie Banack

I have to preface this story with the fact that our daughter is our fourth child. Her three older brothers were all born by Caesarean section despite each being a planned vaginal birth. Each Cesarean was for a different reason, though none emergent. Eric's labour was labeled FTP (failure to progress) despite my only dilating 2 cms, Ryan's was CPD (cephalo-pelvic disproportion), yet in hindsight it was his brow presentation that caused the delay at 6 cms, and Brendan's was maternal exhaustion, both mentally and physically. All were healthy and strong at birth. During Breanna's birth our sons were 11, 9 and 3. Now to our birth story.

I had on/off labour the entire day before, but not strong or demanding so I worked on CDA (Canadian Doula Association) projects, read Special Delivery and the CAPPA Quarterly, and rested. Brendan had been up until 1 a.m. the night before so I was a bit tired. Allan (my husband) and I went to bed with the boys at 9:30 that night.

I awoke at 3 a.m. to strong surges and decided a bit later to go into the tub to relax. That worked great and I stayed there until the water was cool. Brendan woke when I was planning on getting out and he didn't want Allan so I curled him up around my big belly in our easy chair and rocked him to sleep . . . the last time he would be my official 'baby' in my lap. I tucked him in and headed to bed myself to doze until morning as my surges had lessened with the adrenaline of Brendan's waking.

All of my labours involved intense back labour from the onset, so I was prepared for this, but the intensity of this labour was different. I knew my placenta was attached in the upper left quadrant where baby's butt should be optimally, but what a difference when baby is moving into my pelvis from the right side.

My labour progressed slowly, becoming stronger and more demanding as the day wore on. I changed positions regularly, we found every 1/2 hour was a good time to change. I moved from side lying on our bed to the tub, to the chair, to the toilet, and different variations of that all day. Between contractions I read the teaching notes from my Body Awareness workshop and reviewed the emails I had printed from Wintergreen. Wintergreen is the founder of Common Knowledge Trust, who produce The Pink Kit. Without the knowledge I gained from this kit I know I trusted my body much more and knew which positions worked best for me and my baby. It helped labour progress efficiently and allowed baby to move through my pelvis.

Baby was always in ROA (her back to my right front). By dinner time I was quite tired and Cathy Harness, our midwife (who had arrived earlier but had a nap), and I agreed on a cervical check. I knew I was dilating as I had checked twice during the day for baby station and found my cervix opening beautifully. I just couldn't check actual dilation because my belly made it so I couldn't reach the centre of my cervix. I was 5 cm and -1, great info given a thick, posterior cervix and that she was floating prior to labour. Yet it was tough information to take given my fatigue and the intensity of the contractions at that moment. I remember Brendan's labour being this intense when I was 8 cms! I seriously thought about my options at this point and was truly ready to transfer for that blissful epidural I knew awaited my arrival . . . what a carrot to dangle in front of any labouring mother. Yet I also know transferring from a home birth as a thrice-sectioned mother without a caregiver with admitting privileges could easily spell disaster, so we continued working and changing positions.

As I was side-lying on the bed, I could feel "something" move down into my pelvis. Not big enough to be a head . . . but something. I told everyone of this and that it would disappear after the surge was over. Because of my legs cramping we moved again to the kitchen to assume the squat. As soon as I walked into the kitchen, I was immediately hit with a huge surge and I felt "it" move down . . . and out. I had yelled at someone to catch me as I couldn't stand through the contraction; thankfully Allan was right behind me. It turned out to be a big balloon of water. I grabbed it with my hand thinking it was baby's head, yet wondering why it didn't hurt as it had moved down. It was smooth and grippy, but I couldn't see it. Cathy explained it was a balloon of water and not baby's head. She broke it and I was disappointed that baby's head wasn't right behind. She was still up a ways. So we moved over and I again squatted in Allan's arms, this time pushing well with each surge. I had no choice, my body demanded it of me.

In my premonition, I was gazing out of our big back window into the darkness over our back yard as I pushed in this position. In it Allan would be sitting on a counter with his feet on two kitchen chairs with me between his legs with my arms over his thighs. That was physically impossible in the home we had been in, because there was no counter or anything solid by the window on which Allan could sit. We had no idea that we would be moving only a year after Brendan's birth into a new home in another city.

I gazed out the window into the darkness through the big windows I was facing . . . that overlooked our back yard. I was suddenly feeling dŽja vu, then slowly realizing that it was from my premonition that I felt this familiar feeling. I couldn't articulate what I felt, but a warmth spread through my body and a smile crossed across my face as the surge ended.

I felt her head as she slowly opened me up; what an incredible feeling to touch her head as she moved down. I felt her move down quickly now and she was crowning . . . I felt my labia go (tear) as I tried to breathe her out and couldn't help but push. I cried out to God, as the pain was incredible. Then blissful relief as her head came out. I braced myself for her body to pass through with the next contraction and pushed hard. Out she came in a rain of amniotic fluid into the waiting hands of Cathy. I sat down immediately on one of the chairs Allan had his foot on and she handed her to me.

My precious little baby, I couldn't believe I had done it. I am almost in shock, still reeling from the pain and intensity of my labour and her birth. I had done it! I was holding my baby, still warm from my body. She looked quietly up at me, checking everything out in that wise way babies have. The quiet, patient soul who had been a part of me for nine months was now in my arms. I just gazed at her . . . then it slowly dawned on me to look and see if we had a boy or girl . . . to my amazement - a girl! I was so shocked I had to check twice. I had thought she was a boy even though I had not had the "boy" dreams I had had with Eric, Ryan and Brendan. Then I felt my cord lengthen . . . not even 2 minutes after she was out. That surprised me given the precautionary concerns of several of my friends because of my three prior Caesareans of retained placenta and hemorrhage.

Eric had run to get our second born, Ryan, who came in drowsy from sleep and he was the first to hug his new sister, just as he had asked. He went right back to bed and when he woke the next morning he thought it had been a dream until he watched the video. Brendan, our third son, slept through it all and though Allan expressed his wishing he could meet his new sister right away, we both knew it was best if he got his sleep. He would be up early enough the next morning.

Time once again returned and I realized it was after 1 a.m. She had been born at 1:04 on April 9th, 2003. About 15 minutes after she was born her cord was completely limp so Cathy tied it with strong string and Eric cut the cord. He was so proud! I gave her to her proud Daddy and I moved to our bed where I pushed out her beautiful, healthy placenta onto a pad. We showed it to Eric and explained what a placenta was (an organ like his heart that provided all baby's nutrients and oxygen while growing in Mom). He had helped me make many cloth placentas for Mother Care and now was able to see a real one. He was a sponge through it all, absorbing everything in the calmest way, like this was his hundredth birth he had been at.

Allan, Eric and Breanna went to the living room while Cathy carefully inspected my bottom, finding what I knew - labial tearing, several "skid marks" or stretching breaks of the skin, and a second degree perineal tear. I chose to have her stitch me up rather than leaving it to mend on its own, simply because I knew I would not be able to rest as I would need to while chasing after three busy boys. Cathy carefully sutured the tear and Allan came in shortly afterwards with a hungry little Breanna. I laid her across my chest and she couldn't quite lift her head high enough to self-attach (since I was flat on my back), so I helped her up and she latched on like a pro and nursed well.

After Cathy was done, Breanna and I had a wonderful bath while she swam and looked around at everything, the most content baby on the earth. What a peaceful way to conclude our night. We crawled into bed and both slept until morning.

Brendan woke around 8 a.m. the next morning and walked sleepily into our room as he always did. This time he was in for a surprise and didn't believe us when we first told him. He had to walk through the house to inspect everything (which was back to normal as everything had been cleaned up while I slept) and then came back and crawled into bed with us and his new sister. She is now officially "my badie" according to Brendan and he is very protective of his little sister to this day.

My precious little daughter amazes us every moment we are with her. We are all so in love with this little bundle who has blessed our lives. It took a while for me to come to terms with the intensity of her birth, but I truly would not change one thing . . . unless Wal-Mart had their pools in stock in time (grin).

This strange house in this strange city that we had only lived in for a little over a year was now our home. My dreams in the past were completed in the present through the incredible birth of our first daughter . . . in the kitchen in a supported squat just as I had known would happen years earlier.

Welcome to our family, Breanna Erin, our amazing and wise daughter. Let your birth be a new beginning for us and a gift to the many women who long for a vaginal birth and need to learn of others, like us, who have accomplished a dream.

I want to thank God for His blessing of this amazing birth experience. I knew He wanted me to have this wonderful birth experience through answers to prayers. Specifically they were in planning a home birth, in choosing a midwife, and my uterus not rupturing during pregnancy or labour. They were all answered prenatally as Allan was very supportive of a home birth, and in Cathy Harness, our amazing Christian midwife, blessing us with her support. Erin Walker, our incredible Christian doula, was an integral part of our team too as she supported me and helped Cathy as her second (assistant) while I pushed Breanna out. We even learned about unassisted birth in preparation for Breanna's birth because of Cathy's being over 2 hours from our home. I also prayed specifically about everyone's fear of uterine rupture (not mine surprisingly, I was more concerned about relaxation and fatigue, which had been huge factors in my previous labours) and that prayer was answered prenatally, so we had prepared with confidence in God's design for our birth. God is good indeed!

Story in Birth Issues magazine, published by ASAC in Edmonton. Connie Banack is the 2005 Education Director of ICAN.