My labor & birth with Ruby Rose was:
euphoric, magical, painful, intense, spiritual, sensual, fun, and a LONG one!
It was in total around 31+ hours of labor, 12 hours of active labor, and 26 mins of pushing till we met our baby girl. 40 weeks + 4 days.
Fully unmedicated and natural at home in the birth tub at 4:02am on Sept 14th.
With the assistance of my amazing midwife team: Legacy,
And my doula was ridiculously helpful:
I wanted to share our fully story with the music that helped me through each phase and the FULL video of our birth so that it could inspire others to know they too could have a natural homebirth. Sometimes you don’t know it’s possible till you see another do it. I am convinced what got me through was my mindset, constant eating + hydrating, and movement!!!
I now know birth to be a rite of passage, using pain as the agent of change. It’s supposed to be intense. The pain is the way through. Through the pain, the surges, the waves, is where I met myself and God in ways I never have. It was the most human thing I experienced on this planet- alongside of falling in love, working with my hands in the soil, the feeling of being caught up in a wave in the ocean, sex on a sunday morning, or watching my sweet grandma pass into the next life.
The birth with Ruby started slow. Friday Sept 12th I had what I now know to be early contractions all night. I would wake up work through one and fall back to sleep. In the morning, I got checked by my Midwife, around 10am and I was at a 4cm.
She says “it’s not going back at this point, so go get ready!”
Ian and I went to get a smoothie and stopped by my friend Leah who is a chiropractor, to get adjusted in early labor!
It was the most perfect of 70-degree days in September so I labored mostly outside all of early labor. I danced a lot. Laughed a lot throughout this labor. I moved A LOT. Surges got more intense around 2-3pm or so. My sweet doula arrived, grounding me in the waves. I felt the surges the MOST in my back. So for the next 12 hours Ian or Emily would counterpressure on my back, hips, and sacrum. Praise God for them or I would have passed out or thrown up from pain I’m sure. My midwife team arrived around 3 or 4pm to set up. I think everyone thought it would go quicker since I was already at a 4cm from my overnight contractions.
Lots of laboring. Lots of swaying. Lots of humming and moaning.
They had me doing LOTS of spinning babies moves: inversions during contractions, lunges, walking up and down the stairs, side-lying position to get babies head in perfect position to birth. I actually loved to move because if not I was on all fours and my knee was starting to hurt!! I think the reason why I never exhausted was because my doula and Ian KEPT feeding me food and water. It was constant. I hate a tamale, shepherd’s pie, honey, granola bars, meat sticks, fig bars, gummies, coconut water, and electrolytes. I am convinced it’s that plus my mindset that allowed me to endure with such bliss and joy.
Around midnight I asked to be checked.I was at a 9.5cm with a bulging bag of waters. So my waters still had not broken which may be why there was so much back labor. I knew the transition was coming.
I went up to babies room and it hit me. I remember holding Ian’s hands, I remember not getting a break from the surges, and I remember being closer to my grandma and friends who have passed on than to Ian’s hands. And in my brain I knew I was in transition. I kept thinking, this won’t last forever so just be present in the pain. Press in to the pain it’s getting you closer to meeting baby. And also I understand now why women want epidurals. Haha!! I get it. But I still didn’t want one. I weirdly loved all the sensations of labor. I said this is type two fun.
We had “like incense” playing by hillsong during transition and I remember a quick glimpse of hearing all the women downstairs singing along. I felt held in a way by their female presence but also their spirits communing with the divine along side of me to get this baby out.
And from there I went downstairs to do side lying position for 3 contractions (the worst pain of it all) and then stood up and had the urge to bear down.
That was a whole new sensation I had not felt before.
I got back into the tub because I wanted a water birth!
From the moment I got into the tub till she was born it was about 26 mins of pushing.
I could feel babies head when I went up to feel and knew it was game on. Baby was coming fast!
I could breath between contractions finally and take a break.
During the surges I breathed babies head down.
She crowned and holy shit I thought I was splitting in two!
I held her there so that my tissues could stretch out because I didn’t want to tear. She would go back a little then come forward, which I knew was normal.
Finally, I had to push her head out with a massive primal scream. I felt her head and sat with her in the water for a few contractions till I pushed her shoulders out.
She came up through the water bright-eyed and looking right at us!
Laid her on my chest and had sweet moments with her and Ian while I was in shock!!
Shock my body just did that. And then more shock when I went to look at the gender.
I think I was expecting a boy but she was indeed a little girl! Our Rosie girl.
After few minutes I got out of the bath to lay on the bed. She latched instantly while Kyrstal was helping me deliver my placenta. Once my placenta came out the midwives told me I had a very rare condition called velamentous cord insertion that happens in 1% of pregnancies.
Praise god baby girl was all safe and healthy throughout labor and me during pregnancy.
Midwives cleaned everything up and tucked us into bed. We all slept for hours!
And woke up to a new life with our Ruby Rose.
