The Healing Birth of Lucas

Lucas is my second son, but his big brother, Alex, was not born at LCW. Receiving care at LWC was part of the dream come true for me and my husband, Chris, when we decided to expand our family.

Lucas’s birth was healing for both me and Chris. The first words I said after Lucas arrived were, “I want him. Look honey, I’m holding him.” These words were important because I had experienced a very traumatic birth with Alex (in July 2014) and was crippled with severe postpartum depression from the second he was born. I couldn’t even hold my baby Alex at first because I was so out of it.

But there I was on November 12, 2018, holding Lucas on my chest and feeling the first moments after birth, where the elation of meeting my son made the difficult pregnancy, the intense labor, the fears, the doubts, all worth it.

What the LCW staff did for me, through their knowledge and compassion, was allow me to experience the birth I wanted. I felt empowered and powerful. I proved to myself that I was capable of birthing a baby with the dignity and unwavering support I was not given before. There were moments I doubted my own ability to get through labor because of pain but everyone in the room helped me right through until my sunny side up boy popped out!!

4 hours of active labor, 29 minutes pushing, and an episiotomy later, Lucas arrived weighing 6lbs 7oz.

These memories will remain with me and Chris forever and we will always be grateful for midwife Julie, nurse Kelsey, and the other women attending Lucas’s birth.