Raw, Real, and Beautiful: An Empowering Birth in the Green Room

This birth story emphasizes the importance of having a birth team you trust, the value of position changes and communication during labor, and the power that comes from trusting your instincts. Thank you, Kristin, for sharing your story with us, with all of its raw and real beauty. 

I woke up at 1:30am to go to the bathroom and realized I was having contractions. I tried to go back to sleep but my reflux and nausea with each contraction made that impossible, so I went downstairs and bounced on my exercise ball and watched movies. My husband worked from home just in case.

By around 10am they were consistent and intense enough that we decided to call in. I also started vomiting with particularly difficult contractions. We were instructed to wait until they were a little closer together then try to take a bath to see if they slowed down.

We decided to finish packing our bags since we knew we’d be going in soon. The bath minorly slowed things down but not long after getting out they then kicked into higher gear and got even more intense. We called back in and were told to come on in, they were preparing the green room for us.

It was a difficult 45 minute drive. Luckily, we had sick bags because I got sick again when we were almost there. When they checked me I was at 4 cm and fully effaced. My water broke as we were finishing the exam. I had to get 3 bags of fluid because I had a lot of ketones in my urine, which means my body was eating muscle because I was very dehydrated. They also told me baby was sunny side up.

When my doula arrived she helped guide me in different positions to encourage baby to flip. Eventually he flipped and when he did things kicked into higher gear. I kept begging to get in the tub but we needed to wait until I was done with the IV fluids. My best friend arrived during this time. Her, my doula, and my husband made a great team working together to support me through.

I was thoroughly in labor land so a lot of things are fuzzy. The tub felt amazing. The jets were wonderful but eventually it became too much and I could feel my body pushing despite my trying to stop. Eventually they instructed me to get out so they could check me. I think I was only in the tub for about an hour. Let me tell you, getting from the tub to the bed in the later stage of labor with a baby moving down was no easy feat.

I was only 8cm dilated but baby had already started descending and was at +1 station. They told me I needed to get on my hands and knees to take the pressure off so he wouldn’t descend any more until I was fully dilated. Moving from my back to my hands and knees was so difficult. It was so painful changing positions at that point.

After some time they checked me again. I tried so hard not to push but my body was still forcing it to happen. I was at 9cm and they moved my cervical lip behind baby’s head since my body kept pushing and wasn’t waiting. We started pushing and ended up in so many different positions.

After a while contractions started slowing down. My husband was instructed to do nipple stimulation which picked them back up. I was pushing with everything I had but baby wasn’t making a ton of progress. Then his heart rate started to drop. I moved to the bed and was given an episiotomy to get baby out since his heart rate kept dropping. I heard them talking about getting oxygen ready and was so scared.

I pushed with everything I had in me. I looked down after the biggest push, saw my baby’s face, and pulled him out and onto my chest. I couldn’t believe I had done it. After 23 hours of labor and 2.5 hours of pushing he was finally here.

He came out screaming with both of his hands up by his face. He was perfect. He was healthy, and he was ours. Evander William Scott was born on November 9th at 1242am weighing 8lb and 21 inches long.

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