This amazing ICAN of NN shared her beautiful birth story with us 💜 Enjoy! 19 months to VBACOur birth journey began in April 2011. We were living in San Francisco at the time, getting ready for our move to Reno in May 2011. We were ecstatic about our pregnancy! Upon moving to Reno, I promptly consulted a nurse that we knew in the area, found a credible doctor, and joined a prenatal yoga class. At the time, I thought that I would enroll us in a hospital birthing course and then I would have covered all of my bases.One of the many benefits of the prenatal yoga class was that other mommies would return to class after their birth to share their birth story with all of the expectant yogis. My true story begins the night that Deidre Blanton returned with her beautiful big boy, Khanen, to share her story. She talked about how she and her husband had carefully selected their doula, how she labored at home for many hours prior to their going to the hospital, and how her birth had taken a challenging turn requiring a cesarean section in lieu of what she had hoped would have been a natural, non-medicated birth. She raved about her doula and mentioned that not only was she fantastic, but she also gave the best prenatal massages. I was touched by her story, and truth be told very intrigued about these prenatal massages. I took note of her doula’s name, Tiffany Hoffman.About a week later, I visited my doctor for a routine prenatal check-up. To this point, my husband and I found Dr. M to be very gentle, open, and a good communicator. On this particular visit though, he was away at a birth and I was seen by a nurse practioner from his office. I found the visit to be a bit awkward. She didn’t know anything about me. Now, there wasn’t much to know at the time as my pregnancy had been very standard to date and without issue. But, I did leave thinking, “wow, we could end up at the hospital without having any familiar faces around.”All of this was enough for me to call Tiffany. My intent was to schedule a prenatal massage appointment and to get some information on what a doula process was all about and what it would be like working with her. At this point, I was 33 weeks along. The massage was wonderful and I was taken with Tiffany’s knowledge and passion for birth. I thought it made sense for her to come for a visit – I wanted to know more and I wanted Karl to meet her. It was at that meeting though that she posed a very specific question to us – “what’s your birth plan?” “Oh, well... we are going to do what everyone does, go into labor, head to the hospital, get medicated and have a baby,” we replied. Tiffany very calmly asked, “Why do you think you need to be medicated?” It was at that moment that I thought, “Oh man, this woman is going to present me with a challenge to go natural and because I know me, I am going to have no choice but to accept it!” But, quite the contrary. She had asked a very simple question that I found very difficult to answer. I didn’t really know why I didn’t think I could do it, I didn’t know anyone at the time who had tried, and I didn’t know why I didn’t think my body was equipped to handle a birth. We had a very heartfelt conversation, and Tiffany suggested that we get a bit more educated on the birth process. Genius! Why didn’t we think of that before? Karl and I have researched absolutely everything we have ever done, so why were we leaving this incredibly important process to chance?We started with watching the Business of Being Born, which Tiffany shared with us. About half way through the documentary (and after giving Rikki Lake a complete brain shift), we looked at each other and thought, “wow, why didn’t we know this? Maybe we should consider a natural birth after all.” That documentary completely shifted our view of birth and shook our beliefs about the medical community. We started reading and watching anything we could get our hands on. We were in it, we could do this, I could have this baby naturally. It was very important to us to make sure we decided to give birth in a place where we would feel safe and comfortable, and the hospital, we believed, still provided that for us.At my next appointment with Dr. M, during week 36, I excitedly told him of our intent to have a natural hospital birth. He seemed fine with the idea, and then added in, “I only have three requests: 1) that you have a saline lock in the event of unforeseen challenges [no problem!], 2) that you have a constant fetal monitor, so you won’t be able to travel much farther than the bed [wait a minute, that’s not going to be easy if I am going to do this naturally...I will very likely need to move around...], and 3) that you deliver on your back because that is the best way that I know how to catch babies [whoa! What about me, what if I am not comfortable on my back...and, what if you are not even there to put these requests into play, would another doctor be better or worse?].” We finished up the exam with Dr. M conducting an over the belly pelvic exam where he confirmed that the baby has head down and seemed to have dropped slightly. We should have our baby soon.But, something didn’t feel right. We continued our work with Tiffany. I relayed what had happened that day and she noted, “Well, there is another option. There is a nurse midwife in town that delivers in the hospital. She may still be willing to take you. She is more used to natural births and provides a more natural-friendly environment whereby you can use a tub during labor and more likely get nurses who will not encourage you to get an epidural.” So, at week 37, Karl and I went to meet with N.M. From the moment we met her, she was wonderful. She listened to our story and she agreed to take us on, even at this late stage. We would, of course, have to end our relationship with Dr. M. That was not easy, but I believe we did it gracefully, and I noted to him that I thought my best chance for a natural birth would be in N.M.’s care.The following week, now week 38, we visited N.M. for our first exam. She did a pelvic exam and looked puzzled. She then returned with a fetal monitor. I remember her words so clearly, “aha, yep, this baby is breech.” What??? Wait, no, we just left our doctor because we wanted our best chance at a natural delivery! Breech? We hadn’t considered this possibility. I was deflated. This started a chain reaction of two weeks of every attempt possible to turn our baby – laying upside on an ironing board, yoga poses, an external cephalic version in the hospital, chiropractor visits, visualizations, and acupuncture. I remember giving my Mom the news. “It’s just news,” she said, “it’s not bad, it’s just not what you thought.” It struck me then that your lineage plays such a role in these affairs. She and my grandmother had given birth to seven babies collectively without a cesarean. My Dad’s mom and his sisters, same thing. It just hadn’t occurred to me, not like this. I was going to have Karl and Tiffany and we were going to make this magic happen! In many ways, those weeks were my grieving period and my acceptance that I had no control over this process, a virtue I have learned to embrace as a mother.On December 30, 2011 (my due date), Karl and I visited N.M.’s office. I knew there had not been the miraculous late stage turn of the baby, but N.M. checked, of course, just to be sure. We decided with N.M. that we would at least let me go into labor naturally. The only way to deliver a breech baby in Nevada is through a home birth and that was outside of our comfort zone then. The thought of picking our daughter’s birthday just didn’t seem right for us. N.M. agreed that we could wait so long as I didn’t go past 42 weeks and that things looked normal. At that visit she noted that I hadn’t in fact dropped at all and that we may be waiting longer than we had hoped for our baby. We were so anxious!Karl and I decided that we needed a change of scenery, at least for a night. We booked a room at the Hyatt in Incline Village (only thirty minutes away from our house) – after all, they had a heated pool, and we hadn’t yet tried somersaults in the water, one other noted way to turn breech babies! After nine somersaults, we treated ourselves to a delicious dinner and went to bed. Around 3am, I woke up. My arms felt a bit swollen and tight. I used the restroom and realized that when I stood up, I was still going. Uh oh. “Um, hey Karl...I think my water just broke!” Ah!!!I immediately called Tiffany, who answered as if she was expecting my call. She called N.M. and our plan was to get to St. Mary’s as quickly as possible, especially since this was my first birth and we had no idea what to expect in terms of response time from my body. We arrived at the hospital around 4:30am (after walking through the lobby of the hopping Incline casino in yoga pants, having stolen one of their towels (so sorry!), cont in comments...
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 06:16:02 +0000
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