Why Birth Outside Of The Hospital?

So you already heard this registered nurse give a testimonial for birth classes and why they are important… Now you get to hear her birth story about an out-of-hospital birth center. Why would an RN choose out of hospital birth when she works at a hospital? Caroline realized that she was a low-risk, healthy mom and that she didn’t fit into a category of “sick patient”. She envisioned a birth where her baby could gently transition from water to a bigger body of water with her dad helping to bring her to the surface. The midwifery care she received at Tree of Life Birth Center in Encinitas, California was exactly what she was looking for. Be sure to read her blog post on our website!

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Video Transcript:

– So before, we got to talk about classes with Care, and everything that went into it, and now, we get to share about how, what the payoff is, all the good stuff. So we get this little bundle of joy, before you saw her in there, and now she’s here. And she’s free in the world and. I always envisioned giving birth in water. Some place dark and quiet was what I had envisioned and I knew from the get go that a hospital wasn’t where I wanted to be. Is that okay to say? Did you?

– And I was just along for the ride. So whatever this woman was wanting. But I think it’s amazing the way that it was set up and done. It was just such an incredible experience, so if I was capable of giving birth I would want it exactly how she did it, so.

– The birth center were we went just happened to have a room called the moon room, where it had zero windows and it was all candle light lighting so it was very, it was perfect, it was exactly what I wanted to have.

– Big tub.

– And a big tub, yeah.

– The bed, the bathroom, everything, it was great, It was like being at home.

– It was. It was so nice that you could also get to go home just a few hours later If everything went smoothly.

– So I was three, or no, I’m sorry, two days late from my guess date and I was going out to dinner with a friend and as soon as we were getting in the car to go home I started feeling, it wasn’t a gush, but it was definitely a strong trickle. And just from where we were eating all the way home it just kept trickling in her car. I felt really bad because my water broke in her car. And then when we got home and that was about 8 p.m., and that was it, I didn’t feel anything. And so I called him, he was at the beach and watching the sunset. His last happy sunset. And I said, “Hey just so you know my water broke, “might wanna get home” And then nothing, and I was like, “Okay, maybe we’ll all watch a movie or “just take something off my mind of this.”

And I think we started watching some Netflix. And about ten o’clock I told him, “You know what? “You should probably go to sleep because this could be a long night.” And by that point we had already called the midwife and the doula, just to give them the heads up that “Hey, my water broke, but nothing else is happening, “so we’ll just let you know how it goes.” And so he went to bed and I was too anxious to go to sleep because I knew something was going to happen, I just didn’t know when it was going to happen. And about ten thirty, eleven, it started really ramping up. Just those period cramping feelings and so I just did what felt good to me. And at that moment being down on the hardwood floor on all fours felt good to me. So that’s exactly what I did.

And I remember I was trying to count my surges but I felt like I wasn’t doing them correctly because they were consistent and I thought “There is no way that I’m having back to back surges “right now, that’s just not possible.” But finally, it was about twelve thirty where I was like “Okay, now this is happening, it’s happening now.” I went in, got Blake and I said, “Wake up, I need help.” And as soon as I said that he came out and I immediately had to get back down on all fours ’cause I was having another surge. And I just started throwing up. I threw up all of my dinner and that’s when I said “Call the doula, call the midwife, “the baby is coming, this is happening.” And so, after he called them and the doula said she was on her way to our house–

– We started the tub.

– Yeah, we started a bath for us and our doula got here pretty quickly and as soon as she saw me she knew, “Oh yeah, this baby is coming now.” And she started counting the surges for me because at that point it was really hard for me to concentrate. And we got on the phone with the midwife, “She’s having back to back surges that are about a minute long, “and about a minute apart. “And I think that she’d be a lot more comfortable ” if she was in the big bath at the birth center. “So hopefully we can get going here soon.” And at that point it was about one thirty and I said, “we’ll be there at two.” Because I knew exactly how long it would take us to get there.

And as soon as we were all ready and set to go, I remember Rosie, our doula was saying “Let me know if you need to poop.” And at that moment I was like, “I do need to poop.” And so I knew that was my body telling me I need to start pushing, and I was like “Oh my gosh, I’m going to have this baby in the car.” And I was a little worried about getting in the car because I’ve heard stories about how your labor can actually stop when you move from place to place or if you don’t feel comfortable, or safe in a certain place anymore, and I really didn’t want that to happen. But it definitely did not stop, it just kept going and getting stronger.

– And my driving put at ease, probably.

– Yeah his driving was impeccable.

– Thanks.

– And we got to the birth center right at about 02:03, I remember looking at the clock. I remember looking at the clock. I walked butt naked from the parking lot,

– She did.

– To the birth center, like “I don’t care who sees me right now, “I’m having my baby.” And I walked right in and our midwife tried to check me and I was completely ready to go. And so she had already had the bath running for me at that point. So, we went in and I labored in a bunch of different positions that felt good to me. I was down on fours for a long time, I squatted on the toilet for a while, I was up and down in the bathtub, lots of squats that day. And so we got there at two and she was born at 05:30 a.m. And she was born in the water, in the bathtub there, which was exactly what I had envisioned and what I’d always wanted for her.

– I got to help catch her.

– Yeah, Blake got to help catch her which was a lot of fun and yeah we did skin to skin right away. And We had a short cord, so she only came up to about right here on me but that was okay. It was perfect. It was very fast, But it was everything that I wanted it to be. The surges were intense, for lack of a better word. It felt like, that feeling that you have when you throw up and you’re like, “Aww, I don’t want to throw up.” But as soon as you do you’re like “Ahh, it feels so much better.” That’s what it felt like, my vagina needed to throw up and as soon as I did it felt so much better. But I remember being in the thick of it and being down on all fours on the ground and I was in the middle of a contraction, I’m pretty sure I was screaming or grunting, one of the two. And I remember thinking, “Why don’t all women do this. “It would be so great if more women did this.” Like yes, it’s not fun but this is so awesome and I’m doing it. And that was in the middle of a surge and it just hit. Yeah, I was just so thankful that this was the route that I took and I just really wish that more women would take the same route.

– I was just amazed that she was doing what she was doing and bringing our daughter into the world. And this one, she doesn’t like to be touched, So I had to just do whatever I could do to be there for her. Bring water and just be on standby, and anything I could do to be there for her and support her in it. When she was coming out, well at one point the midwife wanted to check her again and had on the bed, and Caroline was–

– I asked to be checked.

– She asked to be checked, and she had just come from the right off the toilet.

– From the toilet.

– And she checked real quick and Caroline was saying, “No, no it hurts.” Lying down hurt her and–

– Lying down on your back really hurts.

– And for one brief moment, when she was checking.

– You want me to take her?

– You could see her hair, all this hair was coming out of Caroline’s vagina, it was crazy . And it was like it’s go time, she’s right there.