< July 28, 2016 > 2:59 pm
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Every birth story is so beautifully and so uniquely written no matter how smooth or complicated your baby is born. My hope and prayer is Cora's story will encourage you to face whatever FEAR you may have in birth and trust God's faithfulness to face it courageously.
I share Cora's stats not for the "superwoman" factor but to share proof of what we as women are designed to do and capable of. I was at the Birth Center by 11am, delivered Cora by 3pm, taking an herbal bath at 4pm and home with our boys by 8pm. I faced all my personal fears of birth and God showed me His faithfulness in what an incredible miracle He designed birth to be. . . and to need only ONE stitch with her size just shows me what a true miracle an All-natural birth is.
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My pregnancy with Cora was one indescribably special journey. God brought me to a place where I was facing fears and growing to trust Him each step of the way. It was a waiting journey, ONE step of faith at a time and in the end I was learning to be fearless and believe in God's faithfulness to bring me through. All I ever knew was hospitals and epidurals and doctors asking if I needed help as if I was helpless. This time I determined to fight upstream with her birth and do things all natural with no pain interventions to fall back on. My midwives all believed in me and helped me find the courage to believe God gave me the strength to do this.
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It was the first cool day in weeks. The window was open with a perfect breeze coming through, Asher came in our room around 6am to snuggle and I started having deep, fist-clenching feeling contractions shortly after. We got up and started our day, I did some laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, made a pie and started wondering if these were the real kind of contractions. I had one intense one as I put the pie in the oven and then my pants were wet so I called hubs to come home then called my midwife. We got to the birth center by 11am and just took a few breaths in our cozy room. Our midwife suggested we walk across the street for lunch around 12:30 thinking I was just in early labor, it was almost as if she thought I came in too early but she optimistically said, "I believe you're going to have a baby today" even though at that point I didn't believe it, she had that confidence in me. I thought for sure she would say it was false labor or that wasn't my water breaking, which actually later find out nope it wasn't my water breaking, it was just loss of bladder control after an intense contraction. . . classy! I know.
We took a walk across the street to the hospital cafe and ate some lunch while my contractions were getting deeper. I had no idea where I was at in the process, you think I would know all the signs by my third delivery but here I was trying to eat and thinking I was fine since my midwife didn't seem rushed. By the time I finished eating at 1pm I was feeling contractions closer. I was still in denial this was all happening. We slowly trudged our way back across the street, stopping every 3 minutes to breathe through contractions and that's when the whirlwind of intensity began. I breathed through several bearable, but intense contractions for about an hour when my midwife asked if a bath would help relax me. I made it to the water tub still thinking I had some time to build up to her arrival as the bearable contactions continued rhythmically but in 20 loooong. . . I mean short minutes ;) and a few terrifying pushes, my precious, strong, warrior girl was out and laying on my chest. I say terrifying because in those moments, I was facing every fear in my head. It was a mind battle. I screamed at one point, "My mind is telling me I can't do this. No one believed I could do this with my boys. Please tell me I can do this." My midwife got my attention, locked eyes and firmly said, "Heidi you CAN do this. You are so strong. She is so close." So I pulled every ounce of my being together and with ONE more push her little body entered this world.
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I am simply amazed with God's abundant blessing over Cora's day of birth. We were able to snuggle her in a soft bed with scents of lavendar diffusing, lights dim and midwives quietly, considerately doing their exams so they could leave us to bond. They brought us fresh bread with honey from the farm and drew up a warm, herbal bath. The whole day was so. . . peaceful. It was. . . intense. It was. . .perfection and I am so humbled to have had such a beautiful experience. Cora is such a gift and we endured the storm of a natural water birth together. It is such an incredible miracle how smoothly she came into the world, how peaceful it was after the storm, how quickly I was up and walking and we were able to be home with our boys by 8pm... a truly blessed and joyful day, the day our Cora Joy was born.
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