This is our second child. Both times we’ve tried to have baby at our local birth center and have been unable to. On the bright side, I’ve been able to have two vaginal births without epidurals. Our last baby was born at 33w2d at 4lbs13ozs. This baby was 40w1d at 8lbs12ozs.

Started contractions are 5:30 am. Water broke at 7:45 and we were at the birth center by 8:20 where they checked me and I was 5cm and the baby was posterior. In order to run baby, I had to lay fully extended on a bed withy top leg swung over my body off the bed and my partner pushing my upper hip back towards the bed. I held that position for three contractions on each side and the three more in the hands and knees position. These were so much more painful than standing against a tall dresser during contractions which was my preferred place. Good news was the different positions seemed to do the trick and baby turned almost all the way around. I quickly progressed to 10cm and started to push.

It became apparent that the midwife and her assistant were a bit worried about baby’s heart rate as they were checking it after every contraction. Baby’s heart rate was decelerating into the 90s and 80s. Around 10:30 they said I needed to get baby out in the next few pushes or they’d have to transfer me to the hospital. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to move baby enough so they called the ambulance and hospital. The ride to the hospital was uneventful for me. My partner got to ride up front and he said he never before understood how horribly people drive around ambulances. Be careful and respectful, folks!

We arrived at the hospital at 11:59 and baby’s heart rate was still low. They thought it would take me 30-90 more minutes to birth baby on my own and they didn’t want to wait that long to get baby out so they recommended forceps which we agreed to let them try. I felt certain at this point we would end up with a cesarean birth. They gave me two topical numbing shots and then inserted the forceps one side at a time and pulled her out. My partner said watching them insert the forceps and then strain to pull out baby was pretty disturbing to watch. Eliza was born at 12:31 and her heart rate picked up right away. She is in great health and we’ll get to leave the hospital in the next 30 minutes.