Trevor's Birth Story
A mother's perspective:

Around 3:30am on July 23, 2004, I woke up with what I thought was a stomachache, and I went back to sleep. At 7am, I lost my mucous plug and realized that I was actually in labor, so I woke up my mom. At 8am, I called Jackie, my doula, to let her know what was going on. By 8:30am, the contractions were 5 minutes apart, lasting about 30 seconds, so I called the midwives. Lisa told me to call her when the contractions were lasting longer or were 3 minutes apart. The contractions just felt like the discomfort of menstrual cramps, and was relieved by doing pelvic rocks. At 11am, Jackie came over my house because the contractions were starting to get harder to work with. She reminded me to take them one at a time, and she got me on a birthing ball. Later, I got in the Jacuzzi to ease the pain. By 2pm, I knew it was time to go to the hospital, so I called Lisa and left. When I arrived at my room at 2:30pm, I was already 8cm dilated. Lisa helped me in the tub, where I stayed until I started getting too hot. I sat on the toilet to go to the bathroom, and my baby started really descending. Lisa told me not to push until I got on the birthing stool, but I did sneak a few in. Once on the birthing stool, I pushed for about 7 minutes, and my son was born at 3:17pm. My mom cut the cord, and I fell in love with my baby.

A doula's perspective:

Michele's entire labor experience was what every woman envisions as perfect as we both agreed that there was not one thing that could have been improved upon. Her call to me at 8 a.m. revealed that she had been in early labor since 3:30 a.m. She sounded great and said that she was starting to pause during sporadically frequent contractions but was feeling great in between. When I checked in with her again at 11 a.m., I could sense a tension to her voice that wasn't there before and I wasn't surprised to hear that her contractions were now 5 minutes apart. I arrived at 11:45 a.m. to find her putting on make-up, but she truly was stopped cold during the peak of each contraction. We labored together for a couple of hours at home, eating light and staying hydrated while using the birth ball (really a hippity-hop), movement, breathing and the tub. I started timing contractions again at about 1:30 p.m. at which time she seemed really anxious to get to the hospital. Soon after our arrival at the hospital at about 2 p.m., Michele expressed that she had to go to the bathroom - BADLY. I must admit that everyone in the room cheered, knowing that it meant that the baby was on the move. At this point the midwife's exam revealed that Michele was 8 centimeters (insert another cheer here!). We immediately moved to the bathroom and ran the tub for a planned water birth. Michele labored there for a very brief period when she practically dove out of the tub because she couldn't stand how hot she had become. One more contraction brought the baby to crowning, with just enough time to swing over to the birth stool where the baby literally slid out all in the next contraction.

Michele had great control during her entire labor and birth due to a very supportive mother, the care of excellent midwives and, I'd like to believe, her doula. She had moments, as every woman does, of tremendous self-doubt. However, with gentle reminders of her ability to birth, her self-confidence certainly overrode these moments to create a consistently positive birth environment. Upon seeing her baby, she absolutely LOVED him telling us "no really, he really is the cutest baby ever".