Latest / MyMaine Birth / 137. MyMaine Birth: Choosing Hospital Induction with Autonomy, Miranda's Waldo Hospital Birth Story

Transcript

137. MyMaine Birth: Choosing Hospital Induction with Autonomy, Miranda's Waldo Hospital Birth Story · MyMaine Birth

• 0:00
  Miranda: I had lots of like evenings where it seemed like I was maybe going into labor starting even like like two weeks before my due date.
• 0:09
  Miranda: My official due date was December 31st.
• 0:12
  Miranda: So even two weeks before I was feeling like, well, maybe something's happening.
• 0:18
  Miranda: But nothing really lasted through the night all the way up until again I was two weeks past my due date, past my real due date that like based on ovulation.
• 0:30
  Miranda: And so I definitely was feeling like he was not engaged, he wasn't moving down.
• 0:40
  Miranda: I would have my check with Morgan and she would say, you know, like he's still kind of high up in your pelvis, and it was always like off to the right.
• 0:49
  Miranda: And so I was doing lots of exercises and lots of inversions and stuff like that.
• 0:55
  Miranda: I went swimming, um, not even really to start labor, just to like get him moved down.
• 1:01
  Miranda: And nothing really seemed to stick.
• 1:06
  Miranda: But I also I wasn't too worried about it because I knew that you could even go to labor into labor without your baby being moved all the way down and they're gonna move down.
• 1:16
  Miranda: So I wasn't too worried about it, and even I got to 42 weeks and had my biophysical scan planned for that day, which I had had with Nora because she was more than two weeks overdue.
• 1:32
  Miranda: And when I went in, everything looked fine.
• 1:34
  Miranda: So I assumed it was gonna be the same thing, and so I went in and it was not the same, it was not good.
• 1:42
  Miranda: He did not pass the biophysical, and I I just didn't even realize what was happening that she was just doing the scan, and I was like, I didn't know any difference.
• 1:55
  Miranda: So when it got to the end, she was like, Okay, well, I'm gonna send you up to the midwife because you need to make a plan for the rest of the day.
• 2:02
  Miranda: I was like, I don't, what are you talking about?
• 2:04
  Miranda: And she was like, Well, we reached our 30-minute time.
• 2:07
  Miranda: Like, I can't wait any longer to get these things checked off.
• 2:11
  Miranda: And like, he does not meet the criteria, like he doesn't pass.
• 2:15
  Miranda: I was like, oh, okay, this is kind of getting intense now.
• 2:20
  Angela: I'm Angela, and I'm a certified birth photographer, experienced duela, childbirth educator, and your host here on the My Main Birth podcast.
• 2:29
  Angela: This is a space where we share the real life stories of families and their unique birth experiences in the beautiful state of Maine.
• 2:37
  Angela: From our state's biggest hospitals to birth center births and home births, every birth story deserves to be heard and celebrated.
• 2:46
  Angela: Whether you're a seem-to-be mom, a seasoned mother, or simply interested in the world of birth, these episodes are for you.
• 2:54
  Angela: Welcome back.
• 2:56
  Angela: You're listening to episode 137 of My Main Birth.
• 3:01
  Angela: Today's birth story guest is Miranda, and Miranda shared her first two birth stories back in episode 18.
• 3:10
  Angela: So go check that out to hear the first part of her story.
• 3:13
  Angela: And today she's back to share her third birth story with us.
• 3:17
  Angela: Hi Miranda, welcome back to My Main Birth.
• 3:21
  Angela: Hi.
• 3:22
  Angela: So you shared your first two birth stories back in episode 18 of the podcast.
• 3:27
  Angela: But for anyone that might not have heard that, would you start by sharing a little bit about you and your family?
• 3:35
  Miranda: Yes.
• 3:36
  Miranda: Um, my name is Miranda.
• 3:37
  Miranda: I we have three kids with my husband, Ian.
• 3:41
  Miranda: He's a pastor.
• 3:42
  Miranda: We live in rural Maine.
• 3:44
  Miranda: I'm a stay-at-home mom.
• 3:45
  Miranda: I'm a homemaker.
• 3:48
  Angela: Awesome.
• 3:49
  Angela: So you shared your first two birth stories back in episode 18 of the podcast in this one.
• 3:56
  Angela: And just for anyone that might not have heard that, would you just share like briefly about your first two stories?
• 4:03
  Miranda: Yeah.
• 4:03
  Miranda: So um, my firstborn, my daughter, she is now four and a half.
• 4:09
  Miranda: Um, she was born at Holly number seven.
• 4:12
  Miranda: Um, she was like a pretty uncomplicated birth, uncomplicated pregnancy.
• 4:18
  Miranda: Um, but then she had a heart defect that we found postpartum, just like one day postpartum.
• 4:24
  Miranda: So we did the whole Boston Children's Hospital and heart surgery and everything.
• 4:29
  Miranda: Um, and now she's like healthy and thriving and stuff.
• 4:32
  Miranda: But that was definitely like an intense transition into motherhood.
• 4:36
  Miranda: Um and then at probably 10 or 11 months postpartum, I found out I was pregnant, had a really early loss at like six weeks, and then found out I was pregnant with my son.
• 4:55
  Miranda: And he was born in April of 2023, and he was a home birth here at our parsonage in Liberty, easy pregnancy, pregnancy, easy labor.
• 5:10
  Miranda: He was pretty fast.
• 5:12
  Miranda: The only tricky thing with his birth was just that like our family had had a stomach bug, and so we were all sick, and it was on his due date, and I was like, there's no way I'm gonna go into labor.
• 5:25
  Miranda: Like her her birth was she was like two and a half weeks over due, so I was like not worried about it.
• 5:30
  Miranda: And then after we'd all been sick during the day, I started having contractions.
• 5:35
  Miranda: I think just from like throwing up so much, you know, it just activated it, and then he was born, I think maybe like six hours later.
• 5:44
  Miranda: So he was pretty fast.
• 5:46
  Angela: So, how did you find out you were pregnant for the third time?
• 5:49
  Angela: Yeah, and what were your thoughts in choosing your care after that?
• 5:53
  Miranda: So I did have another early loss, a same thing around six weeks in between my second and third, and that was just about one year postpartum.
• 6:05
  Miranda: And so after I found out I was pregnant again, I had been kind of researching like the progesterone link with early losses, and so found out I was pregnant again, and that day I called Waldo, which doesn't have a birth center now, but used to, and asked them about progesterone.
• 6:27
  Miranda: And they had kind of already had my medical history from seeing them.
• 6:30
  Miranda: I've done like dual care for all of them where I've done a few things just for like insurance and stuff, um, some tests or like needing to check in when my midwife wasn't available.
• 6:40
  Miranda: So I have a I had a pretty good relationship with the hospital in Belfast Midwives, and they said, like, yeah, you know, you you meet the criteria for trying the progesterone, and they didn't even need to see me or anything, they just called it in for that day, which was really really sweet.
• 6:57
  Miranda: And so I started taking that that day, and everything went pretty smoothly from then.
• 7:06
  Miranda: And I knew that like even if I waited until the first time that I would be able to see someone, like based on my history, that it would already be too late because if you keep having these like at right at the six-week mark, that's like pretty clear what's going on.
• 7:20
  Miranda: So, or at least it was for me.
• 7:22
  Miranda: Um, and so I had uh good success with that, and I did dual care again with the hospital midwives, and I started seeing Morgan Titus Rao for my home birth plan.
• 7:37
  Miranda: Shh, so I went and saw her, and everything went pretty smoothly for that first trimester.
• 7:44
  Miranda: I think maybe I even didn't see her until the second trimester because she was kind of on on vacation.
• 7:50
  Miranda: I found out I was pregnant um with this baby just like a few days before my second son's first birthday.
• 7:57
  Miranda: So it's all in the kind of the same time range.
• 8:00
  Miranda: Yeah, and then his pregnancy went really smoothly.
• 8:04
  Miranda: It was just like every time I tried to go off progesterone, because at the hospital, they'll say like there's no benefits of staying on past like 12 weeks or whatever.
• 8:14
  Miranda: And so I would try for a few days and I would get so much morning sickness and I would like break out really badly.
• 8:22
  Miranda: I had all of these like big pregnancy symptoms that would come back, and so I would go back on it and everything would go away and it would be really easy.
• 8:30
  Miranda: So I talked to Morgan about it, and I was like, all of these things are so helped.
• 8:35
  Miranda: Like, is there any way that I can stay on?
• 8:38
  Miranda: And she was like, Oh yeah, totally.
• 8:40
  Miranda: So she um she got me a prescription, she switched me from like the suppository to just an oral progesterone of a little bit lower dose.
• 8:50
  Miranda: Um, and I took that all the way through even postpartum because it can help with like postpartum depression and stuff like that, too.
• 8:58
  Miranda: So yeah, it was really good.
• 9:00
  Miranda: I I really liked Morgan, she was really sweet, and the hospital midwives were great.
• 9:05
  Miranda: I did have a dating ultrasound because I just had some kind of intuition or something, some feeling that if I ended up in the hospital, my due date was gonna be completely wrong because the last time I had a quote bleed was my miscarriage.
• 9:23
  Miranda: And so they in the hospital they were calculating my due date as from that, which I knew was not going to be correct, and like I knew when I ovulated and all this stuff, so I had the dating ultrasound and it lined up exactly with what I said it would have been from based on the ovulation.
• 9:44
  Miranda: So that was good.
• 9:46
  Miranda: It was nice to have that confirmation, and then I had that on record and just in case, and then ended up needing to use it.
• 9:54
  Angela: So wow.
• 9:56
  Angela: So how are you feeling throughout this pregnancy, like overall?
• 10:00
  Miranda: Yeah, so I felt really good.
• 10:02
  Miranda: I think this was kind of my easiest, like I felt the best in my body, and getting towards the end, we did have to fly, or we chose to fly at around like 37 weeks, which is pretty late, but it was some quick flights, like hour and a half, um, out for a wedding for my brother-in-law.
• 10:27
  Miranda: So we chose to do that and tried to like plan for everything, like swelling and all that kind of stuff.
• 10:35
  Miranda: And my midwife said she was comfortable with it.
• 10:38
  Miranda: I felt comfortable with it.
• 10:39
  Miranda: I had no kind of like swelling or high blood pressure or anything like that.
• 10:44
  Miranda: So um we did that.
• 10:46
  Miranda: It was definitely intense just because being so pregnant, it's really intense to do anything, but it was good.
• 10:52
  Miranda: I'm glad we did it.
• 10:54
  Miranda: And then we kind of got back from that and started waiting.
• 10:59
  Miranda: I had lots of like evenings where it seemed like I was maybe going into labor, starting even like two weeks before my due date.
• 11:08
  Miranda: My official due date was December 31st.
• 11:11
  Miranda: So even two weeks before, I was feeling like, well, maybe something's happening, but nothing really lasted through the night all the way up until again I was two weeks past my due date, past my real due date that like based on ovulation.
• 11:30
  Miranda: And so I definitely was feeling like he was not engaged, he wasn't moving down.
• 11:40
  Miranda: I would have my check with Morgan, and she would say, you know, like he's still kind of high up in your pelvis, and it was always like off to the right, and so I was doing lots of exercises and lots of inversions and stuff like that.
• 11:54
  Miranda: I went swimming, um, not even really to start labor, just to like get moved down.
• 12:01
  Miranda: And nothing really seemed to stick, but I also I wasn't too worried about it because I knew that you could even go to labor into labor without your baby being moved all the way down and they're gonna move down.
• 12:16
  Miranda: So I wasn't too worried about it, and even I got to 42 weeks and had my biophysical scan planned for that day, which I had had with Nora because she was more than two weeks overdue, and when I went in, everything looked fine.
• 12:33
  Miranda: So I assumed it was gonna be the same thing, and so I went in and it was not the same, it was not good.
• 12:42
  Miranda: Um, he did not pass the biophysical, and I I just didn't even realize what was happening that she was just doing the scan, and I was like, I didn't know any different.
• 12:55
  Miranda: So when it got to the end, she was like, Okay, well, I'm gonna send you up to the midwife because you need to make a plan for the rest of the day.
• 13:02
  Miranda: I was like, I don't, what are you talking about?
• 13:04
  Miranda: And she was like, Well, we reached our 30-minute time, like I can't wait any longer to get these things checked off, and like he does not meet the criteria, like he doesn't pass.
• 13:15
  Miranda: I was like, Oh, okay, this is kind of getting intense now.
• 13:19
  Miranda: And so I went up to the midwife upstairs, and it was someone that I hadn't seen during the early part of my pregnancy.
• 13:29
  Miranda: So she just kind of was like, you know that your baby needs to be born today, right?
• 13:36
  Miranda: And I was like, No, like what are you talking about?
• 13:40
  Miranda: She was like, um, it's it's not an emergency, but it needs to happen today.
• 13:46
  Miranda: And so I was like, okay, and things were kind of slowly unfolding, like what they were actually talking about.
• 13:53
  Miranda: Like, okay, he's not doing practice breathing.
• 13:57
  Miranda: He, your amniotic food looks good, but he's pretty limp in there, like he's not moving around a lot.
• 14:03
  Miranda: And so it was a little bit tricky getting information back and forth between the hospital and Morgan because she was waiting to hear how everything had gone.
• 14:13
  Miranda: And based on what they said to me when I called her, I thought there was still an option of like, well, maybe I'll go home and we'll try something.
• 14:21
  Miranda: Like, maybe we'll try castor oil.
• 14:23
  Miranda: And so she had left it up to me on the phone.
• 14:26
  Miranda: She said, based on what it sounds like, we could go home and try something.
• 14:32
  Miranda: I said, okay.
• 14:33
  Miranda: But she said, she said, you know, babies only have a few ways of telling us when something is wrong.
• 14:42
  Miranda: And so that kind of stuck with me.
• 14:43
  Miranda: I was like, okay, you're that's right.
• 14:46
  Miranda: That's there's only a few things we can look at to see if baby's doing okay.
• 14:50
  Miranda: And so I just felt like staying in the hospital was the right thing to do.
• 14:56
  Miranda: And then even I heard about this afterwards, but she said when the ultrasound results were finally faxed through to her, I had already made the decision.
• 15:05
  Miranda: We'd already been off the phone.
• 15:07
  Miranda: But when she got the fax, she was like, Oh no, we I can't do this at home.
• 15:12
  Miranda: Like it was far beyond, which I didn't know at the time.
• 15:15
  Miranda: So it was kind of nice to have it feel like it was open and to be able to make the decision and feel at peace about it.
• 15:24
  Miranda: And then even finding out afterwards is like it's we're not gonna be going home to do this.
• 15:31
  Miranda: But I did um I did go home and pack up my bag.
• 15:38
  Miranda: They said they said to go right up to labor and delivery, but I wasn't quite ready to do that because I was still like, this wasn't the plan.
• 15:47
  Miranda: So we're only 20 minutes from the hospital.
• 15:50
  Miranda: So I drove home and packed up my stuff.
• 15:53
  Miranda: I also got a membrane sweep in the office, so that was probably like around noon.
• 15:58
  Miranda: She offered to do that for me, and they said I really wasn't having any contractions, I wasn't really in early labor, and I started to have cramps from the membrane sweep, even just driving home and getting stuff, and I picked up my husband, and I was like, I'm a little freaked out, like, I don't want to go into the hospital, and it was even just like slowly dawning on me that we were gonna be starting an induction process, which is like aside from being in the hospital, that's like even further away from what I wanted to do, and so that was kind of dawning on me.
• 16:39
  Miranda: So that was making me sad and stressed, and so I was even like trying to talk my way out of it when we were in the hospital because we started to do the non-stress test, and then all of a sudden he was moving a bunch.
• 16:54
  Miranda: So I was like, if he's moving a bunch, can we just go home and wait to see if I go into labor?
• 17:00
  Miranda: And they were like, No, not really.
• 17:02
  Miranda: Like, it's like okay, and everyone was sweet, they all kind of understood that I didn't want to be there, so they were like, We're gonna try to make this the best experience we can, even though we know you would rather be at home, but no one was like snarky about it or anything, everyone was really sweet, and so trying to see the time, we went into the hospital.
• 17:30
  Miranda: We got up to into labor and delivery at like one, and they gave me a couple different options for induction.
• 17:41
  Miranda: They said we could do the foleybulb, we could do some pitocin, or you could take a couple doses of cytotech through the night, and so I opted for that because I hate IVs and I didn't want anything like physically on me or in me.
• 17:59
  Miranda: That just freaked me out.
• 18:01
  Miranda: And I pushed back a little bit on the hand IV because I just have a very low tolerance for any like anything touching me in labor, and like the the IV just really freaks me out.
• 18:19
  Miranda: So I tried to tell them like, no, I would rather be in labor than have you put an IV in.
• 18:25
  Miranda: And they were like, it's really not that bad.
• 18:27
  Miranda: I was like, no, for me it is, for me it is.
• 18:30
  Miranda: So I did I did the IV with nothing attached to it, and I had the belly band with the monitor, and they gave me a dose of cytotech, and then everyone just cleared it out.
• 18:44
  Miranda: They wanted to give me space to process, which I appreciate, and everyone kind of anticipated that they would be checking in in maybe like five hours before shift change, and then letting nighttime like most likely this baby was going to be born early the next day or you know, mid to late next day.
• 19:05
  Miranda: And so everyone left, midwife left, there was no nurses.
• 19:10
  Miranda: We contacted Morgan just to let her know that we were settled in, but I didn't want anyone to come and just hang out with me at the hospital.
• 19:20
  Miranda: I was like, I'm fine with just Ian, just my husband here.
• 19:23
  Miranda: I didn't want to have my mom come in and be here forever.
• 19:26
  Miranda: I was thinking we were probably even gonna sleep during the night.
• 19:30
  Miranda: Like, I just didn't know what to anticipate, so we didn't have anyone come in.
• 19:35
  Miranda: And Ian went and like got food.
• 19:38
  Miranda: He was gonna get lunch, so he was gone for a little bit, and I was by myself, and the cramps and everything just kept getting really intense, and I was like, I feel really sick, like this is like really bad, like period cramping, and I felt like so gassy and everything hurt, and I was like, man, if this is from the membrane sweep, like this is really intense.
• 20:04
  Miranda: And I thought there's no way it's from the side of tech because I took it 15 minutes ago at one, and so I just kept going back and forth from the bathroom, and then Ian finally got back from getting food, and I was like, I just it really hurts.
• 20:21
  Miranda: And we had someone come in.
• 20:25
  Miranda: I was like pretty intensely working through contractions, and but it had only been like a half an hour, so someone came in, he was like, I'm here to do a uh blood draw.
• 20:36
  Miranda: Can we get a blood draw on you?
• 20:38
  Miranda: And I was like sweating.
• 20:40
  Miranda: I was like, um, maybe we can try.
• 20:42
  Miranda: So I was sitting on the birth ball and I had like my hand on the bed and I was just slumped over, and he was trying to get it, and then I think like finally he understood the vibe in the room.
• 20:53
  Miranda: He was like, Um, I think I'm gonna come back in a little bit.
• 20:56
  Miranda: We're like, okay, thank you.
• 20:59
  Miranda: And I just kept going back into the bathroom because the only thing that was comfortable was just sitting on the toilet, and so I didn't want anyone to come in.
• 21:08
  Miranda: I just wanted to be by myself.
• 21:10
  Miranda: And because I thought that we were gonna be doing this all night, I was very upset and anxious, like that I was going to be feeling this way all night.
• 21:22
  Miranda: And I did not know how I was going to cope with this.
• 21:29
  Miranda: Like, this is harder than any kind of early labor that I had experienced.
• 21:34
  Miranda: Um, and so I waited for the nurse to come back in and I was like, Can you please just tell me if I'm having real contractions?
• 21:44
  Miranda: Because I don't even know what this is.
• 21:46
  Miranda: Like, this is still just cramping from the membrane sweep.
• 21:50
  Miranda: I don't know what I'm gonna do.
• 21:51
  Miranda: And she's like, No, I think these are real contractions.
• 21:54
  Miranda: I was like, Okay, good, that's at least something.
• 21:58
  Miranda: And um, she kind of checked on me, whatever, and I asked to fill up the tub.
• 22:05
  Miranda: She's like, totally, we can do that.
• 22:07
  Miranda: And so we started filling up the tub, and I was just completely out of it.
• 22:14
  Miranda: And I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do, and kind of spiraling.
• 22:20
  Miranda: And so getting in the tub was really good.
• 22:22
  Miranda: That helped me like feel settled and like, okay, maybe I can, I don't know, like just I felt like I had lost control and it was too early to lose control.
• 22:34
  Miranda: Like, you can lose control at the end of labor, but like I felt like I wasn't managing and I still had a long way to go.
• 22:42
  Miranda: So it was good to hear that there were real contractions, and it was good to get in the tub, and she kind of just left again.
• 22:49
  Miranda: She was making some notes on her computer, and then I knew that he was gonna come out.
• 22:57
  Miranda: I had been in the tub for like 15 minutes, and I was like, uh, his head's in my hand, his head's in my hand, and he came so fast.
• 23:07
  Miranda: The nurse ran over.
• 23:10
  Miranda: She was completely freaked out.
• 23:13
  Miranda: I was fully in the water.
• 23:14
  Miranda: She was like, um, stand up, stand up.
• 23:17
  Miranda: I was like, no, I can't.
• 23:19
  Miranda: Um, oh, before I'd gotten the tub, I told her I was gonna take the belly band off, and I told her I was gonna take the IV out.
• 23:26
  Miranda: And she was like, I really want you to keep the IV in.
• 23:29
  Miranda: And I was like, no, I can't.
• 23:31
  Miranda: It's gonna come out.
• 23:33
  Miranda: And now in retrospect, I know that's because I was in transition and I like needed to be free of anything.
• 23:41
  Miranda: Like I needed to just be me.
• 23:44
  Angela: Did you pull it out or did you ask them to take it out?
• 23:47
  Miranda: Um, no, she came over and she did the tape and like kind of pull it out, so that was good.
• 23:52
  Miranda: But I had taken the belly band off and um yeah, and he his head came out in the tub.
• 23:58
  Miranda: It was like fully fetal ejection reflex in the tub, and she wanted me to stand up.
• 24:05
  Miranda: She had like rung with the emergency bell, and it was her.
• 24:09
  Miranda: Ian was there, and then another woman, I don't know what her job was, but like she wasn't in scrubs, she was in like a suit, and she was standing there.
• 24:19
  Miranda: She was like, Ah, I can help if I need to.
• 24:21
  Miranda: They all had gloves on, and so he was born in the water, he was born in the sack, he was born on call under the water, and they kind of helped me um pull him up out of the water, and then I was just kind of standing against the wall, and he was there, he was born at 444, so from one to four forty four was my whole labor, and it was very intense, but then even just the minute that his head came out, I was like, Oh, of course, this has been like I now I know that that was transition, that was everything, it just was very condensed, and so they kind of helped me dry him off a little bit when we were standing up, and then I was able to step out of the tub.
• 25:13
  Miranda: Um, I had never had a baby born in the water, so I hadn't needed to like get up and walk so quickly, so I was a little like freaked out about that, and of course, because babies aren't supposed to be born in the water in Waldo Hospital, they wanted me to get out as soon as possible.
• 25:33
  Miranda: So they were like, Let's get you to the bed.
• 25:35
  Miranda: Um, and then I had him in the bed, and I was fully in the bed, dried off.
• 25:42
  Miranda: He was on me.
• 25:43
  Miranda: We were all wrapped up before the midwife came in and she was like sprinting.
• 25:47
  Miranda: She had been on the other side of the hospital, and she was like, I'm here, and then she saw everything.
• 25:53
  Miranda: She's like, Okay, everything already happened, I guess.
• 25:56
  Miranda: So that was pretty cool.
• 25:58
  Miranda: Yeah, and it was awesome.
• 26:00
  Miranda: And everyone was very sweet and congratulatory and impressed.
• 26:07
  Miranda: And then I think Ian must have called my mom and the midwife when I got in the tub and said, you know, you guys should probably head over here.
• 26:18
  Miranda: So they got to the hospital maybe 10 minutes after I had gotten dried off and everything.
• 26:24
  Miranda: And so they came in and hugged us and everything.
• 26:30
  Miranda: It was very sweet.
• 26:31
  Miranda: And and I'm so glad that Morgan came to the hospital after he was born because she helped us manage everything afterwards because we hadn't really had to manage with any hospital people before because it was so fast.
• 26:45
  Miranda: Then afterwards, we had her so we could kind of just check out, and she handled all the questions and everything, and it was basically just a lot of no thank yous, and she helped us get out really quickly.
• 27:00
  Miranda: They said an hour was, I don't know if that's like a legal thing, but they were like, we need you to stay for an hour, and we were like, we can give you an hour, that's it.
• 27:09
  Miranda: And I needed to go pee before we could leave, which was hard because it was so fast, it took me a while to be able to go, but yeah, people brought me food and drinks, and we hung out for I think maybe we were there for two hours because we were home and in bed before six o'clock.
• 27:33
  Miranda: So it was like basically just yeah, getting weighed and measured, and I didn't have any tearing, I don't think, not that needed to be stitched up.
• 27:48
  Miranda: And yeah, Morgan was really, really the hero afterwards, handling everything and even all like the newborn exam stuff.
• 27:56
  Miranda: She's like, we're gonna do that in the morning.
• 27:58
  Miranda: I'll be there in the morning.
• 27:59
  Miranda: Like, don't worry about it.
• 28:00
  Miranda: So I really didn't have to like have him away from me at all.
• 28:04
  Miranda: So yeah.
• 28:06
  Angela: Wow, oh my gosh, that's amazing.
• 28:08
  Angela: That's yeah, helpful to have her there postpartum.
• 28:11
  Angela: So did you have to sign like an AMA paper to leave that soon, or was it kind of like she was there to like facilitate that?
• 28:17
  Angela: So she was like, I'll check be checking on them, and they didn't make you sign that.
• 28:21
  Miranda: Yeah, it wasn't it, yeah, it wasn't like a a denial of medical care.
• 28:27
  Miranda: It was more like we're gonna do these things when we get home.
• 28:31
  Miranda: Like, so yeah, they didn't make us feel too stressed about like the legal aspect of it.
• 28:37
  Miranda: Like everyone kind of just understood that we were gonna kind of proceed as if it had been a home birth when we got home.
• 28:44
  Miranda: So it was pretty easy.
• 28:46
  Miranda: And honestly, it was like right before shift change, and they were at the end, it was only gonna be a couple months before they were closed, anyways.
• 28:56
  Miranda: So it kind of felt like you're you're good.
• 28:58
  Miranda: We believe that you're taking care of your baby and Morgan's taking care of you.
• 29:03
  Miranda: So we're we're not really gonna concern ourselves with what's going on there.
• 29:07
  Angela: Wow, that's so good.
• 29:08
  Angela: Wow.
• 29:09
  Angela: So going back to like when your baby was born, did you end up standing up for the birth or did you stay sitting down and kind of just ignore them because you knew like what you're doing?
• 29:19
  Miranda: I didn't, yeah.
• 29:19
  Miranda: I didn't get out of the tub.
• 29:21
  Miranda: I was kind of already on my knees.
• 29:24
  Miranda: Yeah, I was just squatting in the water and I was have I had my um hands on the tub because those tubs are so tall, like they are good for laboring in.
• 29:34
  Miranda: And yeah, I I I couldn't, I don't think I could have even stood up and gotten out of the tub if I wanted to.
• 29:41
  Miranda: Like that was just so crazy to me.
• 29:43
  Miranda: So yeah, he was born, he was fully under the water.
• 29:46
  Miranda: Um, and afterwards, our nurse was like, that was my first baby that I've ever got.
• 29:51
  Miranda: And um, yeah.
• 29:54
  Miranda: The only thing is I wish that I could have seen the the sack.
• 29:59
  Miranda: This is the Second time my son was also born, like his head came out in the in the sack, and I didn't get to see that.
• 30:07
  Miranda: My husband did, but I didn't.
• 30:09
  Miranda: But that's pretty cool to have a double, double water baby.
• 30:13
  Angela: Yeah, wow, that is awesome.
• 30:16
  Angela: So, how was your placenta birthed?
• 30:19
  Miranda: Yeah, that was on the bed, you know, a little bit later.
• 30:22
  Miranda: I think that was really the the only tricky thing was after the midwife, the hospital midwife came in.
• 30:31
  Miranda: I think she just wanted to have something to do.
• 30:34
  Miranda: And so she was like, Well, let's get this placenta out.
• 30:37
  Miranda: And so she's like doing the circles with the cord.
• 30:39
  Miranda: And I was like, please, this is too much.
• 30:42
  Miranda: It did come out fairly quickly, but I felt a little annoyed.
• 30:45
  Miranda: Like, I think you you just wanted to have your hands on something.
• 30:49
  Miranda: I get it.
• 30:50
  Miranda: You missed the birth, but we can give the placenta a minute.
• 30:54
  Angela: Yeah, definitely.
• 30:55
  Angela: It was okay.
• 30:56
  Angela: How was your like early postpartum?
• 30:58
  Angela: And yeah, how's your your postpartum been since then?
• 31:02
  Miranda: It was pretty good.
• 31:03
  Miranda: Um, it was good to go home right away.
• 31:06
  Miranda: I think the the first two-ish weeks were really good and really easy, and then it got a little bit more difficult after that, just like with pelvic pain and you know, wearing him in the carrier and stuff, and he got pretty big pretty quickly.
• 31:26
  Miranda: So kind of the like two to four month range was tricky on my core for sure.
• 31:34
  Miranda: But early postpartum was good, he nursed really well, and like I said, I stayed on the progesterone, which really helped a lot with the nursing aversion, and I did like tons of magnesium for that too.
• 31:52
  Miranda: But nursing was good, the pain was okay.
• 31:57
  Miranda: It's interesting, like with ransom with my second son, he was also pretty fast, but I had had like a few more hours of labor before then, so I think it was a little bit easier to heal.
• 32:11
  Miranda: I didn't have any tearing, but I still just felt like I was really crampy, really sore for a way longer time after.
• 32:19
  Miranda: But other than that, it was good.
• 32:21
  Miranda: He was my first baby with no tongue tie and no lip tie, so I was excited about that.
• 32:28
  Miranda: That was cool.
• 32:29
  Miranda: So yeah.
• 32:32
  Angela: Wow, awesome.
• 32:33
  Miranda: And so you're just doing good.
• 32:35
  Miranda: How old is he now?
• 32:36
  Miranda: He is almost 10 months.
• 32:38
  Miranda: Yeah, he was he has he was born on January 15th.
• 32:43
  Angela: So awesome.
• 32:45
  Angela: So now, as a final question, if you were to give advice to someone who's expecting or even new parents at this point in your journey, what's the biggest thing you'd want to share?
• 33:00
  Miranda: I don't know, it's so hard.
• 33:02
  Miranda: Like, I knew the things that were gonna be the same were gonna be the same, and the things that were gonna be different, there was almost no way to anticipate.
• 33:12
  Miranda: So, in terms of like labor and delivery, I've always kind of been like, I'm just gonna go in and the baby's gonna be born no matter what.
• 33:24
  Miranda: And like, I know the things that I'm not gonna like cross a line with, I know the things that I'm not gonna do.
• 33:30
  Miranda: And outside of that, like thankfully, I've just been able to let you know, whatever happens happen.
• 33:37
  Miranda: And I had no way to anticipate that it was gonna be in the hospital, that it was gonna be induction, that was gonna be so fast, and so just kind of leaving those things up to the Lord and praying about it, and even just like in the time between finding out that he needed to be induced and going into the hospital, just like letting that go.
• 33:58
  Miranda: Like it's too late to do anything different, and we need to move forward with kind of like grace and humility and just make the best of of the situation.
• 34:10
  Miranda: But I feel really thankful to have a really supportive birth partner, and um, even though my mom wasn't there for this birth, she's been there in the past, and she's a good, she's a good birth partner too.
• 34:24
  Miranda: So yeah, having those people that support you and who let you feel like you can tap into that intuition.
• 34:35
  Angela: Yeah, and especially when your plans change, I think just maintaining that autonomy, like you know, you took the time to go home and pack your bag instead of going straight up to labor and delivery, where like you have to go up to labor and delivery, you're like, no, I'm gonna take an hour, you know, let's go home.
• 34:52
  Angela: And like I think that's where like that trap that like a lot of women get into, they go to the appointment and they're like, you have to go up to labor and delivery.
• 34:58
  Angela: And it's like, maybe you do, but if your intuition is telling you you need to go, you know, down and get like a sandwich or something, or you have to do that.
• 35:05
  Miranda: And I stopped at the co-op to get snacks, like, and and maybe it had been different if she had said, like, we need to wheel you into the operating room.
• 35:16
  Miranda: Like the way she said it, I think was even gave me the ability to make those choices because it was like things need to start moving.
• 35:25
  Miranda: It's not like things need to happen right now, but if you tell someone your baby needs to be born today and it's only 11 in the morning, you have time to make some other decisions.
• 35:37
  Miranda: And I think it made a big difference in how I felt about it to be able to drive home and like have that time to process and also make sure that I had all the stuff that I wanted because I wasn't going to go home and I was on the phone with my husband and I was like trying to explain things.
• 35:53
  Miranda: I was like, no, not that basket, this basket, this in the hallway, whatever.
• 35:59
  Miranda: And um, so it was good to be able to kind of come home and look around and see if there's anything I needed.
• 36:05
  Miranda: And I didn't use most of it because we were only there for a few hours, but it was good to um to have that chance.
• 36:13
  Angela: Yeah, having that autonomy really makes a big difference when you know you're in that situation, even the spot where you were like, I'm going to take this IV out.
• 36:22
  Angela: I'm sure they were like, no, no, don't take it out.
• 36:24
  Angela: But you're like, no, remove this IV.
• 36:26
  Angela: And like you can say no to like little things like that if it's yeah, needing it.
• 36:32
  Miranda: Yeah.
• 36:32
  Miranda: And I felt like I could have even, I could have said no at the beginning, like and pushed it even more.
• 36:40
  Miranda: But in the moment, I was just like, it's not, that's not at the top of my list right now.
• 36:45
  Miranda: Like, I even had it in the back of my mind.
• 36:48
  Miranda: I was like, maybe when everyone clears out, I'm just gonna take it out anyways.
• 36:52
  Miranda: Um, and like the belly band is like, okay, if if it starts to be a problem, I will, you know, take it off.
• 37:02
  Miranda: But then there was other things that were like a definite no, and it was kind of easy to to say no to those things.
• 37:10
  Miranda: Um especially being a a planned home birth, I felt like they were already anticipating a lot of stuff.
• 37:19
  Miranda: Maybe if it was a planned hospital birth and I was trying to say no to all these things, they might have pushed harder.
• 37:26
  Miranda: But being almost like a home birth transfer, they kind of anticipated a lot of things being a no.
• 37:33
  Miranda: And also, I think partly they didn't think that they were gonna even be around for most of my labor.
• 37:41
  Miranda: So they were like, maybe we'll just let the other people deal with this woman.
• 37:47
  Miranda: Um, so it was it was all good.
• 37:49
  Miranda: Yeah.
• 37:50
  Angela: Yeah.
• 37:50
  Angela: Well, I'm so glad it all worked out for you.
• 37:53
  Miranda: Yeah, as close to a home birth in the hospital, I think, as you can get, which I was really thankful for.
• 38:00
  Miranda: And yeah.
• 38:02
  Angela: Awesome.
• 38:02
  Angela: Well, thank you so much, Miranda, for coming back on the podcast and taking the time to chat with me today and share your stories.
• 38:09
  Angela: Thank you.
• 38:10
  Angela: Thank you so much for inviting me.
• 38:12
  Angela: Before you go, I just want to remind you, I have a ton of resources for pregnancy and birth.
• 38:19
  Angela: If you're pregnant, whether you're a first-time mom or if this is your fifth baby, I want you to check out the show notes because I have some free trainings and free downloads that you can sign up for, as well as the link to access MyLibroflow, a comprehensive, self-paced online childbirth education course.
• 38:37
  Angela: I created this course specifically for moms who don't want to be told what to do, regardless of where you're birthing or who you're birthing with.
• 38:45
  Angela: And I'd honestly love to teach you everything that I know so that you can prepare for an autonomous birth experience and prepare to step into your role as the leader of your birth journey.
• 38:56
  Angela: So, click to the show notes, check out all of those links, and if you ever have any questions, feel free to DM me at my mainbirth over on Instagram.