Birth

At 9:43 in the evening

My second labour was easy right up until the baby was out. This is the story of Hezekiah, and of the twenty minutes afterwards that I still find it hard to write down.

Giving birth is the most intimate and spiritual thing you will ever go through with another person. Knowing that the baby God made inside you is about to arrive is a moment you never forget.

As Hezekiah’s birth came closer, in the heat of July 2019, I felt enormous and uncomfortable. We waited for God’s timing even though I went past my due date. My midwife wanted to see me again to check my cervix. I had not progressed much, and she gave me an herbal supplement to take under my tongue and said, you are going to have this baby today.

At that point I wanted him out of me more than I have ever wanted anything. I was tired of waddling everywhere. We went home and I went to the bathroom, and there was a little spotting on the toilet paper. I texted my midwife straight away, around noon, and she drove over.

Waiting

Days before this, our midwife had given us a list of supplies for the home birth, and the prepping had begun. When she arrived we fed her and her assistant, and then my contractions came on easily. That is what my midwife had always said about me — that my contractions were manageable. I could talk, walk and laugh through them. She has always called me blessed, and I was.

Hours passed and I was not hungry. I lay on the bed until it was time. My husband made everyone popcorn and we ate it on the bed. I had planned for my fifteen-month-old daughter, Karis, to watch her baby brother being born. It was bedtime for her instead.

At half past seven I said goodnight to her, kissed her squishy cheeks one last time, and cried. By nine that evening I was ready to push.

9:43

I squeezed my husband’s hand, in the bath and then back on the bed. He is so patient and so supportive. I saw my son’s head appear in the mirror my midwife held. I wanted it to be over. With the sweat and the grunting, I finally delivered a strong, big boy at 9:43pm: nine pounds and twelve ounces, twenty-two and a half inches long. No stitches were needed.

He was put on my chest and I nursed him straight away.

Then

My midwife’s face changed. I asked her if everything was all right. She said no, I was haemorrhaging, badly. She put her arm as far as she could inside my uterus to try to stop the bleeding, and with her other hand she massaged my stomach. Nothing was working, so she called 911.

That call lasted about ten seconds. When it ended, there was nothing any of us could do but pray. I told God that if He would stop the bleeding, I would promise to raise Hezekiah to be a godly man, the man He created him to be.

Within seconds of that prayer we all heard knocking at the door, and the bleeding stopped.

Two paramedics came in with a roller bed, expecting to take me to hospital. One of them took hold of my arm without asking me first. My midwife told them to leave, because the bleeding had stopped. Behind them were three firefighters, and suddenly the room was full of strangers. I had not thought about it at all, and I was not prepared for all of them to see me half naked on the bed with a baby feeding at my breast. The firefighters stood with their eyes wide open, trying very hard not to look anywhere they should not have, and told us congratulations on the new baby. We told them we were fine. I signed the release form to say I was all right, quickly, while my husband held on to me.

Afterwards I needed to go to the bathroom urgently. My midwife’s assistant helped me up. I was standing there and everything went pitch black — I said, I can’t see, I can’t see. She got me back on the bed, and the blood went to my head, and my sight came back.

A hot dog sounded delicious after all that. My husband made it, and my midwife stayed for a few hours afterwards and put saline into my veins to replace what I had lost. Praise the Lord, I was well afterwards.

The next morning

Karis slept straight through the whole thing, and the next morning she came into our room to meet her brother. I filmed it. Hezekiah was in a blue swaddle, and she looked at him with tears in her eyes, smiling and giggling at him. They have been the best of friends ever since. From the very first day.

My recovery afterwards was very easy, honestly. I started my usual routine a couple of days later. I still talk about this birth, because it is one of many times I have seen God right there with me, protecting me and healing me. I still tear up even thinking about it. Trusting Him matters to me in everything.