Birth

Karis, at dawn

I had planned to go hiking that morning. By ten o’clock I was half a centimetre dilated and did not know it, and by half past eleven at night I was in the birthing pool eating watermelon.

We love to hike. It had been booked in for days: a walk on the 4th of May 2018, before my due date, in the beautiful week when everything was ready and nothing was late. In the middle of that night I felt my body start signalling something, and I could not get back to sleep, though I tried very hard.

In the morning I wanted to go outside and take a small walk. As we went, I noticed that I was taking tiny steps. I did not think anything of it. We walked as far as the bowling alley, went in for the toilet and a glass of water, and walked home the long way round the apartment block.

Half a centimetre

Our midwife rang to see how I was doing and came over to check. She examined me and found I was half a centimetre dilated. I had no idea I was in labour. My stomach was contracting as well, and I had not noticed that either until she pointed it out. Looks like we were not going hiking that day.

She asked us to stay put. She went home and came back just after noon with her assistant, and they checked me again: three centimetres, then six. We fed everyone. That was the last calm of the day.

My midwife noticed my belly rising and falling at about ten o’clock in the evening and told me I was in labour. My husband and I had actually spent that whole day wandering, waddling slowly as a snail, waiting. We had planned to go hiking that afternoon too. She said no, so that she could keep an eye on me, and we stayed in.

Eleven o’clock

My husband and our midwife filled the birthing pool while I lay on the bed. At eleven I got in, and I was not in pain at nine centimetres dilated. I ate watermelon. I laughed and had ordinary conversations with everybody in the room. They told me they had never seen a woman with no pain at nine centimetres. I began telling them about the angel God sent me in that dream, and that everything was going to be alright.

I was texting friends, family and our pastor, all excited. Then just after half past eleven, I felt a strong kick, looked down, and said, “uh, I think my water just broke.” Everybody leaned over and looked, and said, yep.

Squatting

The contractions got more intense and I concentrated with tears in my eyes. My body was too relaxed in the pool, so I got into the bath instead and let the hot water work on me. My baby had always been a strong kicker and wanted out. When the pool was not getting me anywhere, I got up and squatted to push, which is very effective.

I was holding on to my husband and to the assistant’s hands so tightly as they kept me upright. My body was exhausted, my face had gone white, my legs were shaking, and my husband was cheering me on and telling me I could do it. At one point, mid-push, I asked the assistant how many home births she had done. She said a lot. I had a good laugh.

Yes, it hurt. But it is not what films show you. Women in the Bible had their babies without anything else, for hundreds of years. I felt a strength I did not know I had.

“For with God nothing shall be impossible.” Luke 1:37

Early morning

I ended up delivering on the bed. I saw her head with a mirror, and I felt her come. What a night it was. Her first cry, and seeing her daddy hold her.

When I held her for the first time I said, “hi baby,” and held her tight. She was nine pounds and twenty-one inches, born in the early morning, and I did not tear and had no complications. Seventeen hours of labour, thirteen of them with no pain at all. God did the impossible, and He never left my side.

She was, and still is, an alert and sweet baby. My daughter is a blessing to us, and cannot thank God enough. She is our miracle.