The birth of Liam

Liam is 2 weeks old today and I finally have some time to write down the story of his birth!

The story begins well before I became pregnant. Someone mentioned the book Supernatural Childbith to me and I wanted to read it before passing it on to a pregnant friend. The book talks about focussing on what the Bible says about children and childbirth and praying for the kind of pregnancy you want as well as for your child. Will and I weren't planning on children yet but we talked about it casually and while the contents of the book were still fresh in my memory, I wrote down what kind of pregnancy I wanted. The list was long forgotten until I found it sometime in the middle of my pregnancy and had to laugh that I had asked to crave healthy things like fruits and vegetables and there I was wondering why I had ridiculous urges to grab swiss chard instead of candy and icecream when I was out grocery shopping. God hadn't forgotten. Will also reminded me that though we had not wanted to find out if we were having a boy or a girl and would have been happy with either, we had at some point in the past, maybe during courting, talked about how it would be nice to have a firstborn son. God hadn't forgotten that either.

When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I could rely on God's promises and His word to have a healthy pregnancy and an easy labor, free of unnecessary medical interventions. The hard thing was drowning out what the world had to say - "labor pain is not like a headache", "you go through labor and then we'll talk about your experience", "I was screaming in pain" and so on. Will and I decided we'd keep our thoughts to ourselves. As we began the third trimester we sought out and found a Christian childbirth class that had the same goals we had - learning to rely on God and His word to relax through contractions and let go of fear and found a godly doula who was eager to agree with us in prayer.

When I began regular visits with Dr. KH, I was not dilating. He'd walk in and say "hopefully you're around 3cm today". Nope. Closed and posterior. It was a little discouraging. At our 38.5 week visit on the 12th of May, Dr. KH said at the rate I was going we'd have to induce me at 42 weeks and even set the 2nd of June as the induction date. When we got home from our visit, Will and I prayed that the baby would not be late. We prayed over my body to do what it was supposed to do and for Bubs to signal to my body to begin labor. Above all we invited God to the birth of our chilld and asked that He be glorified. The next day I began having contractions on and off. Nothing painful, but definitely got my attention. Just Braxton Hicks, I told myself. They stopped that evening. We were actually quite thankful because the weather was nasty outside. Friday, the 14th, I woke up and the contractions were back and still irregular. I told Will it was probably false labor and to go ahead and go to work and that I'd call him if anything changed. I tried timing contractions and they were anywhere from 5 to 12 minutes apart. I brushed them off as being false labor and proceeded to clean the kitchen and do a thorough mopping. If I can do this, its definitely not labor!

Friday night, we were getting ready for bed and I told Will the contractions hadn't stopped and though I wasn't doubled over in pain, I couldn't sleep through them. The only thing that felt good was bouncing on my exercise ball. I had no plans of doing that all night. I wanted to go to the hospital and get myself sedated so when real labor came around, I was well rested. Will called our doula and updated her. She listens to what's going on and tells Will, "Don't tell Hannah yet, but she is in active labor, I'll come over". Some of the things Will and I had prayed for was for me to be at least 6cm dilated when I got to the hospital and for the birth to be absolutely drug free. I had asked God to let my water break as a sign it was the right time to go to the hospital. Until our doula Annie arrived, Will had been doing a great job breathing with me through contractions and reading scripture to me from flash cards we had prepared. Between contractions and sometimes even through them we'd joke around and laugh. Annie arrived at 1am and at that point contractions were consistently 7-8 minutes apart, a few were 3 minutes apart. Since I now realized I was in active labor, I wanted to stay home longer. Annie began to apply pressure on my back with some heated rice socks and we'd gone through two contractions when my water broke. I felt such a sense of relief and elation! It was time to go to the hospital and have this baby!

We arrived in the hospital between 0130 and 0200. God answered our prayers for a nurse that was supportive of natural childbirth. Though we had left our birth plan at home she said she would do whatver we asked. So I got a heplock instead of an IV, was allowed to labor standing/ on a birthing ball or however I wanted and she agreed to check our heart rates and my contractions and blood pressure every hour instead of continuously. That was such a blessing. The contractions were truly uncomfortable when laying down. She checked me and I was 6-7cm dilated. What joy! I was glad Dr. KH was on call that night to deliver the baby he had predicted would be late. Will was a truly excellent labor coach, encouraging me, breathing with me and reminding me of God's promises all through labor. With Annie guiding him, he knew exactly what stage of labor I was in and when to offer me ice chips instead of words of encouragement.

At 0730 am I was checked again - fully dilated and ready to push. They decided it was time to call the doctor. I remember Will asking how long the pushing stage would take and someone said 2 hours for first time moms. I told myself that won't be me! Liam was born 10 pushes later at around 0816 am and peed on Dr. KH when he came out. We had prayed for a 7.5lb baby but Liam was 9lb 1oz. In the end, I think God was more glorified in that and that was more important. The ease of my labor and delivery and the comfort and stamina I enjoyed in the last few weeks of my pregnancy were truly unusual and the grace of God.

Birthing Liam was truly such a blessed and positive memory for me. Will said that the only time I made any noise at all was when his head crowned. No screaming woman in labor. The Bible says Hebrew women were not like the Egyptian women, they were vigorous and gave birth quickly. We are to enjoy the same blessings because of the cross! God truly grew my faith and Will's and we are in awe of His faithfulness and what we can do through Christ!