Christina and Sam welcomed their son, Sean Elliot, on April 19! They were students in my 8-week BirthWorks class as well. Christina’s labor was a lesson in the unpredictable nature of birth. It was confusing from start to finish. I got a text from Christina around 6:20 pm on April 18 telling me there was a good chance her water broke. With leaking here and there, after many hours had passed, she went in to the hospital as advised by her midwife, just to confirm that her water had indeed broken. And yes, it had, although she was not yet having contractions. Her cervix was 3 cm dilated, 75% effaced and her baby was at -2 station. She returned home to try and rest with the plan to call at 6:30 am with an update.

At 4:45 am, they had an update. Christina was contracting and they seemed closer than 5 minutes when Sam tried to time them. She had labored in the shower for an hour and was feeling significant back pain with contractions. Sam did counter pressure and encouraged Christina to labor in forward leaning positions. Her labor was intensifying and Sam recognized the change in Christina’s demeanor as her labor required more of her focus. She returned to the shower to labor and when she emerged it was time for me to come.

When I joined Christina she appeared to be laboring very actively. She was feeling discomfort in one hip, which had me wonder if her baby was still a bit malpositioned. Christina labored on her hands and knees over a pile of pillows, side-lying, standing by the bed, all as her contractions grew stronger and stronger. She cried out at the peaks which had us suspecting it was nearing time to head back to the hospital. One more trip to the shower to labor, and then it was time to make the trek.

When Christina arrived at the hospital around 8:00 that morning and was triaged, she was dilated a surprising 3 cm. She had not opened significantly from her previous check nearly 10 hours earlier. She was effaced to 90% though and her baby had moved down to -1 or 0 station. The unremarkable change in dilation was a shock to all of us. However, a tidbit was confirmed with the exam that shed some light on her lack of progress: her baby was in the OP position. There was still some work to be done. But Christina had been up most of the night with contractions that were closer than 5 minutes apart for much of that and she was tired. She opted for some iv pain medication in the hopes it would help her to relax and maybe get some rest.

Things changed incredibly quickly after that because by 11:15 am Christina was dilated 9 cm! (Remember, she was only 3 cm dilated 3 hours earlier!) Things progressed so quickly once she relaxed! And when she rolled over to her hands and knees, her baby made his final rotation and was born OA! And you know when he was born?? Sean came barreling into the world at 11:34 am after hardly any pushing! He weighed 7 lb. 4 oz. and measured 20 in. long. He changed his parents’ lives in that moment, and proved that every bit of it was worth it. Christina was a warrior through an especially unpredictable labor. She followed the cues of her body and trusted that her decisions were always the best ones. You truly rolled with it and you did so during a pandemic. Congratulations to you both! You should be so proud.