Alecia Anna born 41 Weeks and 3 Days 
So this is how it all began…I came in for an ultrasound on July 30th at 11:15 to see how the baby was doing. After looking around for a while they didn’t like what they saw she wasn’t moving for them and something about the blood flow so they sent me up to triage. They connected me to monitors while in triage and everything was looking good. She was moving around and doing well. When a Dr. came in to check me to see how dilated I was (1-2cm) she accidentally broke my water a little. I think it’s because my water was close to being ready to break on its own maybe in the next couple of days but who knows. Then 10 min later it really broke and started gushing like in the movies gushing and there was no one around so I didn’t really know what to do. Finally, Stephen arrived from work and they continued to monitor the baby and she was doing good. Moving and heart rate was good.
Since my water was broken I was “on the clock” they kind of want you to deliver within 24 hours of your water breaking due to risk of infection when going longer than that. They let me and Stephen go eat and walk around for an hour. When I got back they admitted me. I was hoping that labour would start naturally but it didn’t. Once we got into our room they wanted to start Pitocin right away but I asked what the other options were because I didn’t want to take Pitocin. We decided to try Cervidil for 6 hours to see if contractions could pick up on their own…. Now onto the iv saga…
For anyone who knows me knows I have a bit of PTSD due to bad hospital experiences when it comes to IVs and I can very quickly go into a full panic attack. So what happened… They wanted an IV in right when I got admitted so I told them I needed the person with ultrasound to come in and for the nurse not to try because I’m such a hard poke. My OB had noted this in my file so thankfully they listened. The guy came and he wasn’t taking me seriously, I told him he couldn’t go in my hands because those veins always blow. He kept trying to convince me and told me he’s not good at the ultrasound machine. (Nurse reassured me this was the best guy for ivs) so he was looking around my arms and then started on this whole thing about how he needs to poke starting lower down my arm because if they have to poke more and they tried higher up already the vein will leak… Then started talking about needing to go in my neck if he can’t get it. I was trying to keep it together but had a panic attack when he wouldn’t stop talking …. I looked at my nurse and told her I needed him to leave and I needed a moment. I couldn’t breathe. I continued to have a panic attack till they left me and Stephen alone and he helped me breathe through it. Eventually like an hour later I let him come back. We warmed my arm up with a wet hot towel wrapped in a blanket. Again he tried to convince me to go into my hand but I flat out said no, and I’m really happy I did because with the labour I had I’m not sure how that would have stayed in.
He then froze the spot he was going to try and got it in the first try…. All that for nothing. If he only listened to me at first and didn’t talk so much lol. He was actually nice, I can’t blame him. He didn’t know what I’ve been through in the past.
So we waited for Cervidil to start working. But around 8 pm it fell out when I went pee. The Dr. decided not to put it back in and to see if things would progress. They didn’t. I was only 1 cm dilated. So at 10 pm, we started Pitocin. Pitocin is a drug that mimics the hormones your body produces when it goes into labour. It doesn’t give your body a chance to produce the pain killer hormones so typically pain is worse and also makes contractions closer together.
I also got a new nurse around this time who turns out was a huge part of my labour story at St. Bo niface Hospital. Her name was Joanna and she was amazing.
My contractions slowly picked up and at 1 am we decided to call in our amazing Doula Jennifer Wheeler. At this point, my contractions were every 2min for a min long and getting pretty painful. I wouldn’t talk through them. They were ALL in my back. I didn’t feel anything in my stomach which I really wasn’t expecting.
Joanna felt the baby and determined baby was sitting on my back and would need to spin around to be able to make it out which is why I was having back pain. The back pain continued to get worse and worse and contractions getting closer and closer together. All I wanted was pressure on my back. So anytime I would have a contraction Stephen and Jen would push on my hips and on my back and it would help so so much.
Thankfully both my doula and the nurse took the same spinning babies course and they helped me into different positions that helped get the baby positioned correctly during the time I was contracting. Some of the positions were so uncomfortable but they reassured me one contraction like that was the work of 3 or more in any other way so that gave me the mental strength to do it.
At one point the nurse checked me and I was 6cm!!!! For some reason I didn’t think I was progressing, it felt like I was never going to get her out. The nurse was so encouraging that I had progressed so much and it helped me keep pushing.
Stephen was a godsend. He is the most supportive man in the world. He was there for anything I needed. Water, pressure, squeezing, anything. He reminded me to use what I learnt from hypnobirthing. He reassured me. He gave me positive chants to say and kept my mind from going to negative thoughts. At one point I almost bit him but I stopped myself and he said you can bite me!
At some points, I would scream that I couldn’t do it and just beg for them to get the baby out and everyone would just tell me how amazing I was doing and that I was doing it and it would give me the strength to keep going. I would say something like “iiiii cannnnnntttt” and they would say yes you can you are!! So then I would just keep repeating “yes you can, yes you can”
So from 2 am till 8:30 am (approx.) my contractions started getting closer and closer together. To the point that I think they were coming every 20-30 seconds lasting for 1-2 minutes. I used everything I learnt from hypnobirthing plus the power of my 3 angels around me to get through those insane hours. I honestly became so animalistic it is pretty cool to look back on. I would make grunting noises and breath through the contractions and do anything I could remember to keep in control of the contraction. Sometimes I wouldn’t have control and I would cry out for them to help me or ask how I was supposed to go on and they would reassure me. Sometimes I would be able to keep control of the pain through hypnobirthing and breath and other times it would take me on a ride in the middle. Other times my body would shake uncontrollably like a pretty violent shake and nothing would stop it until another contraction came around. I changed positions as much as I could but nothing really felt comfortable. The one that I kept going back to was on my side with a ball between my legs. Jennifer and Stephen were hands on the entire time. They didn’t have a second to step away for anything, if a contraction came and they didn’t push on my back it felt 10x worse.
Eventually, the back pain was so insane I knew I needed something to help me through so I asked for fentanyl. I am not sure how many times I got it but the nurse knew I wanted a natural birth so my baby didn’t have medicine in her system when she came out so she gave me half doses instead of full to see if it would help and it did. I’m so thankful for that. I still felt everything but it was like I had control over my mind a little bit more. I also tried the gas a couple of times and hated it so much. I threw the mask off lol.
8:30 am came around and unfortunately Joanna the nurse had to leave. She already stayed overtime because she wanted to meet the baby but we still had a bit of a road ahead of us. We got a new nurse. Her name was Heather and we started pushing.
This is where I sort of lose track of time but I know I had trouble pushing to start with. I didn’t have much energy left and the back pain was extreme with every push but my body kind of started doing it involuntarily so they let me push.
My amazing doula Jennifer was on one side and the best husband in the world Stephen was on the other and they would hold up my feet when a contraction would come and Stephen would count for me. 3 pushes. 10 seconds each with a quick breath in between.
When I finally got the pushing right it did take some of the pain away but it was so exhausting. Even though it was exhausting I felt like finally, I was getting closer to the finish line. Like this baby was going to come out soon because I was pushing now.
I was pushing with my whole body and had trouble relaxing my upper body even though I knew I needed to. Stephen would try to help me and remind me to relax my face but it was honestly involuntary. I would try but it was stuck lol!
Pushing went on for 3 hours…. When the baby was near coming out and when my OB-GYN and everyone else (resident and some other voices lol I didn’t see) came in I got some kind of superhuman power lmao. Stephen said it was crazy when the baby was close. It was like a nascar team of people came into the room and started setting things up, changing the bed etc. I didn’t really realize any of this was happening but I did hear other voices. I was determined to get the baby out and my pushing went from trying as hard as I could to get it right to: get this freakin baby out right now on this contraction lol! Stephen said it was insane to see the change in me. I used my whole body, ripped back on my legs and pushed with everything in me. He said he had to use his whole body to hold my leg back from kicking the doctor in the head while she was trying to deliver the baby. Alecia’s head would crown (which omg feels crazy) and then go back in a bit after the contraction and pushes were done. This happened a few times which was good because it gave me time to stretch and not tear as bad. When she was crowning, it’s hard to explain the noises I was making. I for sure wasn’t screaming but it burnt so bad and I could feel everything I was saying over and over “It burns, it burns” (or something like that I can’t really remember). Then I had a contraction and just said to myself I’m getting her out and I went for it. This time she was almost out and I even pushed for 4 times instead of 3 and she crowned but wasn’t out. She didn’t go back in when the contraction stopped. I took a rest in between and I could feel her facial movements on the inside of me. It was the craziest thing in the entire world!!! Then the next contraction I knew it was it. They changed the way I was pushing small short pushes. I focused on Stephens’s voice. He was so excited I could hear just pure joy in his voice, he could see her. I didn’t focus on the tearing I felt in my vagina and I got her head out!!! A few more short pushes and her body slithered out. Oh my god, it was a crazy feeling of release. All the back pain was gone. Instantly.
They put her on my tummy but her cord was so short. I asked them not to cut it right away but
because it was so short they couldn’t take care of my tear etc. so they waited 2 min and Stephen cut it. Then they put her up on my chest and she had a big poop where I proclaimed “like mother like daughter” because I definitely pooped lots during the whole labour process (thank you Crohn’s!)
Stephen played her song to her (My Wish by Rascal Flatts) and we were just so overjoyed and happy. It’s a feeling that I can’t put into words, happiness that I didn’t know existed. Empowerment, joy, relief and so so much more.
They sewed me up (I got a second-degree tear) and I realized I wasn’t really able to see Alecia. I tried opening my eyes and I couldn’t really just a tiny bit. I ended up getting 2 swollen eyes (almost black) and popped a bunch of blood vessels in my eyes. My face looked like I was just stung by a bee and had an allergic reaction to it.
While pushing for those 3 hours I pushed a lot with my face instead of relaxing it which is why that happened.
Alecia immediately started looking for my breasts and even started lifting her head! Once I was all sewed up we got her latched on the first try and she fed for 50min!
Alecia Anna was born at 11:38 am on July 31st, 2020 and weighed… ??? who knows…Because they weighed her at 6lbs 13oz but the next day she was 7lbs 6oz and babies always lose weight the first day so we don’t know what her actual birth weight was. But it was around 7lbs 6oz so that is what we go off of.
I couldn’t have done this without my 3 angels. Stephen, Jen, and Joanna. Although it was very painful it was the most powerful I have ever felt. I didn’t have an epidural, I endured the entire labour and I felt everything and my baby girl came out perfect. Our bodies are made for this, even when western medicine intervened and my birth plan didn’t go 100% according to plan I know that I was strong, I felt empowered and I accomplished one of the most amazing things in this world. I am proud of myself that I never screamed. I didn’t lose control and freak out or scream my head off. I did it and I will remember it forever.
Thank you again everyone who made this possible Lori Pohl and Jennifer Wheeler are seriously the most amazing Doulas in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Joanna is the best nurse at St. Boniface in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
And Stephen the most amazing husband, partner and best friend that ever existed.
I am one lucky momma.
written by Natalie Suppes, Sick and Successful Podcast Host
To Listen to Natatie’s Podcast Lori and Jennifer were featured on talking about Natalie’s upcoming birth click here.
To learn more about Doula Services with Gaia Mama Wellness, visit our Doula Services Page Here.
