The Birth of Our Son Colin

Our beautiful baby boy, Colin Campbell Beck, was born at 38 weeks and 2 days on March 25, 2013. This is the story of his amazing birth as told by his mother. Wow! I'm a mom! 

I am writing this very honestly and frankly because I want to remember all of the details. If you don't like bloody details or pictures involving blood, do not continue reading.

I am extremely satisfied with the whole process of my natural birth in a birthing center using the "Hypnobabies" techniques. The course got me very prepared in understanding my body during birth. After all was said and done, my midwife told me that I did an incredible job and that if all first time moms birthed the way I did, her job would be so much easier. In the months prior, I prepared a lot with Hypnobabies and I made sure I ate healthily. I also believe I am a pretty strong person physically and I have a tough mentality when it comes to pain and physical power. I think my personality coupled with those other preparations, contributed greatly to my ability to bring a healthy Colin into this world without drugs, and to even choose that route in the first place. I am so glad that I made the right decision for myself.

The birth happened pretty much exactly as I envisioned it. The one difference was that I thought I would bake some cookies or something in the beginning/ mild contractions stage, but chose to rather lay down and save my energy, not knowing how long the day may be. I ended up with a birthing time of 7 1/2 hours, from the first contraction to birth. As my mind willed it to progress quickly and as I embraced every pressure wave as the means to bringing Colin into my arms, so it was. I am just so amazed at the power that my mind and female body have in this process of birth. While staring at this perfect little person, I was just in awe at the perfect Godly design of a female body to create a human being and birth it.

I woke up Monday March 25th at 8:30 a.m. and as I stood up I felt like I peed on myself. I realized that it wasn't pee because it didn't smell and I couldn't control it. I warned Andrew as he headed for school that if this was leaking amniotic fluid that this could probably be the day. I made last minute packings in the birth center bag and eventually put an adult diaper on so that I didn't have to keep changing a pad.

At 10:30 a.m. I noticed mild contractions. I always imagined birthing waves (contractions) to involve sharp, stinging pain but realized that to me they really just feel like intense gas cramps that kind of feel like a wave of pressure.

Andrew came home to be with me at about 12:30 and I texted my midwife, Heather, about my status as I ate lunch to continue my strength.

She told me to do a Hibaclens to fight any infection since the water breaking leaves the birthing canal vulnerable to infection. She told me to do nipple stimulation with the breast pump to help the pressure waves to get stronger. This stimulation creates oxytocin which is the hormone that causes contractions. I pumped both breasts at the same time and right away the waves got a bit stronger. I also gathered a couple of drops of liquid gold (colostrum) for later.

At this point I started listening to my "birthing day affirmations" track to get me mentally ready and I felt that I needed to start my hypnosis and try to relax. By this time it was about 2 p.m. I got steadily stronger contractions for the next 2 hours and Andrew timed everything for me while working on a project. I got on the birthing ball which I thought would be where I would live during my birthing time. It was surprisingly not my favorite position. I ended up laying on my side on the couch during most of the waves.

At about 4 p.m. I started getting nauseous during the waves and they were so strong that I had to moan through them. By this time I called Heather and told her that we should meet at the birthing center. I was also feeling mildly pushy and wondered if I would even be able to make it there. Everything happened really quickly. By this time, everything is kind of hazy because my eyes were usually closed (this helped me to keep from getting distracted by anything going on around me throughout the process) and I was in deep hypnosis (meditation and relaxation). Andrew was hurriedly trying to get things in the car and I remember our dog, Arrow, got out of the front door and Andrew had to chase him down. Andrew also couldn't find my shoes so I went without any. Andrew was kind of panicky but focused.

We arrived at the birthing center in Provo at about 5 p.m. and were met with Heather's sister, Megan, who was there to give a massage to a client. She is a certified Hypnobabies doula and helped put counter pressure on me until Heather arrived 5 minutes later. Andrew was giving me relaxation cues and reminding me to keep my jaw loose because that indicates that I am relaxed and my cervix can continue to open. Megan continued helping me while Heather and her team of student midwives got the tub ready. I was definitely pushy by then because I was starting to groan. I made deep low animal noises the rest of the way. My throat was soar for 2 days afterwards.

 I was getting really sweaty so I took off all my clothes. The tub was full enough for me to get in at that time and once I entered the water, everything was so much more manageable. I had just gone through the transformation stage which was the most uncomfortable part because it was akin to that feeling maybe when you are nauseous and you just want to jump out of your skin and move all over the place. The pushing part in the tub of nice hot water was actually very comfortable and a relief from transformation where I wanted to roll all over the floor to make that distressingly constant feeling go away.

I felt the support of all of these women, and Andrew, helping me through. While in the tub, I was surrounded by Megan and I believe her assistant massage therapist (who was so kind as to help support me physically and take pictures), two student midwives who I had met many times before, and then Heather.  I think it is so great that Megan and her assisstant wanted to stay and add any support. What a crazy turn of events in their day! By the time Colin came out, a doula/ student midwife, named Nat, that I really got along with and met the week before, had arrived and helped for a while during the aftermath. Someone put my hair up and someone was giving me oxygen. Heather was constantly checking heart tones since it is common for the baby's to dip during this part, hence the oxygen for me. I pushed for maybe 25 minutes while sitting with my back against the side of the tub. Andrew was next to Heather the whole tub experience and she explained how to catch the baby and other stuff. She also had him feel everything as it progressed. He could feel the head at every point that I was pushing.

 Heather suggested that I get on all fours because that position was better for helping baby out, so I did.

This is the point when the crowning started happening. I eventually pushed him out in this position which lasted about 20 minutes maybe. All of this seemed to fly by so it all really felt way shorter. As I got to the crowning part, which was the most uncomfortable because of the tightness and stretching, I told myself that this part was not going to be very long. I did that just as Heather suggested moving to the birthing stool because she thought Colin was coming out facing the wrong way and this part would take a bit longer. I wanted to stay in the water but I said "yes" since she thought it might be best. Since I didn't want it to take long, I really focused. I guess I focused really well because by the time Heather got back from setting up the chair (not very long), he was pretty much gonna come out. This was the part where I was saying out loud the words "Open" so that my perineum and everything would open up and Colin would slide out. The power of my mind made it happen because I think after the next 2 surges Colin's head went from being the size of the top of a cupcake to completely out.

At 6:07 p.m., he shot out so vigorously that no one could catch him. He was under water for about 5 seconds while Heather stayed in control and said for no one to touch the baby. She picked him up and put him on me right away, along with a towel to keep him warm. We touched him and talked to him while he slowly turned from purple to pink. I remember breathing so hard because of the adrenaline rush and the excitement of holding this beautiful boy.

He was covered in vernix and we felt the umbilical cord. It must have stopped pulsing because Andrew cut it after a couple of minutes. The placenta came out a minute later or so. It is in the plastic bag.

We also checked to see if it really was a boy. I held him while they cleared his nostrils and he started crying pretty soon after being born.  I drank some drink that helped with something related to maybe blood clotting or something. Andrew said there was a point when he looked in the water as it started to slowly fill with blood and he was scared by it. After about 5 minutes of holding him in there, Andrew took him while I was helped into the bed.

Andrew later shared his thoughts with me about the first time he held him. When he looked at him, Andrew said he felt like he didn't see Colin as a baby, but he felt that time flattened and he saw Colin as  a man that we were starting a life-long relationship with - a man we had known before this life, and man we would know throughout his life.  He said it was kind of hard to explain.

For about 20 minutes they assessed me and helped me get comfortable. They continued to squeeze my uterus by grabbing it from the belly region to help the blood flow to stop. Andrew came in and held Colin with his shirt off for some skin-to-skin contact. We were left together alone with Colin for as long as we wanted. I tried to breastfeed him and they snapped a shot of our little family.

The amazingly attentive staff attended to my tears. I seemed to have 4 very superficial cuts in different areas that were more like pressure tears (like a stretch mark). Usually a woman will tear vertically along the perineum but that part was all good. They ended up doing more of a cosmetic surgery repair. That part - the stitches - was probably the most unpleasant part, to be honest. Those repairs brought the sharp pain that in my opinion was more unpleasant than steady stretching of the perineum during crowning. The anticipation of the shot and the needle is what gets to me.

We took a print of the placenta and got a tour of Colin's litttle house for 9 1/2 months. They said it was a very strong and healthy sack.

This is the inside where Colin lived. You can see the white umbilical cord and the sack is the pink part that is being held.



This is the outside of it and the part that attached to me. Cool, right?

We having taken it home and  plan on putting it in smoothies or something so that we can get the nutritional value from it. Probably sounds pretty weird.      

I got light headed 2 different times when going to the bathroom so I ended up getting 3 liters of fluid through an IV while on the floor. I guess I lost a lot of blood for my body but they said it wasn't a noticeably bigger amount than the average mom. I was apparently extremely dehydrated. They had me taking Chlorophyl which is the closest thing to real blood that one can find in nature. Blood grabs onto it easily and turns it into more blood, which I think is really interersting. I drank it and it tasted like grass. I drank it over the few days after the birth as well.

After 3 hours or so they took Colin's stats and did reflex tests and an overall body exam. Andrew got to weigh him and he was 6 lbs 6 ounces.

Here's his little foot sticking out.

We found out he has a very pronounced dimple on his sacrum. The bottom of the spine is the very last part to form and the skin did not smooth out all of the way. We got an ultrasound done a couple of days later to make sure there was no spinal problem. It looked completely fine. He has great movement in his legs so there are not worries. He can have it cosmetically fixed in the future. He has a little birth defect now and the only problem with it is that poop can get stuck in it.


We all hung out for an hour or so while they kept an eye on me with the IV.  I just looked at the little miracle and ate some food. We were good to go home by 12 a.m.

 I was so happy with the attentiveness of everyone at "Birthing Your Way", and I loved asking them questions about what they were doing and having everything explained to me. I was so impressed with Heather and her knowledge and judgement. I trusted her to know if anything was beyond her control but I also knew that she wouldn't be a wimp and send me to a hospital at the first sign of something wrong or hard to deal with. She was so calm and collected and I appreciate everything she and her team did. They even came to my house to follow up for the 2 days after the birth. She has given me great breastfeeding help and is always a call away.

What is life like now? I am breastfeeding Colin and enjoying it although it has its challenges. Andrew and I change his diapers, calm him with the 5 S's when he cries, and I lay in bed so that my body can heal. My life is forever changed and I am overwhelmed with the responsibility and love that I have for this child. I now am beginning to understand a mother's love for a child and I would do anything for him. I can't wait to get to know him and find out what his personality is like. I love staring at this angel sent from heaven.