Kicking and screaming: The birth of Jordan

The birthing plan that my husband and I came up with was to make sure that I got the epidural.

Several of my friends had just given birth and mentioned how calm and cool their births were due to the epidural being in place. I didn’t believe I could push out a child naturally. Around 8 p.m. the night before my due date, I told my husband we needed to go to the hospital. While I wasn’t having regular contractions, or hardly any contractions, I was having bleeding down there that alarmed me (and the midwife). The birthing triage was packed, and every room in the labor and delivery ward was checked out. We waited until 10:30 p.m. for a midwife, and figured we would be sent home because I wasn’t in pain (or at least a significant amount of pain for labor to be happening).

The midwife decided to check my dilation before letting us go home. She announced, “You are 7 centimeters dilated and having a baby very soon!” My husband and I looked at each other with mouths wide open. There was talk of the epidural, but I wasn’t feeling pain yet. Also, there were 10 other labors in progress and the hospital staff was short-handed.

We were immediately moved to a birthing room (which had just opened up), told to walk around the hospital and that the nurse would be back in an hour to administer the IV fluids to get the epidural. Baby Jordan had other plans, though, and soon I started to have to use the bathroom a lot and felt the urge to push. The nurse entered the room and I shouted at her “Can I start to push?” She was wide-eyed and announced that she needed to check my dilation first. Just as she went to check it, my water broke and labor was in full force. I definitely felt the pain now, but it became obvious that an epidural was not going to be happening. The nurse used her phone to call in the midwife and I was rolling around in pain on the bed. My brain was scared that I was going to be giving birth naturally, but then another part of me knew I was strong enough to do it!

My body decided to have a back labor, which I knew meant an additional significant amount of pain. Thankfully my husband knew what back labor was and pushed on my lower back during the contractions. His opposing force helped me to break through the pain to push. The midwife was also willing to let me decide what position I wanted to be in for the best pushing efforts. Everyone helped me turn to my side and everything went quickly from that point on.

Within thirty minutes of pushing, Jordan came into the world kicking and screaming. She was perfect, and I barely tore. Immediately following her delivery, my body shook from the adrenaline rush. My husband helped me hold her and we looked at each other in amazement. With his counterpressure on my back and telling me how close her head was, and with my pushing with the contractions, we had delivered our baby naturally. It was something I never thought I could do, but the tiny proof was staring up at me with very alert eyes. It was love at first sight, and I never had any issues with bonding with my baby. We had done something together, and I was finally able to meet the person that had been inside of me for 9 months!

The only downside of such a quick delivery was that Jordan had swelling on her nose and eyes from going through my birth canal so quickly. Within several days the swelling subsided and we took home our baby from the hospital. She came into the world kicking and screaming and is still doing just that, but we wouldn’t expect anything less after such a quick delivery!

Send us your birth story! Whether you had a home birth, hospital birth, 37-hour labor or emergency C-section, we’d love to read the tale of your little one’s grand entrance. Write up your birth story (click here for tips on getting started) and email it, along with a few photos, to birthstory@pnmag.com. We’ll share it on our Birth Day blog and may even print it in an upcoming issue!