River King Walter’s Birth Story
Born March 31, 2011 8lbs 8 ounces, 20 ½ inches




I have been surrounded by many powerful women who have pursued all-natural
childbirths – from my sisters in-law to the many wonderful mamas I met through
the Lil Omm community - so when I became pregnant – even before – I knew this
was the path I wanted to take in welcoming our baby into this world. In order to
prepare ourselves for this, when we moved to San Francisco we found a midwifery
practice we really liked based out of hospital nearby our house in Bernal Heights. We
also decided after hearing many other birth stories that a doula would be absolutely
essential for us hire and we worked on finding her next – a wonderful woman
named Alexis Cohen. Additionally, in preparation for my birth my Gareth and I took
a Hypnobirthing childbirth education class. Hypnobirthing really resonated with me
because many of the tools we learned for working through surges and the whole
process of birthing utilized various breathing and visualization/relaxation techniques I was quite familiar with from my yoga practices and teaching.

Only 1 day past my due date, things happened very quickly! After a day of feeling a
bit unwell I went and had a prenatal massage and some cranial sacral work done and
2 hours later just after a nice walk and as Gareth finished making dinner my surges
began. We called our birth doula Alexis to let her know and she instructed us to call
back if we needed anything or when the surges became rhythmic and closer. We
called her back 45 minutes later as they immediately came on hard and fast, every 4
minutes lasting 1 minute (Gareth timed them without me really being aware). My
waters released at home shortly after and they were dark brown, indicating the
presence of meconium, and I started to feel a lot of pushing-like pressure so I chose
to head over to St. Luke’s at this point. Because of the quickness of my labor I had a hard time at first getting onto 'the zone' with our Hypnobirthing techniques but once Alexis arrived and we all settled in a bit more I was totally able to focus on my breathing and resting between surges.

After 2 hours of laboring at St Luke’s with
surges coming even more frequently, I really felt like pushing so asked the midwife
to check me (my birth plan indicated I only wanted exams on my request) and I was
about 9cm so they moved me into a delivery room where I shortly thereafter began
pushing and did for about the next 4 or 5 hours. The lip of the cervix kept popping
back so it got inflamed, they tried moving it but it kept going back. About this time I became aware that River's heart rate was dropping and the midwife Brooke and OB on call Dr. Norrell were concerned. Dr. Norrell stepped in at this point and helped me push for awhile while she moved the cervix. I had a hard time getting into the push breathing we learned in Hypnobirthing because of the intensity of how quickly things were happening. River’s heart rate was still a concern and Dr. Norrell was worried about having to do a caesarian. Dr. Norrell is known for her low cesearian rate (4%) so we consulted and shared her concern and then headed into the OR and we pushed for another 25 minutes. Rivers heart rate dropped to 70 and it was clear he needed to come out so Dr. Norrell used a vacuum - first go at it the vacuum
popped off and struck her in the sternum knocking the wind out of her the second
time was a success an he came out as I pushed and the vacuum pulled. River was
placed on my chest and then whisked him away immediately because he swallowed
a lot of meconium and wasn't breathing. Gareth went with him while the pediatric
team spent the next 4 minutes reviving him. I was still in the OR as I needed an
episiotomy to deliver him so quickly. We were separated for about 2 hours, luckily
Dad was continuously by his side advocating the whole time. By the time I got to the
NICU River was snuggled on Dad’s chest finally peaceful after a dramatic entry.

We are so thankful everything turned out okay, and I think the Hypnobirthing
techniques and my ongoing yoga practice really kept me calm in what could have
been a very stressful situation. Gareth was not only an awesome birthing partner
(supporting the breathing and visualization, taking vitals when I wouldn't let nurses
touch me) but also an amazing advocate for River in the NICU avoiding many
unnecessary interventions (prolonged Tylenol administration, sugar water, formula)
by using the questions, ‘Is he okay right now?’, and, ‘Can we wait an hour and see
how things are then?’ Which are techniques we learned in our Hypnobirthing class
for avoiding unnecessary medical interventions.

We ended up hiring a post-partum doula, Melitta Hoder and she has been so great
in helping us find our bearings after a difficult birthing experience. Our birth doula Alexis was an absolute miracle to have with us, she was so fabulous! We also had a cranial sacral therapist come over and do some cranial sacral work with River which totally helped out his latch - we were having a few difficulties with breastfeeding to start off with.

River, Mom and Dad have been at home for almost 2 weeks now and just enjoying
our wonderful, healthy and strong bundle of joy!