I was due with Jude in early June 2014. He was my second, and I delivered his big brother at Lifecycle Women Care in Bryn Mawr. During his brother’s birth, I arrived at the birth center fully dilated and was told it was time to push, so I didn’t get to labor there or wait for my body to have an urge to push. Going into my younger son’s birth, those were the focus of my birth hopes - I really wanted to labor in the tub, and I really wanted to wait to feel the urge to push.

My son was due on June 4, 2014, and I woke up that morning feeling “weird”. Nothing I could describe but it was noticeable to me. That evening, I began to feel crampy, but no contractions. My mom was in town for the birth and was driving me a little crazy asking if I felt anything, so I kept my crampy feelings to myself. Around 12:30 am on the 5th, I began to have actual contractions. My husband checked me* and I was slightly dilated. I labored in bed for a while, relaxing between contractions. Around 3:30 in the morning, we called our friend to come watch our son, called our doula Jessica, and decided to head to the birth center. We arrived there around 4:30, and I was dilated to 8 cm. I immediately got in the tub, and was so relaxed. I was falling asleep between contractions in the tub, so soothed by the smell of Jessica’s deodorant .

I started to feel “pushy” in the tub. I really did not want to get out of the tub, so the midwife and I agreed that I would labor through one pushy contraction in the tub. After that contraction, I got out of the tub and felt a contraction coming as I moved out of the bathroom and towards the bed. The midwife got me a birthing stool to stop to take a break during the next contraction, and my son was born during that contraction on the bathroom floor. We moved to the bed, amazed that he was here and that it had gone so smoothly. I was so grateful to my midwife, and doula Jessica for such a dream birth. I’m now I expecting my 3rd and hoping for a similarly dreamy birth