She’s here! After 9 long months, Dahlia Catori was welcomed Earth side on January 31st 2020 at 10:11am. Her birth was everything I imagined, and this is her story.

Leading Up To The Big Event

Dahlia’s birth did not start the day she entered our world. Her story started 9 months prior to that. Building up to the day I got to meet her had a lot of preparation. Nourishing my body the best way possible, to ensure she was growing as healthy as could be while we shared a body. My daily regimen included Healthforce Vitamineral Green powder, Klaire labs Prenatal and Nursing supplements, and Sprouts private label Fertility herbal supplement that included Red Raspberry leaf, nettles, yellow dock, and red clover for nourishing my womb. I embraced this sacred season of my life to the fullest.

This pregnancy was no walk in the park. It came with a lot of discomforts due to my growing belly, and a lot of false alarms. While it came with the added testing due to previous pregnancy issues (see post here) it also came with its own issues. Towards the end, my growing stomach was not measuring big enough, which was a red flag to my doctor. She sent me to get additional ultrasounds to check the baby’s growth. The ultrasounds showed she was right in the middle, at 50 percentile, yet a month later, I was still measuring small and my doctor sent me yet again, and again she still measured right in the middle. While it’s always a treat to see the baby, it was still very anxiety driven due to my history. Another treat I got to encounter was low iron. My numbers were below normal, so I tried iron supplements, and still the numbers continued to plummet, so I had to do iron infusions for 5 weeks before delivery. My body simply was unable to absorb the iron, which I later found out my mother was also slightly anemic in her pregnancies. Despite all these detours, Dahlia was born as healthy as can be, and without further ado, her birth story.

And So It Begins

Before you read any further, just an FYI I am about to get detailed here.

January 30th I was 39 weeks and 1 day pregnant. My son was born at 38 weeks and 2 days so I was done with being pregnant, and had no signs she was coming. That night, after dinner, I felt my water rupture. It didn’t fully break, but instead had a nice annoying leak that lasted hours and hours. We had plans for my son to go with my parents when the time came, and they just so happened to be in Napa that night because my dad was accepting an award. Luckily we had a back-up plan, my sister lives just a few blocks away and was available for my son to have an overnight. Unfortunately, he also came down with a slight fever, but he was well enough to hang with his cousins, and got to stay home from school and hang out with his Aunt the next day.

After my son went to my sisters, my husband and I prepared all our things. Of course, he was slightly freaked out and wanted to be on the road to the hospital 10 minutes ago. I knew Dahlia wouldn’t be making her entrance anytime soon, however. I had no contractions yet, just the annoying on going leak . So I cleaned the house, because I refused to come back two days later to a dirty house, and I took a shower. Finally we were off to the hospital, 45 minutes away. When we made it, I went to triage to check if I was in fact, in labor, and if it was in fact, my water. We got confirmation that it was, and my contractions were about 9 minutes apart. Since I was planning to have a natural birth, we were offered two options- to go home and labor more at home, or get admitted since my water was broken, even though my contractions weren’t very close. We opted to get admitted since we were so far from home. My biggest fear being far from the hospital, was getting stuck in traffic while in full blown labor, and birthing baby in the car. The hospital had one room with a birthing tub, saved for mothers choosing to have a natural birth. The room is first come first serve, and the maternity ward was busy that night, but low and behold, the room was available. It was like it was all meant to be. Off we went to our room.

By the time we were in the labor room, it was about 11:00pm. We decorated the room with flameless candles, I set up my essential oils for easy access, and we waited. By about 2 am my nurse and another nurse came in to check my progress, I hadn’t progressed much, and I was told by the other nurse that I would either need pitocin administered to get things moving, or we could go home. Whoa, what???? My mind started racing. I explained that the reason we admitted ourselves was due to living so far. The other nurse pushed the pitocin, and my nurse could see in my face I was stressing out. She offered another method to get labor moving- nipple stimulation. I had read about it inducing contractions, but didn’t think it could help labor along. They offered a breast pump- and I was to use it on one breast at a time for 15 minutes, with 15 minute breaks in between. They gave me one hour- and I was told if things didn’t start moving then we would have to consider other interventions. Stress starts now, I felt like I was against a clock. Almost two hours later, my nurse comes in, and she can see the stress of my face. My contractions were still only about 5 minutes apart, slightly stronger but I knew they weren’t where they needed to be yet. My nurse assured me that its progress, which is good, and also comforted me to not stress about what the other nurse said, and to continue what I was doing.

Hello Active Labor

At around 7:00am, I suddenly started getting hit with strong contractions. Still about 3-4 minutes apart. Within 30 minutes I needed my husband to press on my back through the contraction, all my labor was in my back because Dahlia was “sunny side up”- basically the back of her head was pushing on my tail bone. During this time, we also got a new nurse because my first nurses shift ended. This nurse (her name was Jasmine) ended up being our holy grail, and got this baby out!

Once the contractions started getting hard to handle, and after trying a few different positions on the bed, I decided to get into the labor tub. My angel of a husband got in to, because with each contraction, he was helping to push against my back. While the tub didn’t help with the pain, it helped me feel more relaxed. At this point I had to surrender to my body, and let it do it’s thing. I made sounds I never thought I could make. A deep hum was my sound of choice. With each contraction, I focused on making these hums last as long as I could. This focus helped me to not focus on the pain as much. Also, the nurses break room was literally a shared wall to where I was at, and I am pretty sure they could hear everything. Because I didn’t have pain medicine, I could feel the transitions of labor. It started with the heavy back pain and cramping contractions, which is to dilate and efface. Then, along with the cramping, I began to feel a sensation of my stomach pushing everything down. This is the part of labor to push the baby down the birthing canal. Being able to feel everything was exactly why I wanted to birth unmedicated, allowing my body to take control, and allow each sensation to come (although painful as it was).

After nearly an hour and a half of contractions, now at 2 minutes apart, my husband called in our nurse to ask if I was getting close. It was at this point that she helped me more than she knew. I had yet to be checked how dilated I was, but she gave me some advice. She asked what checking would really do for me- if I was, for example, at a 6, would that make me want to get pain medicine, would it help me to know? She said based on the sounds I was making, I wasn’t quite there yet, so I opted not to get checked. It was soon after I felt another transition in my labor. Suddenly my humming turned into straight lioness roars. Again, these sounds were uncontrollable and all part of surrendering to my body and to the birth. My nurse came in and exclaimed that I was probably close, so back on the bed I went to be checked, to which she said “you did it!” It was a relief, but now the pushing would commence.

At 8:45am I began to push. I first tried squatting, which I thought would be my position of choice, but that was a no-go. I ended up on my back, which I thought was not going to be the way I wanted to push, after reading how laying on the back isn’t the body’s natural position to push out a baby, but in that time, it is exactly what my body wanted to do. I pushed without a lot of progress, so I switched to hands and knees, which became excruciating with the back labor I was having, so back to laying on my back I went. Over an hour of pushing, and with a lot of help with my nurse and the midwife, progress wasn’t being made as quickly as expected with a second baby. It was due to her position- being face up meant she was also stuck at my pelvis. By then I was exhausted. I had been awake for over 24 hours, but my nurse continued to direct me to push through it all. Finally I felt it. The ring of fire. You know, the thing so many people talk about as being painful, with examples of a lighter being next to your crotch. Well, for me the ring of fire meant I was just about there, minutes from meeting my daughter. It was relief. I was exhausted to near tears, but my efforts were finally almost here. A few more pushes, and every sensation that goes with it, and finally my baby was out. 10:11am, Dahlia entered our world, and I got to hug and snuggle my baby weighing in at 6 pounds 14 ounces, 19.5 inches long.

The After-math.

We got a full hour of skin to skin. During which, I lost a lot of blood. Most likely due to my anemia- scary, but not the worst. The worst was getting my abdomen pushed on, to deliver the placenta, and then a lot more times after to continuously check my bleeding. One of those things you just don’t learn about at birthing class. That honestly may have been worse than the actual labor itself. I lost 700ml of blood. Typically vaginal births they want it under 500ml, but with a c-section mothers can loose up to 1,000, so I was right in between the two, concerning, but not enough to worry too much. The nice thing about birthing unmedicated, was I was able to get up and use the bathroom soon after. I was able to move, although very sore, with ease. I felt like a warrior when it was all said and done. I still look at her and cannot believe I did it. Women are incredible.

Dahlia was born with a tongue tie, but she nursed like a warrior. The next day when she got weighed, she hadn’t lost any weight. Typically breast-fed babies loose up to 10% of their birth weight in the first 24 hours, but our little cub proved them wrong, despite having a tongue tie on top of it. Before leaving the hospital she had to get her tongue clipped, and our strong little girl took that like a champ, too. Unashamed bragging momma over here.

The Fourth Trimester

The fourth trimester. This is the part we usually don’t talk about. I just pushed a baby out, my body is going through massive changes, but we have to act like all is fine and dandy. We’re bleeding, our hormones have crashed, and our bodies are sore. Oh the soreness was not what I was expecting. My arms felt it the most, because I put everything into my arms with each contraction, and again with each push. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the next day my arms were incredibly sore. That, on top of the ice pack pads, the witch hazel, and soreness in *other parts*, this is the fourth trimester, and it’s time to be easy on myself, rest, nourish, and embrace all the body has been through.

To help ease with the transition of my body’s changes after birth, I encapsulated my placenta from the Harmony Doula Group, using the Traditional Chinese Medicine method of steaming. Taking my placenta helps bring my plummeted hormones back up, lessens postpartum bleeding, brings my iron levels back up, can help with postpartum depression, and helps the milk come in. Two weeks in and I’ve reaped the benefits, and so has Dahlia. Fun fact- my placenta can also be used during menopause, and even for my daughter when she gets her first menses. Interesting, right?? Might be a little too crunchy, but I do like some crunch in my life!

Fourteen days in, and I’m feeling wonderful. Our little family has eased into life with a newborn, and we are all simply smitten by Dahlia’s presence.

Birth is magical no matter how these tiny beings enter the world. Pain killers or not, c-section or vacuums, it is all a miracle, and we all have stories to share. Our bodies made life, and it is to be celebrated. We are the strongest beings on this planet.

We are mothers.