Maggie was a first time mom that discovered her little one was breech when she was in labor. Most families are not given the option of attempting a vaginal birth. With the support of her midwives, Maggie felt confident in her body to safely deliver her baby. Here is her story…
So early Thursday morning while I was sleeping, I kept getting tightness in my stomach which would be Braxton-Hicks. The only thing is that they were constant, no matter what I did, the entire day. I kept wondering if this was it. Was it starting? I started getting anxious because S was over an hour away. I kept texting him, wondering when he’d be back and I tried not to worry him in case I was wrong. Around 1, it started getting painful consistently. S was home around 2 and I told him what I thought was going on. We just watched tv and in the evening we told our midwife what was going on and S started timing them. We went to bed, knowing that it could be false labor and knowing we would need our rest if it was real. I tried to sleep but it got to the point when I couldn’t lay down anymore, the contractions weren’t letting me sleep.
We had our midwife appt Friday morning. She checked me and I was at 2 cm. She had other appointments and said she’d check in on us later, to eat and rest. S updated her later on that even and we decided to have her come and checked me. I was at 3cm with contractions coming every 5/6 mins. She stayed, unloaded her stuff and S and I continued to work through the contractions. Later Friday night, the midwife checked me and I was at 6/7 but she discovered that baby was breech. We all thought she was head down this whole time.
Our midwife talked to us and said we had other options to think about now: that we can go to the hospital for a definite cesarean or stay home. Both had its risks and S and I weighed the options while I looked online if there was a way to turn a breech baby while still in labor. Some resources I found said putting a bag of ice on the belly could make the baby move and I needed to do something, no matter how far fetched it was. After weighing our options, we decided to stay home and try to move her. I sat with ice on my belly for a good 30/45 mins and it would seem that Eowyn got my strong will and never moved. So I continued to labor and early Saturday morning our midwife checked me and I was at 9 1/2cm .
They recommended sitting on the toilet to get it to progress further. S and I were starting to get exhausted and started to rethink our decision but I’d made it this far and I wasn’t going to quit now. I sat on the toilet and almost immediately started to get closer contractions and double peaking during them. Poor S was doing everything he could to comfort me when the pain was almost unbearable and I have a pretty high pain tolerance. After minutes of doing that and sitting on the birth stool the midwives brought, I knew I was in transition. I started doubting that I would make it and deliver this baby. S, being my rock, kept telling me I had this, I was stronger than this.
The midwife came and checked me again to find that she could feel the bag of water during my contractions. She knew that I was ready and I needed to be placed on the birth stool to help with the breech birth. I sat down on the birth stool with S behind me, the midwife on the floor in front of me and giving me directions on what breathing/pushing and what would happen. I started pushing, S motivating me and keeping me hydrated, the midwife ended up breaking my water (I believe). She told me to wait for contractions and to push during them.
After a while, she was able to feel the baby’s butt and I reached down to feel it, feeling relief that she was almost here. Our midwife guided me through the pushing and her butt came out along with a leg and the midwife guided the other leg out. After a few more pushes, everything but her head was out. I remember telling myself that I needed to gather up what strength I had to get her head out (her vitals were perfect during all this FYI) within the next few pushes. I felt the next contraction and powered through the next 4/5 pushes and she was out.
The midwives began working on her, making sure there was a heartbeat, she was breathing, and kept mentioning her beautiful color. All the while S and I were in awe. Our daughter was finally out and we were both looking at her, it felt very surreal and it honestly still does. After she was fine, they handed her to me and we both just stared at her. I felt the placenta come out and I handed Eowyn over to S while the other midwife worked on me to make sure I wasn’t hemorrhaging. Found out that I had a second degree tear, which was stitched up by my midwife.
Not only was Eowyn part of the 3% of babies actually born on their due dates, but she’s also part of the 3% that are born breech, she was also born during the full blue moon and her birthdate has three 2s in it (12/22).
My biggest worry for my birth is that I didn’t want it to be traumatic. Birth is so beautiful to me and the last thing I wanted was to hate mine. Well, not only did I birth a breech baby, I did it completely natural, I am so damn proud of S and I. This was THE HARDEST thing I have ever done and I managed to push her out in 55 minutes. The pictures I shared are of how she sleeps because she must’ve been breech a little longer than we thought. Not only has she fought to be alive through the sub chorionic hematoma during pregnancy, she’s shown me her determination to do things as she wants, just like her proud mama.
To learn more about breech birth, check out our Resources page.