Kym could not have asked for a better birth experience. She planned and hoped for a natural unmedicated birth but knew birth can be extremely unpredictable, so she was open and ready for anything. Kym was able to achieve her goal of bringing her son into this world without medication and she could not have done so without her midwife team, support from her husband, and the cooperation from the star of the show, baby boy Travis.
Kym’s husband left for the Pendleton Roundup that weekend and it was a running joke that the baby better not come until Dad gets home. Coincidentally enough things started the evening Dad returned. Contractions started the Sunday evening of September 19th, 2021. Kym thought it may have just been indigestion since it was very minor and inconsistent, and she was only 37 weeks and 2 days. The cramping/contractions continued through the night. She was able to sleep through the contractions but would check her phone after each one to know they were hitting on average every 20 minutes. She was able to breathe through them and fall back asleep. The next morning, she woke up and showered and clocked into work (at the time she was working remotely). She checked emails with contractions still happening and her husband went into work. She lasted only about an hour and a half when she told her manager she wasn’t feeling well and might be in labor. She called her husband, and he came home immediately.
Panic started to set in, so they were quickly googling what to pack for the hospital bag since the baby wasn’t expected for another 2 ½ weeks. The unopened car seat box was even thrown into the trunk of the car since they had not set it up yet. The on-call midwife was on the phone and calmed the two of them down since contractions needed to be a minute long and they were only about 15-30 seconds at the time. Kym labored at home for the entire day. Four showers and two baths were taken. Things started to get intense after 5pm and Kym was feeling as though she needed some sort of relief. She decided to take another bath and contractions stopped and she felt as if she could finally relax and breathe. Those ten minutes of tranquility was just what her body needed. Things started to become very intense, and contractions were now lasting 45 seconds-1 minute long, so it was go time. It was 7pm and Kym remembers the uncomfortable drive to the hospital and peeking through her sunglasses and seeing the most beautiful sunset she had ever seen. She remembers thinking in her head “I’m about to meet my baby.” It was the most idyllic moment.
After arriving at the hospital, the midwives asked if she wanted to be checked and sure enough, she was 7 cm dilated and fully effaced. Kym was at the hospital a total of 90 minutes until her son was born. Kym was exhausted and checked out, but one of the midwives got eye level with Kym and gave her a pep talk that she will never forget. Once in a room she pushed for a total of 25 minutes. Pushing was done mostly on the toilet which is where her water broke and her baby started crowning. The midwives suggested she transfer to the bed where Brett and a nurse helped escort her to. Kym pushed a couple more times and her son came out and hit her husband’s leg. Kym remembers hearing his first cry and getting to hold him on her chest. It was the most magical moment that she never wanted to end. Once the umbilical cord was done pulsing, Brett cut the cord while the midwives took a couple photos. The midwives then helped the mom and baby nurse for the very first time. It was the most wonderful day on the most beautiful fall harvest moon.
Kym Dove Bio
Kym is a local Pacific Northwest girl who has been living in Portland for the past 6 years with her husband Brett, her one-year-old son Travis, and her pit hound mix named Raynie. She met her husband back in 2013 in Portland at a mutual friends’ house. Life decided to speed up for the two of them starting in February of 2021 when they unexpectedly found out they were pregnant. All the major live events then followed. They became engaged May 2021, had their baby boy September 20, 2021, got married June 2022, and bought their first home August 2022. You could say 2021 and 2022 were big years for them! Brett is a Salesman at Tec Equipment in North Portland and Kym use to work for the medical school program at OHSU and is now a full time stay at home mom. The Doves love the outdoors and spending time with family and friends. Kym can be contacted on Instagram at @kym_dove
Resources
Ina May Guide to Childbirth
The Birth Hour Podcast
All About Pregnancy & Birth-Nicole Rankins
Pregnancy Podcast by Vanessa Merten
Evidence Based Birth -Rebecca Dekker
Devi Prayer-Craig Pruess & Ananda-Hindu Prayer (21 min long)
BabyIt from Fairhaven Health
This episode is sponsored by Fairhaven Health. Fairhaven Health offers a wide range of products for fertility, pregnancy, breastfeeding and women’s health. Today, we’re highlighting a product from their vaginal care line – BabyIt Perineal Massage and Postpartum Gel. BabyIt is a water-based, isotonic and paraben-free gel designed specifically for perineal massage during pregnancy, and to soothe sore tissues postpartum. Fairhaven Health is generously offering 15% off of all products with the code BirthHour15 at www.fairhavenhealth.com
Megan had Alexander at a hospital, when her husband was finishing up his studies. Megan had an epidural during her first birth because she didn’t know what to expect and was afraid as a young first time mom. Megan had postpartum anxiety but was not aware of what it was until she had her daughter and found a name for what she was feeling.
Megan’s second birth was different but also as empowering as her first. They had a natural home birth in their living room, with their midwives and her mother in law present. Megan’s postpartum journey after their second baby was the same as her first, but this time she realized that she had postpartum anxiety and took the time and initiative to find the help she needed to take care of her mental health.
Megan Christenson Bio
Megan is a mom to two amazing kids, Alexander is almost three and McKinley will be 8 months in October. Her family lives in British Columbia, Canada, where they explore their community, the outdoors and their every day life together. Megan works at an employment agency when she is done with her maternity leave, and enjoys being with her family, doing anything artsy and crafty, baking, and working with people. If you’d like to connect with Megan, please leave a comment here on the show notes page.
Glow Baby App for tracking and the community of women who were going through pregnancy and postpartum with me
The Wonder Weeks App, this is helpful because it helps me see a light at the end of the tunnel during difficult days/weeks and reminds me that they’re learning new skills
Big Little Feelings on Instagram and Facebook, especially if you already have kids because they have helpful techniques to avoid power struggles with toddlers and how to introduce a new baby, etc.
Oath Care
This episode is sponsored by Oath Care – a welcoming community to connect with fellow moms, find judgement-free support, and get personalized expert advice from pediatricians, marriage and family therapists, lactation and sleep consultants, pelvic floor therapists and more. Download the free to use Oath Care app from oathcare.com or in the App Store or Google Play.
After experiencing a very traumatic birth with her first son in 2021, Fallon was determined to have a water birth at the Atlanta Birth Center that she had been preparing for for nearly two years. In her first birth she was unexpectedly transferred to Atlanta Medical Center when her son failed his BPP test at 41+2 weeks. She barely made the cut off to be accepted into the birth center in time for her second birth because she did not find out she was pregnant until she was 18 weeks along. She was determined to deliver Dru on November 11th 2022, just 2 days before his due date, but much like her first son Zane, he came when he was good and ready.
On November 10th she drank The Midwives brew to get things going and started having contractions, but they were not enough to bring on full labor. Over the next week she had her normal contractions throughout the night, and around 5/6AM (just hours before Dru was born) she texted her Doula that they needed to come up with a new game plan because she now wanted an epidural after 3 days in a row of intense contractions all night long! She knew that she could not get an epidural at the birth center, and would have to have another hospital transfer in order to receive the medication. As the sun was coming up around 7:00 a.m. she called the birth center and spoke to a midwife about how intense her pain was and the Midwife instructed her to meet her at the birth center in about an hour and a half at 8:30 a.m. to check her cervix/progression/ dilation and to receive pain meds.
She suspected that she was an active labor and had her husband grab the hospital / birth center bag. Although she had contractions all night for the three previous nights, each morning as soon as the sun came up, the contractions would stop altogether, or would subside to only one contraction every few hours. Once the sun came up on the morning of November 17 however the contractions, never slow and only grew more intense. Once Fallon, her husband, and her mother arrived at the Birth Center, she was checked and told that she was already 6 cm. One of the nurses offered to bring her some snacks to eat since it was early, and she had not eaten breakfast, but as soon as she took one bite of the protein bar, she began to vomit intensely, and then the Midwife said that she was likely 7 cm now.
Fallon spent the next hour and a half begging for the pain meds promised to her by the midwife on call, only to be told that if she birthed the baby very quickly while on the nubane that it could affect the baby. Finally, she was able to receive nitrous oxide after insisting on pain medication. After using the nitrous she was able to get in the water for about an hour but ultimately got out and pushed her baby out after about 6 minutes of pushing.
Fallon Rice Scott Bio
Fallon is a Wife, #BoyMom of 2 under 2, #dogMom to Luka, World Traveler (Currently 41 countries), Houston native turned Georgia Peach, Sister, Daughter, Friend, Business Owner, and Founder of Vision To Fruition™ (visiontofruition.co).
Fallon received both her Master of Accounting and Bachelor of Business Administration degrees from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where she became a proud member of The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
In her non-existent spare time, she enjoys reading, traveling, brunching, spending time with family, and being tortured by coaches at Orange Theory fitness. Connect with her on Instagram @THEFALLONRICE or via her blog fallonrice.com.
Aeroflow Breastpumps
Today’s episode is sponsored by Aeroflow Breastpumps. Aeroflow has helped millions of new and expecting parents discover the breastfeeding and postpartum essentials covered by their insurance including breast pumps, maternity compression, and lactation education & support.
They take care of everything – including all paperwork, working with your insurance company, and explaining your options to get these free essentials shipped straight to your door. Aeroflow offers all major breast pump brands including Medela, Spectra, Motif, Lansinoh, Ameda, Elvie, Willow and more.
All you have to do is go to the Aeroflow Breastpumps website and fill out their free and easy Qualify Through Insurance form. Be sure to go to aeroflowbreastpumps.com/birthhour so they will know we sent you! Bonus — use the promo code “BIRTHHOUR15” in their online shop for 15% off all supplies and accessories.
Amy and her husband Scott had their first son in 2018. To Amy, at least in retrospect, the pregnancy felt easy with minimal morning sickness or health concerns, just some rib pain. Her husband likes to remind her that she still complained a lot! Labor was induced at 39 weeks due to the estimated large size of their baby. The induction resulted in an emergency C-Section after 3 hours of labor because of her baby’s heart rate decelerations. Postpartum healing consisted of intense gas pains, lip and tongue tie problems interfering with breastfeeding, and later postpartum depression as Amy weened.
The family became pregnant again in 2021. The pregnancy was much more difficult as Amy prepared for a VBAC. During the nine months, Amy tested positive for COVID, had bouts of hyperemesis gravidarum (excessive vomiting) in the second trimester, and the flu during her third trimester. She was also diagnosed with severe polyhydramnios (excessive fluid) which caused her belly to grow extremely large and painful. Because of the strains of the pregnancy complications, pandemic, and work, Amy dealt with heightened perinatal depression and anxiety. She went into labor naturally at 37 weeks; despite reaching 10 cm dilation and full effacement, she again needed an emergency C-Section due to her baby’s heart rate decelerating. Her baby required immediate assistance with oxygen and sugars, and was placed in the NICU. While in that care, her son endured multiple health challenges including hypoglycemia, polycythemia (increased red blood cell mass), jaundice, omphalitis (infection of the umbilicus), and viral meningitis stemming from parechovirus. He was in the NICU for 17 days. Amy has experienced considerable postpartum anxiety in the wake of this trauma, and with that, hopes to help others recognize the symptoms, get support, and make waves to improve health systems dealing with perinatal care.
Amy Serafin Bio
Amy (she/her)(38) and her husband Scott (he/him)(44) have been married 5 years. They live outside of Austin, TX with their two sons who are 4 years old and 4 months old, and a small menagerie of pets. Amy is a writer and mental health therapist who loves working with adults, especially mothers. You can connect with her socially on Instagram @flourishaustin.
Resources
Local to Austin/Texas:
Pregnancy and Postpartum Health Alliance of Texas: PPHATX.org
Your Village Consulting (doulas, childbirth education, sleep training, potty training, lactation specialist, etc) https://yourvillageconsulting.com/
This episode is sponsored by Ergobaby. Founded in 2003, Ergobaby has pioneered the gold standard for comfortable, ergonomic soft structured carriers. Their commitment to providing parents with the foundation to thrive has launched the company into creating a broad range of award-winning products that fit into families’ daily lives seamlessly, comfortably, and safely – where function and quality are not compromised. In 2020, they launched Everlove by Ergobaby, a first of its kind baby carrier buy back and resale program, a sustainability effort to support families and the planet. Check out Ergobaby’s Embrace in Soft Air Mesh and new Evolve 3-in-1 Bouncer that we discussed on the podcast!
In May of 2021 Haley and her husband got a positive pregnancy test and so began the journey of parenthood. At 23 weeks Haley was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and put on bedrest to try and get her as far along as possible before delivering their baby. After 11 weeks of bedrest Haley was induced 3 days after Christmas and delivered their son on New Year’s Eve. He arrived at 34w+4d and was immediately taken to the NICU due to lung immaturity.
Their son was in the NICU for 23 days and Haley and her husband lived at the hospital instead of going back and forth from home for fear that the COVID surge in Winter of 2022 would endanger their son’s life if they were exposed. The biggest battle was breastfeeding, and Haley spent the first 3 months of her son’s life trying to get him to transfer a full feeding. After 10 lactation appointments, numerous chiropractic adjustments, sacral cranial therapy, 4 oral tie revisions and a month of recovery, extended triple feeding, and battling low supply her son finally transferred a full feeding and never looked back. They have been happily breastfeeding ever since and Haley considers it her greatest triumph in parenting thus far.
Haley Tuggle Bio
Haley is 23 years old and married to her best friend and husband, Asher. They live in Colorado Springs with their 9-month-old son Peter. Haley is very passionate about giving voice to the voiceless, especially at-risk kids and families. She has volunteered with numerous organizations supporting at-risk kids and most recently began fostering teen girls. She and her husband currently have one child living with them. You can contact her on Facebook (search Haley Tuggle), Instagram private account @haleymtuggle, or email haleymtuggle@gmail.com.
This episode is sponsored by Woolino. Woolino’s innovative sleep sacks help babies sleep better and longer. More sleep for baby means more sleep for you! Woolino’s super-soft, temperature-regulating merino wool sleep sacks use 100% natural fibers that are safe for babies, environmentally friendly, and easy to care for. Discover why thousands of babies and parents are sleeping better at woolino.com/thebirthhour and use the coupon code BIRTHHOUR for 15% off.
Grove Collaborative
Head to Grove.com/BIRTHHOUR to get a free starter set worth up to $50 with your first order.
Julia’s first birth took place in the hospital and, though she was delighted to meet her son, the challenges of the postpartum period left her feeling unsure of herself and worried about making the right choices for her son. Her second birth was another hospital birth with a much less challenging, but still very unsupported postpartum. This time, she knew a little more and felt more confident standing up for herself and her babies but still felt she was fighting for what she wanted and not in alignment with her providers. She knew before she even left the hospital that she would not birth there again.
Her third and fourth births took place at her home and were attended by wonderful midwives and her own children, with her first son catching her 10lb 12 oz baby last May. Through each birth and postpartum, Julia has found a little bit more of herself and settled more deeply and a little more comfortably into her motherhood. She is now the proud and confident mother of 3 young sons and 1 young daughter and loves supporting other women in their transition to and through pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and early parenthood.
Julia Pelly Bio
Julia Pelly, MPH is a mother of four young children. She is a writer, a birth and postpartum doula, a La Leche League leader, a midwifery student, and the founder of Your Postpartum Plan. Julia lives in North Carolina and loves hiking, swimming, and helping build connection and community among new and expecting parents. Connect with Julia via the get in touch button at yourpostpartumplan.com or search for her personal Instagram page under the handle @Julez5206.
This episode is brought to you by Kindred Bravely. From adorable maternity wear to comfortable nursing bras, this mom-owned company has you covered. See all of their comfy clothing at kindredbravely.com! I especially love their Simply Sublime nursing tank, their high waisted leggings (for pregnancy AND postpartum). Listen to this episode for a special coupon code and to hear about my new favorites in their summer line of clothing and loungewear!
