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A Positive Birth Story - First Time Mom - The Birth of Willow Grace


Nicole & Willow Grace
Nicole & Willow Grace

I was blessed to journey with Taylor and Nicole throughout their pregnancy, birth and now postpartum.  THIS birth was such a powerful and quick one!  As Nicole writes below, yes, birth is a natural experience, but planning and preparing not only your body but your mind is so imperative. Every baby is a miracle from God, and every birth is uniquely personal. And fear has no place in the birthing room. If someone wants to tell you their birth story . . . stop them and tell them positive birth stories only! Willow's birth truly embodied the strength and resilience that both Taylor and Nicole brought to their journey. Witnessing their dedication to mindful preparation reminded me how each birth unfolds its own story, filled with grace and gratitude. The love and faith present throughout the process made the experience even more extraordinary, underscoring that courage and positivity have a profound impact in the birthing room.


Read Willow's story . . . . .


Willow Grace’s Birth Story

Leading up to delivery we had prepared to meet our daughter by attending a Hypnobirthing class around 20 weeks. After learning about the physiology or birth and the powerful impact that a positive state of mind can have on my pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum I started to listen to the Christian HypnoBirthing App daily. I would practice my deep breathing, meditate on our future delivery and for a moment in the future when I would get to hold our precious daughter. I focused much of my daily practice on prayer and communicating with God about having an easy and peaceful delivery, I would talk to our baby in the womb and let her know that we would be working together when the time came for her to make her arrival. All of this preparation along with working with our amazing Doula, my wonderful midwives, and listening to positive birth stories allowed me to not fear birth but to be excited about the opportunity to feel and experience what our bodies as women are capable of doing. I reframed my state of mind to think of labor as Jesus bringing me closer to him through sanctification and I understood that birth isn’t a medical emergency or something to fear, it is a natural experience and our bodies know exactly what to do to.


Our daughter was head down and low in my pelvis since about 28 weeks and started to experience period like cramps starting around 38 weeks. I didn’t think much of the period like cramps but brought it up to both my midwives and my doula when I was sharing my progress. My midwives explained to me that this was my body preparing and the cramp like feeling was the effacement taking place. I was happy to know we were making progress. Every night I would continue to practice my breathing, take a warm bath, and fall asleep listening to the Christian HypnoBirthing app. I was continuing to eat my dates, drink my red raspberry leaf tea, and take my supplements to prepare my uterus and body for birth as much as I could. I still was feeling good and even continued working out until about 39 weeks. Once we hit 40 weeks I was seen at my midwives office 2x a week for a NST, baby girl was healthy and we were feeling good still. I was so excited to give birth at Family Beginnings in Dayton and to welcome our daughter into the world through a water birth.


At 40 weeks and 5 days I spent that Sunday like most Sundays, we went to church and I came home and had a self care day, I made a big pot of chicken and noodles for dinner and didn’t really experience any new labor symptoms. I assumed I was in early labor for a few days but I had just been feeling the same cramping I had been feeling and nothing that made me feel like delivery was near.


Sunday night, Taylor and I went out to look at the Snow Moon at 8:50 and I did some deep breathing and we went back to bed while watching a show together and at 9:50 my water broke. I was in shock (even though I had been praying that my water would break so I would have no question if I was in active labor). I immediately called my doula, Kimberly and asked her what to do because at this point I wasn’t having intense contractions and she told me to rest if I could. About ten minutes later the contractions picked up quickly, I got in the shower and was already having to breathe through the contractions, they were intense I remember thinking this is just the beginning that I needed to stay calm. Taylor had called my midwife and they told us to stay home until the contractions were 5 minutes apart, at this point we started timing them because they were picking up and they were lasting about 40 seconds long and coming ever 2-3 minutes. The contractions weren’t slowing down and I was having trouble practicing my breathing and staying comfortable so we decided to head to the hospital, at this time I had started to bleed and couldn’t say for certain that I had felt our baby girl moving. Our midwife suggested we go to the nearest hospital since family beginnings was about an hour from our house.


As soon as we got into the truck, things picked up and I was grateful my husband had sat out the birthing comb for me to use as I worked through each surge. My body was starting to push about half way to our nearest hospital, and even at this point as a first time mom I wasn’t sure how soon it would be until we would meet our baby but things were happening fast. The Christian HypnoBirthing tracks helped me to stay calm as well as talking to Jesus and just continuing to breathe. I was never scared but I was focused and I knew everything was going to be okay because I trusted my husband and my doula, even though our plans had changed and we were going to the nearest hospital instead of the birthing center we had planned to deliver at.


Once we arrived at Joint Township Hospital, their staff was prepared for our arrival and worked quickly to get us up to our room. We arrived to the hospital a little after 11:00 pm, and we delivered our beautiful daughter at 12:03 AM on February 2nd. The delivery was different than I had planned but we would welcome our daughter into this world peacefully and calmly. Her entrance into this world was fast but between surges I was able to sing songs of worship and catch her as she made her arrival. It was a moment that I will replay in my mind for the rest of my life and wish I could relive it. God has blessed our family with a beautiful delivery and a beautiful baby.


If you’re a first time mom, I want to encourage you to welcome God into your delivery, invite Jesus in to be a part of your laboring. Before delivery learn how God has designed your body to work with your baby. Don’t be afraid of labor and delivery, welcome it, because it may be intense but the contractions can not be stronger than you because they are you and each one is bringing you closer to your baby. The gift of delivering your baby is a beautiful miracle. I would encourage you to prepare your mind and body during your pregnancy, the mental and physical preparation that you do leading up to your delivery will help you so much. And with your supportive partner and Doula by your side you can accomplish the birth of your dreams.


Things that helped me prepare for labor and delivery:

-My supportive husband

-HypnoBirthing class www.breathingthroughbirth.com

-Redeeming Childbirth: https://a.co/d/08RzJOaP

-HypnoBirthing book: https://a.co/d/08ShAGV0

Willow
Willow

 
 
 

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