Welcoming Lewis: My Personal Birth Story
Lewis’ arrival into the world involved hypnobirthing meditations, acupuncture, Jimmy John’s, a flooded basement, and an extended pushing phase, so naturally, it’s a story worth telling.
On Wednesday 4/22, I woke up around 3am to go to the bathroom and felt a small gush of fluid. I briefly wondered if my water had broken, but quickly convinced myself I had probably just peed a little. Still, I texted Liz and Natalie (our doulas) just in case it was actually the real thing.
Around 7am, another gush happened when I got out of bed, this time a little harder to explain away. But nonetheless, I told Nathan to go to work since nothing was “really happening”.
I got ready for the day and sat down for work emails and meetings, somewhat frantically trying to send every lingering email on my to-do list before having this baby. I was having mild cramps, but honestly that had been happening off and on since 38 weeks, so again, I downplayed that it was the real thing.
As someone who works in birth, I thought I’d recognize exactly when labor officially started. Turns out, it’s a lot easier to identify when it’s happening to someone else. One theme was that I spent most of early labor trying to convince everyone (including myself) that it probably wasn’t labor yet.
By 10am, there was another larger gush of fluid. I updated the doulas and decided to do some things to see if we could ramp up contractions, as I was only feeling some very mild “period-like” cramps (and since I know with my water broken I was now on a “time clock” to have this baby soon).
My mom was also supposed to take the dogs while I was in labor. Ideally a task we had arranged before labor started…oops. So I called her to let her know what was happening, and we made plans for her to pick them up after work.
At 11:30am, I luckily got in for a chiropractic appointment with Holly (Enlightened Wellness) to see if we could encourage contractions and do some final positioning work for baby.
At 1:30pm, Nathan called and insisted on coming home from work despite me repeatedly telling him nothing was really happening yet. Apparently everyone at his office was asking him why he wasn’t at home with me and telling him to leave. 😆
We happened to already have my 40-week clinic appointment scheduled for this day at 2:45pm. Liz joined us for the visit. Unfortunately, I had one slightly elevated blood pressure reading of 145/92 at the beginning of the appointment (which I maintain was taken during a contraction). But this put me on the radar for pre-eclampsia. We decided to do a cervical check and membrane sweep to hopefully kickstart labor more intentionally.
To my surprise, I was already 4cm dilated, 90% effaced, and baby was at -1 station! This felt incredibly encouraging because I still barely felt like I was truly in labor.
They repeated my blood pressure at the end of the appointment and it had normalized, but they still recommended a non-stress test. Thankfully, baby looked perfect on the monitor and we were able to head home afterward.
By 5pm, my mom arrived to pack up the dogs and take them with her for a few days. Again, ideally something we would have organized sooner, but apparently we were fully committed to the “see what happens” approach. 😅
At this point, the membrane sweep was definitely doing its thing. Contractions were becoming more noticeable and settling into a rhythm about every 7–8 minutes.
At 6pm, Nathan drove me to a last-minute acupuncture appointment at Family Tree Acupuncture. During the session, I listened to my hypnobirthing meditations and drifted in and out of rest between contractions. Looking back, I’m incredibly grateful for those quiet moments because they ended up being some of the last real rest I’d get for a while.
On the way home, we stopped for Jimmy John’s. Truly an elite final meal choice.
As the evening went on, contractions slowly intensified. Around 8pm they were still averaging 7–8 minutes apart and lasting about 90 seconds each (they were longer than the expected 60 seconds the entire labor). By 9:40pm, they had shifted to every 5 minutes.
We kept texting our doulas updates throughout the night, trying to describe a labor that somehow still didn’t fully feel like “real labor” to me yet. At one point I asked Liz “what are the chances this is all just fake labor and discomfort from the membrane sweep?!” Her response was, “I give it 8%” 😆 …convincing enough! Haha
I spent most of the night listening to meditations, breathing through contractions, and trying to rest in between them. Nathan somehow managed to fall asleep for stretches while I labored beside him.
Around 1am, contractions became much more intense, though they still didn’t quite look like the textbook contraction pattern I expected.
At one point, Liz texted asking how I was doing, and my response was “fine, not great,” which felt like the most accurate possible description at that point.
Then around 1:40am, in the middle of laboring at home, I decided I wanted to take a bath. However, when the water wasn’t getting hot, Nathan went to check the water heater and instead discovered water POURING through our basement ceiling. Apparently labor alone wasn’t enough excitement for one evening.
Nathan was somehow simultaneously supporting me through contractions while also managing an unexpected household flood! Haha, maybe a “dad initiation” trial by fire. We deemed it a problem for another time.
Shortly after that fiasco, Liz arrived at our house. She watched me work through contractions for a bit and gently asked whether I thought it might be time to head to the hospital. My immediate answer was “No.” In hindsight, this is hilarious because within the next hour, things escalated very quickly.
By 2:35am, I was starting to feel significant pressure and contractions were still lingering instead of fully fading between waves. They were now every 3–4 minutes. As we loaded into the car around 2:50am, I remember entering a much quieter, more inward-focused headspace.
We walked into the hospital at 3:18am. And somehow — the DREAM — we skipped triage entirely and were brought straight to our labor room. (IYKYK)
At 3:31am, I threw up and immediately remember using my doula brain to think “this usually means we’re round 7cm.”
At 3:33am, the nurses began getting me situated on the monitors while mentioning my temperature was “slightly elevated.” My blood pressure also started creeping up again, which unfortunately meant they wanted continuous monitoring for a while before allowing me into the tub. I also knew at this moment that I would not be allowed to have the water birth I wanted. Liz was an amazing advocate for us during all this. She helped ask questions and make suggestions that aligned with our birth preferences as much as possible.
We also had two nurses (one in training), so the next hour felt like an absolute blur of intake questions, blood pressure checks, monitors, and trying to answer medical history questions (something seasoned nurses usually skip over at this point in labor) between contractions and while eating tiny bites of a granola bar for energy. 😆
Eventually, after repeat vitals looked reassuring enough, they finally agreed to let me into the tub around 4:45am.
I labored in the water for about an hour, listing to hypnobirthing tracks (Pop That Mumma Birth Box), changing positions, and trying to stay relaxed through the intensity. Truly, these hypno tracks got me through some of the hardest parts of labor!
Toward the end, I started doing lunges in the tub and finally reached the point where I looked at everyone and said “I can’t do this much longer.” I even contemplated and asked if achieving my goal of an unmedicated labor was really “worth it.” Which, in labor translation, usually means the transition phase is fully here.
Sure enough, when I got out of the tub and asked for a cervical check around 5:45am, I was 9cm dilated. I was half elated, half shocked, and honestly don’t even remember fully reacting. After laboring for so long unsure whether I was even “really” in labor, suddenly I was almost fully dilated.
At that point, I asked for nitrous oxide, and WOW, I immediately loved it.
It didn’t take the intensity of the contractions away (which I knew to expect), but it definitely helped me soften and relax. Especially paired with my hypno tracks! It gave me something rhythmic to focus on and just enough relief to mentally regroup before pushing.
By 7:25am, I was fully dilated (+1 station) and it was time to push. And TBH I hated this part. I remember saying multiple times that I didn’t want to push yet (and wasn’t 100% confident that my body was “ready” to push). However, this is when the providers started my “pushing clock.”
The urge to push started as involuntary grunting, but it took me awhile to push consistently or effectively. Over the next several hours, we tried truly every position imaginable: all fours, the toilet, leaning over a birth ball, side-lying in bed, tug-of-war with a sheet, the squat bar, knees in, knees out, pulling my legs back…everything.
For hours it felt like we were making progress but also not.
Meanwhile, Natalie had swapped in as our doula support around 7:05am. She remained absolutely incredible throughout the entire pushing phase. She was calm, encouraging, grounding, and creative with position changes.
Nathan kept thinking surely the baby’s head had to be almost out because Natalie was so excited she could see bulging and movement with every push.
But nope.
At one point, Natalie suggested placing a straight catheter because my bladder might be preventing baby’s descent, and an alarming amount of urine immediately came out. Labor is glamorous.
Around the three-hour pushing mark, the energy in the room shifted a bit. The midwife explained she needed to consult with the OB team and began discussing possibilities like assisted delivery (vacuum or forceps), episiotomy, or cesarean birth if progress stalled.
As a birthworker, I know labor doesn’t always go according to plan. And while I absolutely understand the importance and value of interventions when needed, I also knew deeply in my gut that I wanted more time. So I quickly declined all of those options and chose to keep pushing.
Eventually, after another hour or so of pushing, the OB came in for an in-person consult. There was mention of a possible deceleration in baby’s heart rate, though there seemed to be some disagreement about whether it had truly occurred. They placed an internal monitor on baby’s head for reassurance, and thankfully, despite the exhaustion, Lewis continued tolerating labor beautifully overall.
The last few pushes felt incredibly intense, with the entire room encouraging me to give it everything I had…as if I hadn’t already been doing that for the previous several hours. 😉
Finally at 12:05pm on April 23rd, Lewis Anthony Mollan made his debut.
7 pounds, 11 ounces
21.5 inches long
After extended hours of pushing, he came out with me on my back, which was absolutely not part of “the plan,” but in the moment it felt necessary and right. I also ended up with a second-degree tear, which, (birth advocate moment)… for the record is exactly why we don’t do episiotomies routinely! 😉
I immediately got skin-to-skin with him and just remember staring at this tiny human in disbelief that he was finally here.
Despite all the twists, exhaustion, and moments where I doubted myself, I never once felt unsupported. And I feel incredibly grateful, empowered, and accomplished that I achieved my goal of having an unmedicated vaginal birth. One of my other top preferences was to avoid an IV, which I also successfully achieved (and is quite rare in a hospital setting!)
There’s something humbling about spending years supporting laboring people and then suddenly becoming the one breathing through contractions yourself. As someone who has supported over 100 births, experiencing my own labor gave me a new appreciation for the vulnerability, endurance, surrender, and strength that every birthing person walks through.
The birth was challenging, but it was one (very long) day. Postpartum has been the real test. It’s been a season of sleepless nights, healing, triple feeds and hormone shifts..but I’ll save the roller coaster of our postpartum story for another day. 💛
