In a new post, we’re focusing on one story at a time, honoring the many different ways babies come into the world and the beauty of every family’s story.
We’re hearing from Ashlee Wilkenson, 29, who had photographer Rebecca Walsh (working for Denver-based birth photographer Monet Nicole) shoot the birth of her fifth baby, at home in Colorado.
In her own words, Wilkenson describes how unpredictable childbirth can be, no matter how many times you’ve been through it.
I have five children. My eldest is 6 years old, and then I’ve had four babies in the last four years. It’s been interesting!
I had my first baby in a hospital, and then all of my deliveries after have been home births. With my first, I labored for maybe 24 hours and I think it would have taken longer if I hadn’t been given Pitocin. Then with my second, I had probably two hours of active labor. My third was maybe three? My fourth was 14 hours long and extremely painful from the beginning.
Because of that, I went into my most recent birth knowing to expect the unexpected, but also with a clear sense of what I hoped for, if possible. I wanted my husband to catch the baby. And it was really important for me to try and have some peace and quiet right after the baby was born.
I fully expected to be 41 weeks, as that’s what happened with my first and third, but I also felt pretty good in labor from week 36 on.
At 39 weeks, I went to bed as usual and then was able to wake up 45 minutes later with a giant contraction and great pressure. I felt like the baby was right there.
I do have a history of some really fast labors, but I’ve also had some long ones, so I felt like I didn’t know what was happening. I woke my husband up and he was kind of like: “Are you going to have a baby right now?” My contractions were three minutes apart. Right when he asked, I had a contraction hit and I started shaking. I thought, “Oh, my goodness, did I basically wake up in transition?”
He called the midwife right away, and told her I was shaking. She kind of said: “OK, here is how you catch a baby.” My husband is military — he’s an engineer — so he was really calm. I have some medical experience as an EMT and I’m a doula. Because I’ve had some fast labors before, we’d talked with my midwife about what to do if things went quickly. So we had this moment of prepping to do this on our own. But thankfully, my midwife — who is about 45 minutes away — got there in time and we didn’t have to.
My contractions were super close together and I remember thinking to myself, “I need them to slow down, because I cannot do this.” I was still preparing myself for the idea of doing this for another 14 hours after my last labor, even though everyone else seemed to understand how close I was.
I hopped in the bath. I was still thinking I was just in there to slow my contractions down, and my husband and midwife were kind of like, “Sure, Ash, whatever you say.” In the water, things did space out a bit, but then the contractions got really intense again. And it was clear they weren’t dilation contractions. They were get-the-baby-out contractions.
I got out of the tub, and he was born in a contraction and a half. My husband caught him, and then I just hugged him and looked at him for a while.
Yes, I left my baby on the bathroom floor. After a while, I was able to get up and go over to the bed to hug him. It is really peaceful.
He was such a cold kid. I love that I can see it in these pictures, even though he has that slightly puffy face. He has such a sweet demeanor, and he got it right from day one.
The kids slept through the whole thing. We have a friend here who is planning to follow them if we need to, and we’re willing to take them in if they want to – or stay away if that’s what they like. But they eventually wake up maybe four hours after the baby is born.
They were excited to say “hello” to the baby, but then they wanted to go see my sister so they just said it. I took a short nap.
Now that I’ve done this five times, I’ve definitely learned to expect the unexpected and it’s OK if absolutely nothing seems to be going the way it’s “supposed”. It’s like having a lot of kids near each other. Sometimes we’re like, “Oh my gosh, that’s crazy!” But our hearts are full.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Source:huffpost.com, reportglobalnews.com
