On August 24, 2017 I birthed without fear in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Three days before my due date, I awoke around midnight feeling a bit crampy. I sleepily stumbled out of bed to go for a pee and realized I had lost my plug. I wasn’t having regular contractions at that point, but I noticed there was quite a bit of blood in my show. Something told me it was time to go in. The birthing house was about an hour drive from the home we were renting, and I didn’t want to take any chances. I shook Ryan by the shoulder and told him it was time. We fumbled around throwing last minute things in a bag and headed out the door.

I’ll never forget the drive to the birthing center. Normally we avoid driving around at night in Mexico, but it was pitch black outside under the new moon. There were about a million topes (speedbumps) on the drive there, and as we bumped across them I began to start feeling some real contractions. We seemed to arrive at the same time as Dra. Toni Vargas, a Mexican doctor and partera, a woman who delivers babies. She opened up the birthing house for us began making preparations as I bounced on a yoga ball and did some dancing to reggae music to help move the baby down. At that point the waves were coming about every seven minutes. After an hour of that I remembered how tired I was and laid down on the bed to try and rest.

An hour or two later, the contractions became closer and closer. I didn’t want to be laying down during them, so I would get up when I’d feel them and lay back down when they were over. When they started to become painful I got back on the yoga ball. I’d get through the contractions using Ujjayi Pranayama or “Ocean Breath:” breathing deeply and exhaling with an open mouth and “haaaa” sound. Toni put a few drops of Peppermint Oil on her fingers and I would inhale when I felt one coming. She spent the next hour or so massaging my back and hands and feet. It was so amazing to have a doctor actively participating with me in labor instead of just pumping me with meds and walking away. Toni was with me the whole way. At one point she hung a scarf from the ceiling so that I could sort of hang from it with my upper body (with my feet still on the ground). It only took one contraction while doing this to really get things going. It must have been the most intense contraction during the entire labor experience. When it was over collapsed to my hands and knees and felt like puking. Toni checked my cervix for the first time and I was almost complete. We decided it was time to move to the water.

Toni began filling up the birthing tub while I held on to Ryan. At that point my contractions were around 3 minutes apart and very intense. When I finally entered the tub I felt an immediate sense of relief. The water was so calming and comforting. Ryan sat behind me and I relaxed in his arms. When I’d feel a contraction coming, I’d move from the sitting position to the squatting position. It was much easier to change positions underwater and while the contractions were still very uncomfortable, they were much more bearable. They did slow down quite a bit, though. Before I got in the water they were coming every 2-3 minutes. After, it would be more like 7. I even found myself falling asleep between the contractions, being woken by the next wave.

I put the baby to my breast and she immediately started suckling. Toni checked the umbilical cord while we waited for the placenta and noticed something strange- there was a knot in it! She said she’d heard of it before but in her many many years of delivering babies she had never actually seen one. I remember feeling a little bit of anxiety while waiting for the placenta. It seemed to take forever to come out. Even with the baby breastfeeding, it must have been 15 or 20 minutes before I finally felt another contraction. When it finally came out I exited the tub with the baby. Toni examined me and helped me clean up before getting into the recliner. Everything looked perfect- no tears or excess blood like with my previous labor.

I climbed into the recliner and Ryan sat next to me. We spent the morning bonding with our new baby girl before returning back to our rental home (and other two babies) later that afternoon. I felt so grateful and blessed to have such a wonderful birthing experience.♥