I feel like all my blog posts lately have been talking about the unpredictable nature of birth and this one was no different! When I met Alice at our initial consultation, she told me she was a first-time mom who was originally from China and excited to document her birth story for herself and her husband, as well as her family back home. When she called me the morning of her birth (10:30am), she let me know that her water had broken and they were heading to the hospital. We texted back and fourth for a while and it looked like her labor had stalled a bit. At 1:30 that afternoon, Alice texted that the doctor had put her on pitocin and I told her and her husband to keep me posted. Then it was crickets for a few hours. I checked in at 5:30 pm and Alice’s husband, ZQ, told me that contractions were getting intense and were 2-3 minutes apart. I asked if the doctor had done a cervical check recently and he said not since that morning….so I started to panic a little bit and decided to head to the hospital.
As I arrived at CMC Main, ZQ texted to tell me that Alice had a cervical check and was only at 4cm. I told them that I would get some laboring shots since I was already there and then would likely head back home until her labor had progressed more. By the time I got to the room, contractions had intensified enough where Alice asked for an epidural. I took a few more pics and my intuition told me to stick around a bit longer, so I told ZQ that I would wait until she got her epidural (which would include another cervical check) before I headed home. I waited in the waiting room for ~20 minutes when I got this text:
“She is ready to push!”
WHAT THE WHAT!?! So I ran back to the room and did my thing! Alice birthed like a champ and baby Amy came soon thereafter. What’s the moral of the story here? Trust your intuition! Had I left when she got her epidural, I might have missed her birth. But I had this voice inside my head telling me to stay…and I’m SO thankful I did!
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What a gorgeous array of photos of such a miraculous moment. You did good 🙂 I so wish I had had more kids… I am 47 and miss having the little ones 🙂 Waiting on grandkids now….LOL.
What an amazing experience, wow! I had no idea that much goes into this. That said, it is so beautiful.
What an amazing story! Glad you did decide to stay and didn’t miss the birth.
I’ve heard of labors happening quickly and I’m glad you were able to catch the moment. Beautiful pics and congratulations to the new parents!
Childbirth seems almost an experience of another world which however gives one of the greatest emotions: life.
What a beautiful story! I love that you had a photographer document the whole process.
Such a lovely story. Thanks for sharing this.
These are such beautiful photographs. Birth can be such a wild time. I remember going in there when my ex was induced and then having to all of a sudden change course and do a C-section. You took some beautiful photographs of the moment here.
Amy was really impatient to be born! My second child did that too, the midwife filled the bath tub for me to relax in it, and the baby couldn’t wait and she was unexpectedly born in the bath tub, LOL