I met Ryanne later in her pregnancy when she and her husband decided that after their routine prenatal care and original planned hospital birth didn’t meet their needs, they needed a home birth! We met and hit it off and I was thrilled to be able to serve this wonderful couple and help welcome their baby into the world. As any healthy mama, her pregnancy progressed wonderfully and like any normal first time mom, she went right past 40 weeks! While she was disappointed, we knew we were just counting down days. Ryanne opted to have her membranes stripped around 41 weeks and we waited excitedly to see if baby would greet us soon!
I received a text from Ryanne Tuesday morning that she had been up since 2am with contractions! We were so excited that labor seemed to have arrived. By 1:30am Wednesday morning, Ryanne’s husband called to let me know Ryanne’s labor had shifted and things were intensifying. We decided to watch her labor for a bit since it had been so sporadic before and to my surprise, I never heard from them the remainder of the night! I woke up at 5:30am and called to check in, Ryanne’s labor slowed and she was getting discouraged. I decided to run in and check on them and found Ryanne to be 6cm but baby was still high. I gave some pointers on how to bring baby in her pelvis and told them to call me back in when they were ready. I finished a home visit for a previous birth and went home for the morning. Around 10:30am I received a text that Ryanne was tired and feeling discouraged and ready to be done. I figured it was time for me to come support her. I arrived at 11:15am to find her laboring well! She moved around her home and moaned through her contractions. Things were intense. About an hour in, we decided to do another cervical check to see where she was and Ryanne told me she couldn’t go more than 3 hours like this. We found her to be slightly more dilated but baby had moved down better but the bag of water seemed to be keeping baby off her cervix. We talked and decided to break her water manually to bring baby down better. Within the hour, Ryanne was feeling more pressure! We walked the stairs, did a bunch of laying position changes and around 2:45pm things got very serious and Ryanne told me she was ready to go to the hospital for an epidural. My heart hurt for her because I knew she was exhausted! We decided to do one more check and I found her to be complete and ready to PUSH!! Ryanne couldn’t believe it and I saw her instantly snap into place and give it her all. Ryanne pushed for 45 minutes with all her heart and after flipping around to her knees, greeted her sweet baby boy at 3:26pm (just about 3 hours after she told me she couldn’t go on anymore ;))! Tears of joy filled everyone’s eyes that Ryanne had stuck it out when after 37 hours of labor, she could have easily given up! Little Jasper weighed in at a beautiful 8#6oz and was the joy of everyone in the room! So proud of you mama for being so strong! Thank you family for allowing me the honor to serve you during this special time of your lives!
