The Birth Story of Yera Scot

Born at home, in Trade TN, after a 16hr labor

December 15th, 2024 at 8:30pm

Written by Anthea (the mother):

When I first found out I was pregnant I remember looking up the nearest full moon to my due date and found out that I was due on the new moon, so the full moons were either two weeks early or two weeks late.

On the evening before Yera’s birth we went to see the Christmas parade in Boone. We were watching the joy of all these families and children and getting excited to have a little family of our own with the arrival of our first baby. While we were in town I had to pee so frequently that it felt like I was visiting every public restroom on main street as we walked around and I kept ducking into the nearest shop. I told Ryan that something felt different because I wanted to be close to him, craving constant physical connection even if it was just a hand on his knee or leaning against his shoulder.

On our walk back to the car we looked at the full moon and he said, “well don’t give birth tonight because I’m tired”. It was a joke because it was still two weeks before my due date and we thought we still had plenty of time.

I woke up in the night to pee and also felt a little crampy, some of the cramps I slept through and some of them woke me up. By 3am I was up and about and by 4am I woke Ryan up to tell him I thought I was in labor. We texted our birth team at 6am and then by 8 am we started calling people. I was laboring with my knees on the floor and and my arms stretched over the bed, grasping a pillow and vocalizing through each contraction.

Our midwife advised us to wait for the contractions to become 5 minutes apart before calling in the team and so I took a pen and paper and wrote the time for each contraction. I was very focused on peeing and went to sit on the toilet between many of the contractions. At this point I was still smiling and laughing between contractions at the noises I had just made. By 10am we called for the team and over the next few hours people arrived.

My contractions began to get too intense for me to talk anymore and I began to cry, through my tears and runny nose I explained that I was feeling very sad. Waves of deep sadness and grief came forth and I cried and cried. I can’t describe the grief in words as it was a sadness coming from the tissues and tendons of my being but my best attempt is that the grief was for my mother who passed 10 years ago. The sadness and tears were for the whole world and everyone that looses loved ones and for the the ever growing list of moments unfolding without the presence of those who have passed.

The birthing tub was ready so we made our way down the stairs and into the tub. Although the hot water felt good on my body the contractions became more and more intense during this time. My pain was in my hips and lower back with no sensations in my uterus.

The intensity ramped up and up and up as I yelled and spluttered, thrashing my body around in the water in an attempt to find some relief from the pain. I was gasping for breath and struggling to get enough, my vision going dark between contractions when I would hang over the edge of the tub and slip into unconscious sleep for a minute before waking up with the next wave. I began to think about the epidural, to think about all the birth stories I’d heard that were shorter than mine. I thought about all the birth videos I had watched of women breathing steadily through each contraction, how far I felt from that tranquility. I cried and cried exclaiming that I couldn’t do this and all I wanted was to lie down. Sometimes the contractions came one on top of the other and I wailed that I hadn’t even gotten a break and that wasn’t fair. I gripped the hands of my friend and my partner and people poured jars of warm water over my back. My birth team kept me going, saying things like: “I love you” “your baby is coming” “stay with it”.

It got dark. Eventually I proclaimed that everything had to change because I needed it to be different. I was fully dilated but had not had the urge to push yet.

We walked all the way back up the stairs, stopping for contractions on the way and then I tried to lay down to get the relief I wanted. But that didn’t work as laying down made the contractions even more painful and hard to bare. I got on all fours and soon had the urge to push. It took some time for me to switch from trying to breath through the contractions to actually holding my breath and pushing.

At this point part of me had given up and surrendered to the fact that this was going to continue to be painful and unbearable and I had to let it keep happening. The midwife exclaimed that we had seen the lips part and with the next few contractions the head would come out and a few more would bring the body. With the very next contraction I pushed as hard as I could and out came the head.

The ring of fire was the most painful thing yet and I yelled and yelled until the body came out with the next push. I heard my team start moving and I heard some tears of joy and amazement. The baby was handed to my through my legs and I sat back and picked him up. I looked down in total shock.

Feeling stunned as the pain finally stopped and I looked down at my baby boy. He was crying his little cry and Ryan held his little hands and through some tears told him, “you’re safe now with us”.

I started bringing him up to nurse but his umbilical cord was a bit short. I laid back against the pillows, relieved I could finally rest.

As the placenta came down he was able to reach my nipple and latched on with strength and determination. The placenta came out quickly as I stood up and gave a little push.

In the next few hours everything was cleaned up and the baby was weighed and measured. I was fed warm soup and drank lots of water and was washed with a warm wash cloth. Ryan and I were tucked into bed with our newborn healthy boy, the team slowly went home and the three of us went to sleep.