This post shares our son‘s birth story from start to finish. Isaac came into the world at the end of November, just one day after his due date, and Yannick and I are forever changed because of it. I went back and forth on whether or not to share this story because pregnancy and birth are such fragile ground. I ultimately decided to share this story because positive birth stories uplifted and encouraged me while I was pregnant, and I hope that this one might do the same for other women.
Before I get into this story, hello! It has certainly been a long time since I shared anything here, and a lot has changed since my last post. The last time that I posted here, I had just found out that I was pregnant. I had chosen not to share anything about my personal life for several months before then, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share about my pregnancy in the online sphere. But suffice it to say that a lot can happen in a couple of years–from meeting the love of your life, to welcoming a new life into the world.

Long before getting pregnant, I had known that I wanted to prepare myself for a natural, unmedicated childbirth. Throughout my pregnancy, I worked to prepare my body and mind for a natural, intervention-free birth. I focused on eating a protein-rich, nutrient-dense diet, continued to strength train, walk, and do yoga until the very end of my pregnancy, and regularly meditated and visualized what it would look like to have a successful unmedicated birth. (All the while knowing that pregnancy and birth are unpredictable, and I would do everything to keep my baby and myself safe throughout the entire process.)
I knew that I wanted to avoid giving birth in a hospital. I didn’t want to risk the cascade of interventions that can occur in a hospital birth. Ultimately, I decided to give birth at a birth centre, seeing it as a happy medium between a hospital birth and a home birth for my first baby. After a successful birth centre experience, I have decided that, when we grow our family, I will opt for a home birth.
Looking back, the weekend before Isaac was born was so special. Yannick and I had planned a fun outing in the city. We went for a long walk in New Edinburgh, around the Governor General’s residence grounds, and stopped at our favourite little cafe, Union Street, for a warm drink and treat. We ventured over to Whole Foods Market to do some shopping and headed over to my parents’ for dinner. I fully anticipated going to at least 41 weeks, as I have been told that first babies typically come late and my older brother was born at 41 weeks 3 days and I was born at 41 weeks 6 days. So while I was nearing my due date, I thought that Isaac would be happy in my belly for at least one more week.
On Sunday, my due date, we had a relaxing day with family. I went for a walk late that afternoon–little did I know that this would be my last walk before Isaac came into the world.
I was feeling extra tired so I went to bed early.I started to experience contractions around 10 pm, although I wasn’t certain what they were at first, as I had been having some prodromal labour off and on for a couple of weeks. I have heard contractions described as bad menstrual cramps, but to me they felt more like a tightening and burning sensation in my lower abdomen that would come on like a wave, peak in intensity, and then slowly dissipate. As they started to intensify and come on with greater frequency, I realized that this wasn’t prodromal labour, this was the real deal.
Some women can sleep or rest through contractions in early labour, but that was certainly not the case for me. I was extremely uncomfortable in bed, so around midnight, I moved into the family room and downloaded a contraction timing app. I have heard that early labour contractions can be between 15 and 30 minutes apart, but this was not the case for me. They started out 7 minutes apart and then only increased in frequency from there. Once they were consistently four and a half minutes apart, lasting for one minute, over the course of an hour, I called my midwife to let her know that I was in labour. She advised me to continue labouring at home until my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart.
A short time after calling the midwife, Yannick got up early to go to work. Little did I know how rapidly labour was going to progress. By 6 am, contractions had picked up to 3 minutes apart and were lasting well over a minute. I called my mom and Yannick. My parents offered to come over and arrived a short time before Yannick. I called my midwife again and we agreed to meet at the birth centre for 8 o’clock. At this point, I was on my hands and knees, doing everything I could to breathe through each contraction. My mom finished packing my bag because I was in so much pain at that point, and we hit the road.
Labouring through intense contractions in rush hour traffic is not an experience that I ever want to go through again, and one reason that I would like to opt for a home birth next time. At long last, we made it to the birth centre around 8:15 and were greeted by my midwife. I hadn’t wanted any cervical checks in late pregnancy, knowing that babies come when they are ready and not wanting the knowledge of how dilated (or not) I was to mess with my head. However, it had been 10 hours since I had gone into labour and I was curious to know how much “progress” I had made. Much to everyone’s surprise, I was 8-9 cm dilated. My midwife was thrilled and we anticipated that our baby boy would be in our arms well before noon.
We got into a birthing suite, complete with a couch, fireplace, private washroom with shower, bed, and tub filled with warm water. My midwife suggested that I get into the water, which was such a welcome reprieve and dulled the pain of contractions. I can’t say if it was the long car ride in traffic, the change in environment, or the fact that I was being observed, but my contractions started to become less frequent. My midwife suggested that I get out of the tub for awhile, so I spent some time walking around the room and chatting with her and Yannick between contractions. By noon, contractions hadn’t really picked up, so she advised that it would be a good idea to break my water. This is when things got very, very real. The pain intensified one hundred fold and I entered a different realm. It was all I could do to hold on through each contraction. I alternated between holding on to Yannick’s shoulders, bending over the edge of the bed, and being on my hands and knees during each one.
My midwife mentioned that we might have to go to the hospital to get Pitocin if things didn’t pick up, which is when I snapped back to reality. I have only ever heard horror stories about Pitocin and this is exactly what I was trying to avoid by having an out of hospital birth.
I swore to myself that there was no way that I would be transferred to the hospital for Pitocin. This baby would arrive on his own terms.
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By some miracle, a short time later, my midwife checked my dilation and determined that I had progressed to 10 cm and it was time to start pushing. I had never envisioned pushing on my back as I had read that pushing on all fours or squatting was more effective, but at that point, I was so exhausted that I felt most comfortable on my back.
Yannick and the midwives helped encourage me through each push. It took some time to get the hang of, but it ended up being my favourite (if there is such a thing) part of labour because I had a focus and knew that the end was in sight. With every push, a bit more of Isaac’s head became visible. One of the midwives got a mirror so that I’d be able to see the progress. After about 45 minutes, his head crowned and with that came the ring of fire. And then, with one final push, his head was out and the rest of his body followed. He let out the sweetest cry, and all of the pain that I had been in just seconds before melted away and was replaced with the purest feeling of love for this beautiful new life as he was placed on my chest. He started rooting right away and although I had an unfounded fear that I would struggle with breastfeeding, that ended up not being the case–save for the first couple of days when Isaac was particularly drowsy and I was worried that he wasn’t eating enough.
Isaac was born at 3:17 pm, weighing 8 lbs 5 oz and measuring 20 inches in length. I had a couple of small tears–a smal price to pay for a beautiful baby boy! I delivered the placenta a couple minutes later and got stitched up. The birth centre staff brought us a warm meal, which tasted amazing since I had struggled to eat during labour–I think I ate one banana and a couple of energy balls during the entire 17 hours, plus some water with Redmond salt and lemon juice. I don’t think I have ever been hungrier or more exhausted. Now I know what they mean when they say that labour is the hardest workout of your life!
No amount of reading or learning could have prepared me for the pain and intensity of giving birth. I had read Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth and The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care during pregnancy, but didn’t want an information overload. I knew deep down that my body would know what to do when it came time to give birth, just as it had known what to do all throughout my pregnancy. To be completely transparent, there were moments during labour when I thought about how nice it would have been to have an epidural. But after delivering without one, I’d never have it any other way and will definitely go this route again if we are lucky enough to grow our family.
Yannick’s parents and brother came to see us and meet Isaac for the first time, and we were on our way home by 6:30. My parents greeted us at our house and we all visited for a bit. We were all riding a high and I couldn’t get over how good I felt. Once everyone left, reality set in and Yannick and I realized that we were, indeed, parents of a new baby who needed us for everything–at once an honour, a blessing, and a shock for first time parents. All in all, Isaac has been an easy, sweet baby, and we feels so blessed to be his parents. We are so in love and had the most special first Christmas as a family of three.
Motherhood has been all consuming over the past 7 weeks. I naively believed that I’d have plenty of time to get back into a blogging routine, take care of the house, and continue with my holistic nutrition studies. Very little of that has happened thus far, as Isaac doesn’t have a routine yet and is very attached to his mama. He also has a huge appetite and has been keeping me extremely hungry since I am exclusively breastfeeding! However, both sets of our parents live in the same city as us, so we are blessed to have plenty of help and support.
Experiencing pregnancy and unmedicated childbirth was a true rite of passage. I have more respect for mothers than ever before and feel deeply fulfilled in my new role. Additionally, I have a new level of trust in my body and appreciation of the female body in general. Being able to conceive, grow a whole human, and then give birth to that human is no small feat. Every day, I am reminded of how lucky I am to be a mom.
Laurene Head says
Thank you for sharing Isaac’s birth story! So well written and a joy to read. Your strength and determination are very inspiring!
Allison says
Thank you so much for reading it. I love and appreciate you!
Linda Kurlovich says
Wow!! What an amazing birth story!
I am so proud of you! ??
Allison says
Thanks for reading, Linda, and for all of your love and encouragement throughout my pregnancy! 🙂