Lyra Rose: Birth Story

Pregnancy: The first trimester was a really big initiation for me. Feeling my body and spirit transition was a massive ego death and came with many emotions. I was incredibly tired the entire three months but luckily I didn't have too much nausea. Once I hit the second trimester I felt my vitality begin to return as well as a lot of inspiration! My small fashion business began to come alive in a new way and with new meaning. I was totally fired up to create and felt I had this little super power within giving me life! I started out my pregnancy taking prenatals and all the typical supps but after a few weeks I intuitively just stopped taking all of them as they did not truly feel like what my body wanted. I instead took local liver pills, bee pollen and collagen powder in my smoothies. I additionally craved a lot of oranges in the beginning as well as fresh carrots and cucumbers in the final weeks. I really made the effort to keep my body strong throughout pregnancy. In the first half I walked about 2-3 miles every day and the last trimester I swam ½ mile every evening. I also did a 20min prenatal pilates class every morning for the last three months which I really felt helped my body keep strong, poised and comfortable right until the end. I never had any body work (or really needed any) until the last few weeks. I had a few massages leading up to birth which I felt truly helped my body, mind and spirit prepare. Additional things that supported me through my pregnancy were: A certified midwife who I met with regularly, baths and hot springs, a blessingway ceremony, a grounded home and partner, fun and adventures!, a creative outlet, a community of other local pregnant women and mothers, my doggies :), access to fresh local and organic food…. Oh and a little babymoon to Mexico ;)

Birth: A few days before Lyra was ‘due’ to arrive our beloved midwife whom we had been working with since week 10 contacted us with the news she had come down with covid for the first time and was very ill. The news came as a total shock as we had carefully selected her to be our midwife for an intimate home birth. Imagining her not present for our birth was initially devastating and brought up a lot of grief. However, we are lucky to be living in a community where there are many AMAZING midwives and were immediately connected to a ‘backup’. 

On Lyras ‘due date’ August 2, 2022 I began feeling some light cramping coming in sporadic intervals. I tried not to attach to the overwhelming feeling of ‘is this it!!?’ but intuitively I knew something really big was happening in my body. That same day we also met with our back up midwife who we ended up LOVING right away so that took a lot of stress off of my mind and body. That night after a good swim the mild cramping began to pick up and I silently experienced my first ‘real’ contractions while trying to rest between them. The next day on August 3 the contractions continued and my body knew to stay put and REST. I slept mostly the entire day, waking only to experience the contractions which I could handle on my own at that point.

By 6PM August 3 the contractions began to really ‘pick up’. At this point I needed Justin to hold me though them. I was laying on my side in bed and he held me as one wave after another came through. I reached out to my midwife at this point and told her things were progressing. She responded by telling us to take a bath then get in bed and try to ‘relax’. Justin filled the bath for me and lit some candles. I felt inside that the greatest ceremony of my life was beginning and there was no going back. In the bath my contractions picked up to a regular interval around 1min long, 5 min apart. The warm waters helped my body and mind relax so much! I felt comforted by my familiar things in view like the painting I did to support my birth as well as my plants, crystals, gifted candles, eagle feather and the smell of sage and palo santo. At this point both Justin and I knew we were ‘in it’ and consciously decided to invite one of our favorite plant allies madre abuela to assist us. We turned on our birth playlist and the ceremony had officially begun. 

My breath deepend as the contractions began to increase in intensity- each one a wave of power asking to be transmuted into the opening of my cervix. I used the power of my voice in deep toning sounds to direct the power lower and lower as well as my breath as a tool to soften and keep calm and present. In this time I tried to do what my midwife said and after the bath got back into bed however I was much farther along than she anticipated and when I layed down the pain was SO intense! So much so that I purged everything in my stomach. This made me wonder how women in hospitals are expected to labor lying down… and definitely made me realize why so many ask for pain relief!! 

I immediately got up from bed and went outside to lay my hands on the earth and ask for the grounding support of pachamamma. The peaceful nature of the land we call home as well as the infinite view of stars above immediately sent relief through my spine. I felt free, wild and uninhibited. With the next set of contractions I positioned myself into a squat with my arms grabbing a stable support above and let my voice roar like a lioness! Justin came outside and layed a blanket behind me to rest in between. I asked him to call the midwife again as I felt this was probably the point where she should come over. When we got her on the phone she asked to listen to me in my contraction and in between I was able to talk in a normal voice. I told her I was really feeling it!! She responded to Justin I was most likely in early labor and that we should call her back when things “really progress”. I remember thinking to myself at that moment ‘holy eff’ if this is early labor I'm not sure I am cut out for this!

Soon after things ‘really started to progress’ and little did we know we were in transition which is typically the ‘death’ part of birth, because it is most painful and intense. I transitioned back inside facing backwards on the toilet and tried my best to surrender fully to the immense pain I was feeling. With each contraction coming 30 seconds from the other and lasting over a min long I needed Justin's full presence sending his hands deeply into my lower back while I unihbitly used my voice to ground the sensations deeper. It was so intense at times my mind started saying noooo in fear but then I switched this perception and started saying out loud YES!!!!! And somehow that made some of the pain go away. It was also at this time that my body just started pushing out of nowhere. It took me by complete surprise and I wondered if it was ok or if it was just because I was on the toilet my body was doing this. No one ‘experienced’ was there to tell me how dilated I was or where I was at so I reached inside myself and could feel Lyras head and my waters so close! 

We moved from the toilet and I hopped into the shower. My body continued to push with each contraction and instead of fighting the natural sensation I surrendered and fully trusted that my body knew what it was doing. At this point I told Justin to call the midwife and TELL her to come over! Because at this point I didn't know how much further along we could go and she also lives 45 min away from our house. I got out of the shower and while I was waiting for the bath to fill I positioned myself in our living room on a soft sheepskin with elbows on our daybed. In this moment my body felt immense relief. The contractions coming now were not asking me to open but rather to push and so I did. Each surge was an invitation to move my baby lower and lower. My body was so kind to me in this part of the labor and offered large intervals of rest in between each contraction. Justin picked up the guitar and began channeling a healing song which soothed my spirit and allowed intense concentration while Lyra dropped lower and lower into my pelvis. During this time our midwife arrived and I was glad to see her. I told her I was pushing and she looked at me with kind eyes and said great! Fully trusting me in my process. She checked the heartbeat of the baby and reassured me everything was perfect. In 3 more pushes Lyras head emerged from my body and in one more at 3:37 AM the rest of her body followed. This sensation was by far the most surreal of my life holy lord! A few moments later I was holding my baby girl in my arms crying with joy and relief. We did it!!! 

In the moments following the birth of Lyra and the placenta we were assisted as a brand new family into the comfort of our own bed. I layed down feeling the most accomplished and proud of myself I had ever felt and filled with immense love and oxytocin holding our brand new healthy family member. What a miracle we were able to give birth in this way. I am so grateful. The midwife and her assistant took care to help us remove the placenta after the transfer of nutrients had been completed and the assistant took it to be made into capsules which are incredibly helpful in aiding postpartum recovery. With baby girl asleep a few stitches and birth weight recorded at 7lbs 15 oz (one oz shy of 8lbs) the three of us dozed off for our first night together as a family <3