Birth Story: Delaying Her Induction Three Times with Taylor Ward
Show Notes:
[2:24] Our Reviewer of the Week is DoctorChiro, and she says, "As a pediatric and prenatal Doctor of Chiropractic and pregnant for the first time, this has been such a fun podcast to listen to! I work within the birth world and I’m still learning new things during each episode. Planning my first natural birth in a birthing center in October, and excited to have found a podcast that aligns with my views!"
[3:14] This week's birth story is coming from Taylor Ward in London, Ontario. She is the proud mama of a daughter, Lucy. Taylor listened to the podcast during her pregnancy and is also a My Essential Birth Course graduate! She is thankful for the full circle moment of now getting to share Lucy's birth story!
[3:56] Taylor enjoyed being pregnant and was thinking about all the emotions and feelings she had when she found out. She prayed for sign that she was pregnant because it was still too early to test. She said she sat down at her desk and looked at a bunch of records that she had in a stand. The way that the record that was in the front was framed had a song that stood out. The song had the word POSITIVE in the song, and it had isolated that word. So the frame of the record stand cut off that word and the word positive was just on its own. She started crying because she knew that was her sign.
[8:00] How Taylor knew she wanted to work with midwives early on and thankfully had a healthy, uncomplicated pregnancy. She battled the normal symptoms like nausea but was so thankful she was sick for a reason! She had heard from friends that they had really positive experience with midwives and just felt that it was a very personal experience. When women are going through the journey from beginning to delivery with these with the midwives, there's less kind of get you in and get you out of your appointment. There's just a lot of time to sit down really understand birth goals and things like that.
[14:55] Taylor knew her husband was going to be amazing as a birth partner and father, and he was so looking forward to becoming a dad almost to the point where he was just like jealous of everything that I get to experience and how close Taylor got to be to the baby. He was extremely supportive to her by helping with things around the house
[18:07] Taylor's birth prep included eating a healthy diet especially during her first trimester and the three free exercises. She also made sure she did her daily walks during her third trimester, which was a bit difficult during the winter in Canada. She also listened to positive birth stories and printed birth affirmations to place on her dresser. In her final months, she drank the red raspberry leaf tea and eating dates. She also did some curb walking and bounced on her exercise ball.
[22:13] Leading up to birth, Taylor kept in mind that her due date was just a guess date. It had been moved back but her baby was also measuring two weeks behind so she just figured she'd be pregnant past her due date. At 41 weeks, her midwives talked to her about induction. At the end of the day, she knew she didn't have to get induced if she didn't want to, but she knew that as more time went on, she knew she'd have to advocate for herself.
[29:09] At 41+6 weeks, she drank the midwives brew and a few hours later, her contractions were four minutes apart, one minute long for an hour. By the time she got admitted, she was four centimeters. She threw up quite a bit during her labor, which was a side effect of the Midwives Brew. She had a ton of support from her husband and midwives, especially when she thought she couldn't go any further. She kept changing positions during her labor. She had a small tear but didn't even notice getting stitched up because of her baby girl in her arms.
[49:12] Taylor's Best Advice for moms: "There's so much with pregnancy and motherhood that's all about perspective because it is simultaneously one of the most challenging things: pregnancy, birth and motherhood. One of the most pregnant or difficult things you will ever do in your life and one of the most rewarding, beautiful things you will ever experience."
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