Birth Story: Turning Her Birth Experience Around with Cassidy Jacobsen
Show Notes:
[1:10] This week’s reviewer of the week, hellotrb, said: “Starting listening during my first pregnancy and fell in love. Through the encouragement of this podcast, I switched my provider at 32weeks. I doubted my feeling about the previous provider, and once I switched, it was like a breath of fresh air. Now pregnant with my second kiddo and have started again to listen to this amazing podcast!”
I’m so glad you’re here and listening to this week’s birth story! There is so much to unpack and learn here! π
Instead of letting birth just "happen" to you, be an active participant in it! Educate yourself, know your options, and stand up for yourself! Your baby and your body are working together to help you achieve your best birth. β¨
[1:53] Cassidy Jacobsen introduces herself and her family. She’s been married for six years and is a mama of two! She originally lived in Utah and moved to Texas so her husband could attend medical school. Their family enjoys all the outdoor activities! ποΈ
[3:31] Cassidy gives a quick overview of her first daughter’s birth. She enjoyed being pregnant and felt that both of her pregnancies were uneventful. She moved when she was 34 weeks pregnant so finding a provider was tricky. She knew she wanted to give birth with midwives. She gave birth in a hospital with midwives, and it went smoothly. π
[5:27] With her second pregnancy, she couldn’t financially afford to do a home birth, so she went with the same group of midwives at the hospital. π₯
[6:44] Her pregnancy was uneventful except for the last five weeks of her pregnancy. Her husband was out-of-state due to officer’s training. Since she went to 40+4 with her first daughter, she felt like she’d go past 40 weeks, which was when he was scheduled to come home. π‘
[8:12] At her 37-week appointment, her midwife said that her baby was breech. The midwife told her to get an ECV (external cephalic version: a procedure used to turn baby from a breech position to a head-down position) done at 38-weeks, which can be painful for mom and put stress on baby. It can also bring on early labor. She had hired a doula, and met with her that same day. Her doula had resources for her and helped her work through all the overwhelming feelings she had. π«
[13:29] Cassidy used the BRAIN acronym that we teach in the Birth Course. π§ She took a step back and evaluated what things were in her favor. She scheduled an ECV with the hospital, but got to work on making her baby flip. She did Spinning Babies, the forward leaning inversion, and started telling all her friends about her breech baby because she knew she needed direction. π
[16:07] She found a home birth midwife, Jamie Hinton, who stated that 90% of the time, she can get babies to flip. π± She was able to do an ECV out of her office. Her baby was transverse at that time (when baby is laying sideways). Three minutes later, the midwife had her baby head down!
[19:20] I ask Cassidy to describe the procedure. She laid flat on her back, and the midwife applied pressure to her belly. She manually turned her baby from the outside. She felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her chest. π
[22:07] At 38 weeks, she went back for another appointment, and her baby was transverse again. π€¦π»βοΈ She had a conversation with her midwife about how the previous appointment should have gone differently (resources could have been given, options could have been talked about, etc.)
[24:09] Cassidy kept replaying the birth affirmations from the My Essential Birth Course in her head. “I trust my baby and my body.” She felt like they were everything for getting her through. Her midwife told her to get another ECV, but at the hospital, which Cassidy politely refused. π π»βοΈ
[25:35] She went to see a chiropractor twice. She went to another ECV appointment, and they realized the baby was already head down. Her baby and body knew she wasn’t ready to deliver. ππΌ
[27:00] I think it’s so important to talk about what your options are when you have a breech baby. Different providers will have different success rates at turning baby. Some are skilled and some aren’t! Our babies ARE very aware of what is happening. We are so connected in such a beautiful, spiritual way! β¨
[28:50] Manifestations and birth affirmations are HUGE! Positive affirmations are real. They become a part of you! Knowledge and education also plays a role in achieving the birth you want! π€
[30:28] What are some things that stand out to you that you did to prepare during pregnancy and birth? Cassidy talks about with her first pregnancy, she learned as much as she could about birth. With her second pregnancy, she took the My Essential Birth Course, and she spent a lot more time reading positive birth stories and Ina May’s book. π The book gave real life examples of what to do when different situations came up.
[33:10] Cassidy walks us through the birth of her second baby girl. She went to 41+1. Her water broke around midnight, and she used the TACO acronym to determine whether it was her water or not. She didn’t have consistent contractions. She tried to get contractions started by using her birth ball, curb walking, and a long walk. She drank the Midwives Brew, and she started having contractions eleven hours after her water broke. π΅
[36:00] Her husband started doing counter pressure and pouring water on her back. Her contractions started coming strong and fast. She called her doula, and she went with her to the hospital in the car and did a lot of back pressure. They got to the hospital and baby was OP (
[38:38] She got on her hands and knees and pushed for 30 minutes. She wanted to catch the baby and announce the gender. She reached down and pulled her up to her chest. π€©
[39:40] I love that Cassidy was able to push in the position she wanted. Mamas don’t realize that baby does a lot during labor too! πΆπ»
[40:23] I ask Cassidy how her postpartum experience has been. Cassidy had a second degree tear because her baby's hand was up by her face. She loves the postpartum phase because baby is attached to you outside your body. Her second time around she gave herself more grace and allowed other people to do things for her. π₯°
[42:20] What is your biggest piece of advice for dad? Dads, just trust your wife! If your wife says what she wants her birth experience to look like, support her! β€οΈ
[43:10] Cassidy’s biggest advice for moms is to advocate for yourself. Don’t let birth just “happen” to you. Be an active participant in your birth! Birth has the potential to be one of the most empowering, sacred experiences of a woman's life. But so often, women are led to believe that birth is something that just happens to them, and they're expected to completely surrender to whatever their provider tells them to do. Women are told that birth is completely unpredictable, and that's just not true. Of course, you can't control every aspect of birth, but there are so many things you can control! I love what you teach your students, that the more you know, the more options you have. So instead of spending 9 months of pregnancy perfecting your baby registry, spend time researching topics like GBS, TDAP, Pitocin, newborn procedures, vaccines, etc. And the beauty of your birth course & podcast, is you have information on all these topics & more in one easy place for women to learn. Not every woman is going to want to give birth the way I do, and that's totally fine. But regardless of how you want to give birth, you be the one to make that decision & then get comfortable advocating for yourself. You have way more power than you think you do. π₯³
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ALL the best,
Links Mentioned:
Jamie Hinton: CPM, LM - Ordinary Miracle Childbirth Services
