This story is from Kristine Stringer, who took a Birth Boot Camp childbirth class.
“I woke up at 5:30 and noticed my water had broken. I wasn’t having contractions yet, so I just continued doing what I do every day. I was making my husband’s lunch and at 6 I started having contractions. I told my husband that we were going to have a baby that day, but we with both believed we had plenty time, so he went to work. My contractions started out about 6 minutes apart lasting 45 seconds. I was being very passive and didn’t really believe that 4-1-1 was going to be true for be considering how close together my contractions started.
By 8:20 my contractions jumped to 3 minutes apart lasting a minute, so I called my husband and demanded he come home and called our midwife. Her ETA was one hour. My contractions at this point were unbearable. My mom and mother-in-law were with me, but they were asking open ended questions and didn’t really know how to help. I started a bath to give myself something to do while having contractions and as I lay in the tub, I felt the need to push. I tried not to but during each contraction, my body made me push. During each contraction I thought of the birth affirmations I had learned “I can do anything for a minute” and that helped me get through each contraction until my husband got home at 9.
When he got home, I told him I needed to push, he said “Well, push!” and he took off my bathing suit bottoms. As he emptied the tub I got up on my knees. Gravity immediately took over and I told him “You’re going to have to catch him.” He looked so confused for a minute but started unlacing his boots. He got behind me and I started pushing. After 2 contractions I had delivered my baby boy into my husband’s hands. I’m so thankful for all I learned in Birth Boot Camp which helped us successfully and confidently deliver our baby boy. 3 minutes later our midwife arrived at 9:20 and helped me deliver the placenta – which was the hard part!!”
