Shantelle Shares Ashton’s Birth Story
As told by Shantelle McBride
We did it! Ashton David McBride graced us with his presence on Sunday, March 13, 2005 at 11:50 AM. It was an experience I will never forget!
I first heard about the Bradley Method from my friend, Shawna, who had given birth naturally just a few months before. After enrolling in a class offered by Nancy & James Capo in Tucson, Arizona, Aaron and I were determined to bring our child into the world without any unnecessary interventions that were likely to lead to a repeat Cesarean (which I had with my first birth). Our main objective was to have a healthy baby in our arms in the end, without the use of anything that might potentially harm the baby or myself.
Saturday afternoon, we began trying some of the natural stimulants we had learned in our class to jump start labor. Only 12 hours later I was in active first stage labor, with contractions coming every 6 minutes and lasting only about 30 seconds or so. My bag of waters began leaking at around 1:00 AM. At first I was confused and not sure if this was it or not. I really didn’t think the baby was going to come 2 weeks before my due date. We were hoping he would since this was the beginning of Spring Break for Aaron, but we knew it was a long shot. I tried to sleep but was interrupted every so often with the urge to pee. At 2:00 AM, I decided I should probably finish packing my bag just in case this was really it!
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Soon enough, my mucus plug came out (around 3:00 AM), and a pink tinge started showing up. This is when I decided to wake Aaron up and he began running around getting things ready to go.
Once I was sure I was really in labor, I called my parents in Gilbert, AZ to let them know what was going on and Aaron called his mom here in Tucson. Sharon came right over to be with our 2 year old daughter, Analee. Sharon really saved us and we are so grateful she was in town!
Aaron then called the Birth Center, who then paged the midwife on-call (Tara Murphy). Our plan was to go to the Birth Center to see how far along I was and then determine whether or not we wanted to go to the hospital yet, but we learned that Tara was already at the hospital with a woman in labor. While Aaron was on the phone with Tara, I began feeling nauseous and vomited what looked much like water.
At 5:00 AM, my contractions were very close together and I was starting to feel them with great intensity around my whole abdomen and my lower back. It was different than what I thought labor would feel like. It felt like I had the world’s worst menstrual cramps! I had never felt worse in my life. By this time, I knew the baby was on its way! So, not very nicely, I told Aaron we needed to go to the hospital.
The house was still dark, with Sharon and Analee asleep on the living room floor, and the first signs of light were beginning to show outside as we made our way to the Labor & Delivery unit at Tucson Medical Center (about 20 minutes away). Aaron made a call to the police informing them of our emergency as I tried to relax with each contraction that came while riding in the passenger seat of our blue 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier that my parents bought for me 4 years earlier. There were very few cars on the road at this hour on this Sunday morning, but there was some unexpected road construction going on a few miles before we would reach the hospital. This proved to be an annoyance for me, especially when we hit a bump during a contraction.
Once we were at the doors of the hospital, it was very difficult for me to just walk in because of the pain. I wanted to sit on the ground and crawl in. I just didn’t have the strength to stand and walk. Somehow I made it to the lobby (which was only, in reality, a few feet away) and Aaron found a wheelchair for me.
Once inside, I was wheeled to a teeny tiny room to wait for my midwife. Aaron helped me change into the hospital gown and I remember feeling like I did not want to be there. All I wanted to do was lay down somewhere. Whatever the nurse on duty said to me is all a blur. I remember feeling very thirsty and we had left my water bottle in the car. While Aaron ran out to get it, I felt another wave of nausea coming on, which almost ended up on the floor! The nurse ran to get something and made it back just in time to watch me vomit more water into a small pink bin. It was a nice greeting for her, I’m sure.
Finally, Aaron was back with the water and Tara (the midwife) came in to check my dilation. Apparently, I was only 2 centimeters dilated, but because my cervix was so soft, Tara was able to reach up and push it open another 2 centimeters. This I was truly grateful for but also a little discouraged for not being further along.
Once I was admitted, I was taken to a large delivery room where a Heparin Lock was put into my right wrist and an Electric Fetal Monitor was attached to my belly (one strap to monitor the baby’s heart rate, another to monitor my contractions). By this time, it was 7:00 AM and all the nurses were changing shifts. Tara was also getting off, so I would have one of the other 3 midwives from the Birth Center take care of me. At this time, I didn’t realize I was about to meet the most courageous, outstanding birth team to ever exist! The nurses at TMC were amazing and were so incredibly good to me during this most tramatic experience. My midwife, Tanya, was so encouraging and never let me give up on myself.
I’m not sure how much longer after I met the new staff that would be assisting the birth of my child that in walked Alisa- a young woman studying to become a midwife. I had met her just 2 days before during my last check-up at the Birth Center! Aaron and I were really impressed with her then and I was so glad to see her standing by my bed in the Delivery Room. Her presence alone gave me the extra boast I needed to go on. She was always so in control and always encouraged me to keep going. She never once let my doubts get in the way. I don’t know that I would have been able to go on without her there. I learned later how grateful Aaron was to have her there as well.
It was very hard for me to relax with the contractions using the techniques we had learned in our Bradley class. With each one, I would basically start chanting. It was either, “no, no, no, no”, or “help me”, or “oh please”. At one time, I think I even bit Aaron on the hand! Everyone was so great about how I would react to the contractions and they did their best to get me to relax and change my chants to something more positive.
After laboring on my side for a couple of hours, Aaron and Alisa wanted me to get up to go to the bathroom and take a shower. Needless to say, I did not want to move at all! After some encouraging, they finally got me to the bathroom. I remember the shower was warm and I sat on the birthing ball, but I was freezing and I hate being cold. After getting my gown back on, Aaron took me back to the bed, but thank goodness, he did not have me lay down again. I didn’t realize it at the time, but compared to some other positions I later tried, lying on my side on the flat bed was the most painful position I could have been in. Once back, Alisa suggested that I labor on the birthing ball. I was hesitant at first because I just wanted to lay down, but I let them persuade me into trying this out. It proved to be wonderful. One of the nurses (bless her heart!) sat on the bed behind me and let me lean back on her and grab her hands through each contraction. Between contractions I tried to sit still and relax. However, they seemed to be coming really fast with few breaks in between.
After being on the ball for a while, they moved me back to the bed- but this time it was propped up and the end was pushed down so it looked more like a chair with a foot rest. Sometime between first stage labor and when I started pushing, I looked over at Aaron and I smiled and said, “This is a signpost!”. I felt unusually gritty and calm. Unfortunately, this stage didn’t last very long and the contractions started back up. About this time is when I wanted to start pushing. I didn’t necessarily feel like pushing a whole lot, I just wanted the pain to stop and the baby to be out as quick as possible. I pushed for a while, but felt like I was getting nowhere. Aaron and Alisa kept reassuring me that the baby’s head was coming down. They even put a mirror in front of me so I could see, but that only discouraged me more because I didn’t see any change. Finally, Alisa decided to check to see if there was a lip of cervix left that was keeping me from progressing. Sure enough, she was right. She asked me if I wanted her to push it the rest of the way open but that she would have to do it during a contraction. I knew it would be very painful, but I decided it would speed things up and the sooner I would be able to get the baby out. It was extremely painful (and I’m sure the rest of the hospital would agree that I was not comfortable). Once this was done, however, it must have been a few minutes later that I moved over to the birthing stool (a thin horseshoe shaped stool that sits pretty low to the ground).
On the birthing stool, my contractions seemed to get harder and I began pushing harder. I had little breaks in between, but not much. During my entire labor, my lower back killed! I was so blessed to always have someone there to rub it and make the pain more bearable. As I was pushing on the birthing stool, the pain in my back was excruciating.
Pushing was an experience alone that I will always remember. It was almost like being in another place or even being in the same room but watching from afar. I would take a deep breath as the contraction came and give it all I got. I don’t even know the words to describe the feelings I had at this point. I would grunt and shrill with every push, each time getting closer and closer to holding my baby in my arms. I would get discouraged a lot and tell them that I couldn’t do this for another hour. Sitting on the floor in front of me, they would tell me that I would be holding my baby soon and that I was almost there. This gave me the strength to continue.
In between contractions and sips of water, I decided I was hot and ended up losing any and all modesty. Finally, after pushing a total of over one hour, I could feel the baby’s head (not to mention the burning sensation). Aaron and Alisa had me feel with my hand the baby’s head. It felt like a ball of hair. I was so glad to have gotten this far! Alisa had been teaching Aaron how to catch the baby as it comes out, so with a few last pushes, Ashton’s head popped out and the rest of him came wiggling out into Aaron’s arms, which felt like something big and slimy to me. My eyes were closed most of time during this last part so the only thing I can describe is how I felt.
After Aaron caught him, he put him up to me and I got to hold my baby boy for the first time! The nurses started wiping him off and I just watched as he took his first breath and began to cry. A few minutes later, my placenta was delivered. I don’t remember if I was still holding the baby or not, but I remember feeling light-headed and saying that I was going to faint. The next thing I knew, I was on the bed and they were telling me I was hemorrhaging. I remember being calm and thinking that this was the end of my life. For some reason, I knew I was going to die. Fortunately, my feelings were wrong and I only ended up losing 600 cc’s of blood (which is double the amount most lose). The nurses started a Pitocin drip and I lay there while Alisa stitched up my second degree tear. It seemed like forever before I got to hold Ashton again, but he was with Aaron the whole time.
Ashton weighed in at 8 pounds, 1 ounce and was 19 inches long. He was absolutely perfect, straight from our Heavenly Father! I am so grateful that his head was down and there were no complications with the birth. I know the Lord had a hand in bringing Ashton to this world the way he was intended to. I was not very brave at the time, but I am so proud for having been able to withstand everything that comes with natural childbirth. I am amazed that mankind even exists! If you would have asked at the time, I would have said “never again”, but, given the chance, I would gladly give life again to a spirit that has been waiting so long for a chance to have a physical body.
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