the testimony of my labor and birth

I’ve always been someone who needed to experience things fully. I didn’t want any medication in birth because I wanted to remember everything. I wanted to be fully present to remember and experience every moment of my son’s birth. Feeling ready to be done with my pregnancy was actually very important to me to feel like that chapter could close.

My desire was to give birth in my home, but at the last minute (or really last 30 minutes) before my son was born we made the tough decision to transfer to the hospital. My midwife was worried that I would reach maternal exhaustion and that my body would simply stop labor and I would need an emergency C-section. After all, I hadn’t slept in 5 days and had basically done 2 or 3 triathlons worth of physical labor. She knew that for the safety of me and my baby that I needed to either get medication to knock me out or get medication to speed me up. Well, simply changing the plan put me into high gear and my body was actively pushing my baby out as we drove to the hospital.

God is so good to me, and His ways are higher than our ways. I gave birth exactly as I wanted to, unmediated and naturally, even though the location wasn’t what I pictured. We went to the sweetest hospital with the most respectful and caring staff and I was taken care of so well. There are so many ways that the Lord faithfully showed up in the way he answered my prayers that maybe one day I’ll share as part of this testimony.

Right now, I just wanted to share that in truly surrendering to the Lord I was shown beauty, love, mercy, and strength in ways that no prayer of mine would ever have gotten me. What felt like “no,” was the Father saying, “I could, but I have better plans for you.”

My son’s birth was amazing, messy, beautiful, challenging, joy filled, and exhausting.. the Lord has blessed me more than I ever thought possible.

Thank you Jesus for my wonderful son.

I went into labor on a Sunday night and I gave birth on a Friday morning. Laboring for 5 days was more than exhausting for my body, mind, and spirit. There were some moments where my spirit was so weak that all I could rely on was my hope in Jesus. I prayed the Lord is my strength. He would not bring me to the point of birth and not deliver. The Lord said no to my prayer for a quick and easy labor, but there was truly so much beauty in it. I labored in privacy with Andrew, I labored while being served by my devoted and loving birth team, I labored alone in desperate prayer with the Lord, and I labored long enough to find peace with the ending of my pregnancy that I enjoyed so very much. There was never a point in my pregnancy that I felt “done” or “over it.” Even at close to 42 weeks pregnant and feeling physically uncomfortable, my eagerness to give birth was to hold my son and meet him and get to see him and not because I was over being pregnant. However, after around the 4 day mark of contractions 4-6 minutes apart and zero sleep.. I was ready. That was a blessing I didn’t know I needed, but the Lord knew.

Lord willing, the plan was always to deliver at home. Anyone who asked me about my OB or what hospital I was going to deliver at, etc. I would tell them about how I planned on having a home birth. It’s not that I was ever against giving birth in a hospital. I knew I didn’t want an epidural, I knew I wanted low intervention, I knew I wanted a peaceful environment, I knew I wanted privacy with my husband to labor and dream and pray together, and I knew that giving birth at home was an option that sounded the most appealing to me. My midwife was amazing. She was so sweet and so encouraging and knowledgeable. I had an amazing doula that made labor sound so beautiful. I had this wonderful Christ filled team ready to pray over me and support me giving birth.

I was so specific in my prayers and fervently prayed, but my 2024 word of the year was “surrender” and the Lord used every second of this experience to show me how His glory would show through truly surrendering to Him. I prayed for a quick and easy labor. I prayed that my water wouldn’t break until as close to delivery as possible. I prayed for a Christ centered birth. I prayed that I would get to experience Andrew step into his role as a father and see his protection over me. I prayed that I wouldn’t tear and I prayed that my son and I would be healthy and safe. Some of those were “yes” and some of those felt like “no.”

the testimony of my son's birth

Lord willing, the plan was always to deliver at home. I was so specific in my prayers and fervently prayed, but my 2024 word of the year was “surrender” and the Lord used every second of my labor and birth to show me how His glory would show through truly surrendering to Him.

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