A Centennial Hill Hospital Birth
I have been dying to get this birth up on the blog! There is just so much story and love woven throughout it all. If you have been following me on my social media sites, you may have remembered me talking about this family when posting their maternity portraits. Chris was deployed for most of their pregnancy, and it was literally down to the wire on him making it home and not being sure whether he would be able to come home at all for their delivery. Luckily, he came home just over a week before Susan went into labor which worked out well in everyone getting settled again and working through all that goes into everybody readjusting.
Susan homeschools her three children, all while running a successful photography business, Purest Light Photography; she is extremely talented and works so hard to keep it all going. I can’t even imagine how hard it has been doing it with a spouse halfway across the world. I think we often focus on the sacrifice that our military personnel makes during their deployment, but it really is a sacrifice for the whole family.
She wanted her children present for as much as possible, and the plan was to have her sweet Aslinn help ‘catch’ the baby. Because having her children involved in the process was so important, we discussed capturing some early labor at home if it worked out. She lives so close to me and wanted to labor as much as she could at home before heading to the hospital.
I stay in close contact with my birth clients in the weeks leading up to their due date to stay in the loop with how they are feeling and how things are going. Susan and I often texted in the weeks leading up to her birth. It finally got the call at 2:30 am that contractions had woken her up and were staying consistent and strong, so I headed out the door and to her house to capture some footage while her children slept!
After laboring at home for a few hours, it became clear it was time to head to the hospital as they became stronger and stronger, and Susan was no longer able to walk or talk through them. So we woke up the kids, loaded up the car, and headed out.
Luckily the staff seeing how uncomfortable she was and being her fourth baby, settled her right into a labor room. The staff was so great in helping keep her comfortable and accommodating her requests for a low-intervention delivery.
Little Aslinn was so helpful at right by her mother’s side during the whole process. It was so tender to watch!
This poor mama just had so much back labor, he would just not rotate off of her lower back, and it was such a struggle for her to get comfortable at all during this stage.
With support from her husband, friend, and staff, she tried hard to get him to rotate down.
When this guy finally came down and delivered, the room was full of staff ready to assist as his fetal heart rate tracing was showing distress.
It turned out to be a true knot in his umbilical cord, a very rare and often dangerous situation.
Because of the distress and meconium-stained fluid, he was taken to the warmer initially for stabilization. He perked right up and let everyone know he was okay. I know it felt like an eternity to Susan and Chris.
This mama was so happy to have her baby in her arms finally!
I know it will take this mama a long time to process this birth and their experience. Although this little (okay, not so little guy) came hard and fast, it was such a hard and emotional birth for this mama. She put on a brave face through it all, and when it was over, you could see all that emotion right there. Birth is powerful and incredible, it is like nothing else in this world, and for each family, it is so different.
From child to child, so different.
Thank you so much, Hinds family, for letting me document this one for you.
