I recently asked for the birth story of a wonderful client- the longest labor I’ve ever attended. Enjoy:

It all started Friday the 13th, I was 40weeks+6. I had an appointment with the midwife, Justine, that morning for a non stress test to make sure baby was still doing well in there. While there I was checked and was only 2cm and about 50% effaced. When my husband and I left we went straight to the beach to walk and see if we could get anything moving. We walked for about a half hour and came home. I took a nap and still nothing was happening so we decided to make dinner plans with my sister. Around 5 when getting ready for dinner I felt my first contraction that was starkly different from the Braxton Hicks I had been having. We went to dinner and they started coming in regular intervals and I began timing them. They were about 30 seconds long and coming around 5 minutes apart. I started to get excited that maybe the full moon was going to work some magic and finally bring me my baby. This pattern continued and around 7:15pm I texted Justine to let her know that things had started. Sense the contractions were still short and mild she had me monitor them some more and suggested I try and get some rest because if it was early labor I would need it. Around 9:30pm I took and shower and got ready for bed hoping for some more sleep before things got too bad. Around 11pm I had to get up because contractions were intensifying and I couldn’t lay down. We called Justine again around 1am and decided we would like her to come out and check on me. She checked me and I was still about 2cm but 90% effaced and babies head was very low. She left us to continue to labor and said we could set up the birth tub. The contractions were getting so intense it was causing me to throw up. When I finally got in the tub it was awesome, the contractions got more manageable and spread further apart. I was able to get some rest in there. As I continued to labor into the morning around 9am we decided to have Justine come back over and check the progress. Unfortunately when she checked I was only about 3cm. As the morning went on my contractions spread out again and were less painful so I took the opportunity to try and get as much rest as I could. All day I was able to rest and got 3 different naps in. I was able to eat a good amount and keep it down. Generally most of the day was spent lightly laboring. After dinner that night is when things started to ramp up again. I tried to lay down for bed around 10pm and couldn’t sleep because they were getting more intense. Saturday night was spent intensely laboring, using the tub and shower for relief. The contractions continued to stay about 45 seconds and 5-10 minutes apart. We called Justine again once Sunday morning came to update and she came out to check again. After the check I was still only about 4-4 1/2cm. She said it was time to really get this going. We grabbed the herbal tinctures and the breast pump. She also had some homeopathic remedies to get labor going. We went out for a walk, did a couple spinning babies moves, and continued to labor. After a few hours of these things I was checked again and was finally 6cm! I was so excited to be progressing so quickly. During this time laboring I found that I really liked getting my hips squeezed together for counter pressure during contractions and my husband and sister took turns doing that for me for nearly every single one of my contractions for hours. For me the only position I could handle was standing up leaning forward on a counter or my dresser and eventually my feet started to swell and hurt from being on them so much. I found a small amount of relief on the toilet or the birth stool. As the afternoon turned to night the other two midwives came out and I entered another dimension, or at least that’s how it felt. Things got insanely intense as I began to get closer. They continued to monitor the baby’s heart rate and I really was irritated by how much they were doing it but I never said anything because I knew they wouldn’t do it unless they needed to. At some point they told me they were afraid I was dehydrated and wanted to try for an iv. I had been having a hard time keeping liquids down and was fine with an iv. They tried twice but because I was so dehydrated and swollen they were unsuccessful. Around this time they had me taking some breaths with the oxygen mask, having me drink more water and gatoraid, and eat some honey for some energy. At this point I’m pretty sure I had already been pushing for a little while. They offered to break my water to really push things along. That was a very strange feeling and they realized at that point she had passed meconium. I don’t really remember a whole lot from when I was pushing but I remember I was not a fan pushing. I was fighting the feeling and wouldn’t let myself just go into the pushes. Justine was helping me know where to focus my energy with the pushes and I really didn’t like that either, but when she did that my pushing was better and making more progress so I was ok with her continuing to do that. I remember the room being so warm and I had my husband move a fan to my face. Everyone kept saying how close she was and how they could see her head when I pushed but I was convinced she wasn’t really that close and I would be pushing forever. I finally could feel how close she was and I knew it was almost over. I pushed so much and wanted to keep going but they had me stop and breath more oxygen. I knew with the next push I would have her head out. I pushed with everything I had and could feel her head making its way out, and after it came out the entire rest of her body launched out and I felt so much relief. After she was placed on my chest I couldn’t believe it. I was so exhausted that I kind of went into shock. It was crazy! That hour of skin to skin was amazing and it went by so fast. They had given me a shot of Pitocin to help me release the placenta. It was hanging on by a little bit and took a little while to come out but it came out just fine without pulling. After the hour we handed her off to my husband for some skin to skin while I got a few stitches. I had only one second degree tear on the inside. They numbed me and I just passed right out I was so exhausted. I woke up and they got me to the bathroom and got me all cleaned up and ready for bed. Around 3am they got us all tucked into bed and were ready to leave. Getting to sleep in our own bed was one of the best parts of the home birth. After just a few broken hours of sleep I woke up that morning elated and felt amazing! I was flooded with all those love hormones they tell you about and I was so happy! Even though the labor was 54 hours long, it was such a positive experience!