MY Birth Story

I’m writing my birth story for myself–to look back and remember the details and also for anyone who is interested. I am an open book. I think that everyone should in some way document their birth story because it can be so powerful and special to look back on.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a planner. A planner and a checklist person. However, when it came to pregnancy and birth, I didn’t have much of a plan. The only thing I knew for certain was that I was going to give birth at a birthing center vs a typical hospital birth. I have nothing against hospital births– both my sisters and mom delivered their kiddos at a hospital and all went well but this was just my own personal preference. I wanted to go as natural of a route as possible and that included my decision to not want an epidural. A lot of people questioned why I didn’t want to get an epidural and a few reasons for me were that 1) I hate needles. So if I could avoid as many needles as possible throughout delivery, sign me up! 2) Coming from the healthcare background and working with people who are in pain and experiencing pain myself, I wanted to be able to know what my body was feeling in the moment so that my body knew how to best respond. That, and I wanted to be able to have freedom of movement and you’re a lot more limited when you get an epidural. 3) Research shows that it can actually slow down your delivery and let me tell you… I wanted as quick of a delivery as possible!

Getting into my birth story. My expected due date was November 9, 2023 and Noah Weston Sharkey had other plans and decided he was too excited to enter into the world early and was welcomed with open arms on October 14, 2023.

One of my best friends was in town for the weekend visiting from Nashville, we hadn’t seen each other in a year and a half so it was a long overdo girl’s weekend! Friday we decided to adventure out to Flagstaff (about 2 hours north of Phoenix) to find the beautiful, yellow, fall aspen trees. We walked around the Aspen Loop trail and then adventured throughout downtown Flagstaff. After grabbing dinner in Flagstaff we of course made a stop for gelato (never a time we’re together and not eating ice cream!) before heading home.

9:15 PM-- After a long day of exploring, we started watching a movie and when I went to get up to fill my water bottle my toe got caught on the ottoman and I thought FOR SURE I had broken my toe. I tried to casually walk it off and when I went to fill my water bottle, I could’ve sworn I had just peed myself (*now looking back, I'm convinced that the pain of stubbing my toe sent me into early labor via my water breaking lol*). I quickly ran to the bathroom and figured that with pregnancy, my weak pelvic floor muscles couldn’t keep me from peeing a bit. BUT when I stood up from the toilet, liquid continued to leak out and I sat back down on the toilet not even sure what to do or what was happening.

9:20 PM–At this point, I called West to the bathroom trying not to be too obvious since my friend was still just sitting on the couch waiting for us to resume the movie. West suggested I call the midwife on call. The conversation didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I told her that I was 36 weeks pregnant and really not sure if my water broke or if I peed myself. She was pretty concerned that my water would break this early on (I was 36 weeks on the dot) and said that I would not be able to deliver my baby at the birthing center unless I am 37 weeks or close to. Hearing this worked me into a frenzy and I immediately started crying and panicking–my whole plan was to give birth at the birthing center and I assumed I would be 40 weeks before baby Noah would come. NOT THE CASE. My next appointment with the midwife was going to be on Monday (it was Friday at the time) where we would have my whole birth team present to go over my entire birth plan and make sure we were all on the same page. To say the least, I had no birth plan other than deliver at Babymoon Inn (the birthing center). The midwife said to monitor for the next 30 min and see if I was still leaking to determine if my water had truly broken.

The next 30+ min were spent with West trying to calm me down from the hysterics of potentially having to do a hospital birth AND getting induced. We hopped on a call with a family friend who is a doula and she helped explain what our potential options were and prayed over us. She encouraged us to spend time in prayer together and to lean on God, trust in His goodness, and to get to a place of peace amidst the chaos.

10:19 PM– I called the midwife back and told her that I assumed my water did break because I was still leaking. She asked me if I was sure about my anticipated due date. In the moment I was very thrown off by her question especially being 9 months pregnant…I really hoped that my due date was correct?! But she asked me when my last period was and based on the date she calculated that I was actually closer to 37 weeks and because of that, she would let me try to give birth at Babymoon Inn but ONLY if I went into labor in the next 4-6 hours and understanding that I may have to transfer to the hospital if I am not progressing. Such a blessing! I was honestly so relieved that I would be able to at least try to stick with the original plan of going to the birthing center. I truly believe that God was totally at work to set this birth plan into motion. The midwife told me to try to nap for 2 hours and then go for a walk to see if I can get myself into labor and to pack my hospital bag.

11:54 PM– We kept praying that I would go into labor and I finally started to feel contractions. The first one honestly felt like a really bad cramp, uncomfortable but not unbearable. But after the first two, I started to get significant discomfort between contractions, like a minute after a contraction I would get persistent contraction-like pain. I described it to people as if contractions were a 8-9/10 pain level, this in between pain was around a 6-7/10. Slightly better but definitely uncomfortable. It made it practically impossible to track the timing of my contractions because we couldn’t discern what was a contraction vs not.

12:53 AM– West called the midwife again to explain to her that I was in significant discomfort between contractions and she did not like how much pain I was in between and wanted to meet at the birthing center to check things out. I was so frustrated that West called her again because I assumed that I was just handling contractions poorly and had a low pain tolerance and I felt like we shouldn’t go to the birthing center because she was probably just going to send us back home anyways. But West refused to let me win this one and was adamant that we go to the birthing center.

1:42 AM– We arrived at the birthing center and let me tell ya, that car ride there was NOT COMFORTABLE. I was having contractions in the car and was literally holding myself up by the passenger handle and gripping the console. Once we got into the birthing center, the midwife took baby’s heart rate which she said was strong and healthy. She got the room setup while I fell to my knees during another contraction in the living room area. When I was finally able to walk to the bedroom she did a cervical check and I was practically fully dilated and almost 100% effaced. She was surprised how far along I was in such a short time but it explained why I was in so much pain. I heard her call my doula and say “you can come if you want but she’ll probably deliver this baby before you get here!”. I panicked inside, it was GO TIME.

She had me on the bed leaning over an exercise ball trying to breathe through contractions but I was having a really hard time relaxing through them so she suggested I move to the shower and still lean over the ball to see if the water would help. The contractions weren’t the most painful thing but the pressure that you feel is much more uncomfortable. It literally feels like so much pressure in your tailbone like you’re going to poop. I said I felt like I was going to poop and my midwife reassured me that it feels like that due to the baby’s head pushing on the rectum and not to worry about if I do or not. Once she told me to not let that prevent me from pushing, I tried pushing with each contraction. It’s weird, it’s like I had no idea what I was doing and I was so in my head about it but your body intuitively knows what to do. It is actually really cool how God designed our bodies for birth and how “natural” the whole process is.

2:25 AM– My doula arrived and less than 10 min later I could feel baby’s head close to crowning. It felt like a lot of pressure, this time not in my tailbone but more in the front. The doula and midwife suggested I move my knees closer together and ankles apart (a position to be in once you’re crowning to widen the pelvic inlet so that baby can come through). As soon as they said that, I knew I was close to having baby Noah out so it motivated me to keep pushing.

2:37 AM– Once I felt his head out, I got so scared that I would have to wait between contractions with him partially hanging out so I pushed one more time and Noah quickly came out and nobody was there/had time to catch him. It all happened so fast but one push later and Noah entered the world! I felt like I was in shock when it all happened and they told me to pick him up and hold him to my chest. It was the most surreal thing but also one of the proudest and happiest moments of my life, meeting my child for the first time and holding him in my arms.

They walked me back to the bed where I just held baby Noah on my chest before delivering my placenta. Honestly, this was easy and not painful so don’t worry about this part. They told me to push and I didn’t have the urge so I just tried my best at “pushing” and apparently it was enough for the placenta to come out.

My biggest prayers throughout all of pregnancy were that 1) Noah would be strong and healthy, 2) my delivery/labor would be quick, and 3) no perineal tearing! God answered all my prayers and even though my birth story did not pan out how I had imagined or anticipated, it was so amazing to experience His goodness and to look back and see how He worked everything for good.

West cut the umbilical cord and the birth team let us sleep with Noah until the morning time before any testing was performed. One of my favorite moments was seeing West hold Noah on his chest and seeing them sleep was so peaceful and it just made me feel so grateful.

The midwife was concerned about how early Noah was born but based on all the testing, he passed with flying colors. They were even shocked that his birth weight was 7lbs!! They took guesses and had thought he would be 5 lbs MAYBE 6 lbs at the most. After all the testing was done, the midwife felt that Noah was actually closer to 37 weeks since there were no complications and his size was normal.

9:30 AM– We left the birthing center, a happy little Sharkey family. It was so surreal to put him in the car and leave the birthing center as a new mom and dad with our little baby Noah.

A whole 2.5 hours of labor, a quick delivery, and mama and baby were safe and healthy through it all. PRAISE GOD!

Cheers!

-mama sharkey