Odin’s Birth Story ~ A Vaginal, Un-medicated Surprise Breech Birth! {Home Birth transfer to Spokane Valley Hospital, with an Amazing Birth Team}

From the moment I met this sweet couple, I knew there was something extra special about them, and I was thrilled when they hired me as their birth photographer and doula. Shad and Karissa share a profound connection which I witnessed during our prenatal visits together, and got to capture during their incredible birth (see below!). I remember getting the text to “go,” and after being in touch with the midwives, who jokingly asked if I was well-rested and ready for a primip birth (first time birth, which can often go a bit longer) I had a strange feeling things would go quickly. When I arrived at Karissa and Shad’s house, Karissa was working through very intense contractions, and already starting to make pushing sounds. I suggested we fill the tub to give her the option to labor in the water, and I texted the midwives to “come quickly!” By the time they arrived, Karissa was already pushing, and before long we were met with an unexpected surprise… (Karissa shares her story below.)

“My home birth didn’t go quite at planned…

Tuesday evening I started feeling extremely nauseous. I ended up vomiting and having diarrhea from 9:00 Tuesday evening until about 9:00 Wednesday morning with some moderate cramping. During this time I had called my mother in Tacoma who is a nurse, and was also a mother-baby nurse for 10 years to tell her of my symptoms. She then told me it is very common for women to get “flu like” symptoms before they go into labor. She packed some things and headed to Spokane Wednesday morning because she had a feeling I’d be in labor very soon. I had moderate contractions throughout the day on Wednesday but they slowed down enough to the point that I could actually get some sleep. I was thankful for this since I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before since I was feeling sick.

Thursday morning I woke up and started having contractions again but nothing too crazy. My mother and I went for walks, went shopping and that seemed to get my contractions going but still were about 20 minutes apart and lasting about a minute. I had an appointment with my midwives that day at 1:30. I told them about my contractions and how I had been feeling and they figured it was just the flu and I was having contractions due to dehydration. They didn’t think I would go into labor anytime soon since I was still a week out from my due date. I went home a little discouraged. I continued to walk and my mother massaged pressure points on my ankles. Around 5:15 I went to the restroom to pee. I heard a pop and then felt a rush of fluid. I yelled to my mom “oh my god, I think my water just broke!” We were thrilled that things were progressing after all! We decided to go for a walk again and that’s when the contractions started to speed up and last a lot longer.

My mom called my husband at work and told him he should probably come. By the time he got home around 6:30 my contractions were very strong and very close together. Esther got here around 7:30 and she could tell I was a lot closer to having this baby than I thought I was since it seemed way too fast and too good to be true that our baby boy was almost here. She suggested that I get in the birthing tub and that was the best suggestion anyone could have given me. Although contractions were strong, the warm water was such a relief. Soon after I was having the urge to push and my midwife showed up around 8:30 and she checked me and gave my husband the thumbs up, meaning she could feel baby and he was close to coming out. I couldn’t believe how fast everything was happening…

After a few minutes of pushing I heard Terri tell Esther that she’s “going to want to get a picture.” I thought this meant that I was about to have our baby boy. Then she asked me to get out of the tub. Confused, I stood up and tried to get out of the tub which was hard because of my strong urge to push. She then told me that she felt feet and that we had the option to go to the hospital or try to have him at home. She told us that she has never done a breech birth with feet first so we decided to go to the hospital just to be safe. I tried to run out the door without clothes on and was trying to open my car door but it was locked. Everyone came running out after me and we shuffled into the car. My husband was driving, my mother was in the passenger seat and I was leaning into Terri in the back seat. She was telling me to take short quick breaths to try and stop my contractions so I didn’t end up pushing out this baby in the car. I couldn’t hold back my urge to push and Odin’s feet kept coming out further.

We arrived at Valley Hospital and there was a man waiting for us with a wheel chair. I sat down sideways and he rushed me to our hospital room. As soon as we got to the room I threw off my robe and got on the bed on all fours and started pushing. In my mind I was the only one there. Soon I felt monitors on me and could hear Odin’s heart beat and Dr. Brown’s voice telling me that Odin sounds great and not to worry. He had me flip over onto my back and told me to keep pushing. I had a nurse on my right side and my mom, Shad, and Terri on my left. I kept telling myself that I could do this. Pushing was hard, but I had the encouragement of so many people. Within minutes of being at the hospital, Odin was born and on my chest, perfect, and healthy. We feel so blessed to have the team we had and for Dr. Brown. As crazy as it all was I wouldn’t change anything about it. :) “

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I was thoroughly impressed with Spokane Valley Hospital‘s care and support to this family through their delivery. This was a first time mother, and her body knew just what to do to birth her baby, in spite of his unusual position. Thank you so much to Karissa and Shad for entrusting me to share your birth journey as your doula and photographer, and thank you to her amazing midwives, and Spokane Valley Hospital’s birth team who guided her through a safe, natural breech birth. This is birth. I hope this story inspires some confidence in the possibility of safe, vaginal breech births, even footling breech births!!

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