A 50-hour Natural Birth Story
It was just after 5 am when I woke up with the wave of a real contraction. My first thought was, “Finally!” I knew this wasn’t Braxton Hicks anymore. It was February 26 – eleven days after my predicted due date and two days before my scheduled induction date (a day I was dreading because I was ready to argue with anyone who tried to interfere with my all-natural, whenever-baby-is-ready birth plan). I sat up in bed, wide-eyed, and told my fiancé, Ivory, “It’s happening! We’re having a baby today!”
When I went to the bathroom and saw that my mucus plug had released, I was so excited. The adrenaline kicked in as I thought about finally meeting my little boy. Little did I know, this was the beginning of a very long couple of days…
My contractions were about 12-15 minutes apart throughout the morning. I tried to keep myself busy and moving around, instead of obsessing over each surge and the spaces in between them. Ivory and I went for a walk and ran a few errands (contracted my way around Trader Joe’s). I took a shower, did some stretches, put on all of my favorite jewelry to channel my inner goddess (she was already channeled, but it added a little extra). I spent the afternoon munching on snacks and sorbet, bouncing around on my birthing ball, meditating, walking around the house, listening to “Golden” by Jill Scott on repeat (for some reason that was my unplanned labor anthem), and watching Netflix with the birth support team (Mom, Sister, Midwife/Friend). Trying to stay as relaxed as possible.
I had been told by a few other mamas that contractions would feel like really bad period cramps, and it turns out it was true; like the cramps of a thousand periods all at once. For me, they were almost exclusively in my lower back and hips. While they definitely hurt like hell, the adrenaline from the excitement of the long-awaited Birth Day was helping me handle each surge, one by one. Deep breaths, making strange animal noises, bouncing on the ball, and staying hydrated.
In preparation for the big day(s), I read A LOT of birth stories (thanks to Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth) and watched a lot of birth stories, and live birth videos on Youtube. I felt like I prepared myself pretty well for what was to come. Of the 50+ birth stories I read/heard, not one talked about burping during labor. When I tell you I was burping… I mean I was belching like a grown man after every single contraction! Loud ones. And it was nonstop throughout my entire labor. As the contractions became stronger, so did the burps. Every. Single. Time. At the time, it was extremely annoying, but in retrospect it’s pretty hilarious.
My original plan was to have a homebirth and it was something I felt confident about, especially since one of my closest friends, Sumi, is an experienced midwife and doula. I wanted to meet my son in the comfort of my own home with just Ivory and Sumi in the room. Throughout my pregnancy, when I would share this plan with others, they would inflict their fears about home births onto me and I allowed those fears to penetrate my peace about my decision. I decided, instead, to labor at home for as long as possible, and then make my way to the hospital for the delivery.
The first 14 hours of labor were very relaxed, but as the day turned to night, the adrenaline faded and exhaustion started to kick in, along with the waves of emotions. Everyone left so Ivory and I could be alone. We wanted to try to get some rest before things really started moving along.
Around 2 am, we called Sumi to come back and check on me. “This is all normal,” she would say to every question or fear I had. This simple and comforting sentence became my mantra throughout my pregnancy, labor, and postpartum. When she arrived, she and Ivory took turns massaging my back as I lay in bed taking bites of mango sorbet between contractions. Around 4 am, Sumi checked my cervix and we learned that I was about 4 cm dilated. My initial reaction was “Only 4?!” but I reminded myself to be patient with my body and my baby. Immediately after she checked me, my water broke and spilled out of me in a wave. I decided to take a bath and have some alone time to cleanse and relax, and check in with myself.
At 7am on February 27, I was about 26 hours into labor, and I decided I was ready
to head to the hospital. A part of me was secretly hoping to have an “accidental” homebirth, but I decided to stick to the plan. The car ride to the hospital was rough! Something about riding in the car makes contractions so much worse. I cried for most of the 15-minute ride to the hospital as we listened to “How Great is Our God” which was my Granny’s favorite gospel song. I kept thinking about how many mothers did this before me and how I was in the middle of the most powerful transformation I will ever experience.
After slowly making our way up to labor and delivery, I literally had amniotic fluid running down my legs. I was now about 5 cm dilated and surges were about 5 minutes apart. The nurse told me to walk around the hospital to encourage dilation before they admitted me to a room. I walked around the waiting room where my birth support squad (mom, sister, Sumi) had already set up camp, morning coffee in hand. Ivory had a couple of bananas and an entire jar of peanut butter in his pocket for me (yes, in his pocket– something everyone got a good laugh out of) and that gave me some much-needed energy.
For the next several hours, we were all in my birthing suite eating snacks, watching Grace & Frankie on Netflix, laughing at my enormous burps, taking turns massaging me, taking naps. Contractions were getting difficult to handle but I was still feeling strong enough. The nurses kept offering me things to manage the pain, which I kept declining. Ivory and I took walks around the hospital every hour or so and I did squats and rocked my hips side to side and watched the hours go by.
36 hours in and I was about 6 cm dilated. They attached a wireless monitor to my belly to track the contractions and baby’s heart rate, which allowed me to walk around and move easier, since staying still felt impossible. There was talk about inducing me to speed up the labor, which Sumi declined on my behalf and reminded the nurses of our plan to stay natural. In an effort to accelerate dilation naturally, Sumi suggested nipple stimulation via breast pump. The nurses were surprised and confused by this suggestion but they provided us with a pump and it definitely did the trick! While using the pump, my contractions immediately became much more intense and much closer together. Ivory and Sumi took turns helping me use the pump for 15 minute intervals several times over the next few hours.
By the 42nd hour, I was a wreck. Each surge felt like my entire body was being squeezed in a giant fist and then wrung out like a wet towel. I was so exhausted, I was literally falling asleep mid-sentence. I wanted to cry, but it wouldn’t come out. My lips were so chapped and no amount of water was quenching my thirst. At that point, Ivory asked everyone to give us some space to be alone because he thought I was holding back. This was not the first time my man knew what I needed before I did.
As soon as we were alone, the tears came flowing, and the surges got so strong, it felt like my body was tying itself in a knot. We cried together and Ivory held me up, physically and emotionally, as I rocked and squatted and breathed. He held my hand as we did laps around the hallways and tapped my lower back with his fists through each surge (this helps a lot!). Ivory never left my side and never took his hands off of me. His hands felt like medicine, like he was transferring energy to me and taking away some of the pain. This was the most loved and supported I have ever felt.
I was about 46 hours in when Sumi came back to the room to check in. She tied a rebozo (a traditional Mexican shawl that is used as a birthing tool) to the bathroom doorway so I could pull on it and squat down through surges as it held up my body weight. Every part of my body was radiating and I could hardly hold myself up, but sitting or laying down felt awful.
I felt myself going into transition. At the end of each contraction, my body naturally started pushing and I could feel my hips creaking open. At this point, the breaks between surges were just enough to take a few breaths in preparation for the next one.
The pressure in my butt was indescribable. I felt like it was going to just fall off any minute. And I’m just going to say what everyone wants to know…I felt like I was going to shit myself! I waddled to the bathroom to check my giant diaper (no, I had not shit myself) and I could actually feel the top of my son’s head with my hand! “He’s coming out!” I yelled and made my way back to the bed.
The next half hour or so was a blur. I stripped naked and got onto the bed on all fours and just started pushing as my body told me to. I heard nurses and the doctor coming into the room, shuffling around, talking to me, and placing pads under me but all I could focus on was Ivory’s voice and his hand on my back. His voice kept me breathing and reminded me that I was doing something magical. I heard Sumi making sure everyone was respecting my birth plan wishes, I heard my mom and sister come back in and I was so happy my support people were all there to bear witness.
I felt my body blooming, opening, almost exploding. I couldn’t believe the animal-like sounds I heard coming from my own mouth. I even felt like an animal. Naked on all fours and I couldn’t care about anything other than pushing and breathing, pushing and breathing. I felt like my vagina was on fire and that my body was breaking in half. I could feel my son’s head crowning as I pushed and then going back in when I stopped to breathe. This happened several times until I finally did one long push for as long and as hard as I could and felt his head squeeze out. It was the greatest relief I have ever felt in my life. I pushed one more time and felt the rest of his body slide out of me and into Ivory’s bare hands, followed by a flood of fluid. I felt my body deflate and release everything.
I heard my son’s cry behind me and everything went into slow motion. Ivory passed our son between my legs to hand him to me and I could feel the tug of the umbilical cord as he was still connected to me. I held his little wet body to my chest and sobbed for what felt like forever. It was the most exhausted I have ever felt and the most magical.
There he finally was. My son. 7 pounds, 20 inches long. He looked just like his dad but with bright red hair and blue-gray eyes. All of the pain left my body, and nothing else mattered. 50 hours of labor and about 10 minutes of pushing. It was worth every second. Ivory and I leaned into each other and cried with our son and I know we both felt our worlds change completely in that moment.
I had to muster up one last bit of energy to push out my placenta. The nurses helped turn me over to lay on my back. My belly felt like jello and my body had zero strength left but it came out in just two quick pushes. A nurse placed my placenta in a bowl next to us so the baby could stay connected to it until his umbilical cord stopped beating. It was way bigger than I imagined and it was very colorful – red, purple, blue-ish, gray. I couldn’t believe I grew that entire thing and a whole human inside me.
When the cord stopped pulsing, Ivory cut it, and we collected the placenta in a cooler which Sumi took to my house where she dehydrated and encapsulated it for me to take as vitamins– something I have loved during my postpartum healing period.
As the doctor checked me afterward, she said, “This was basically a homebirth at the hospital.” No medicine, no IV, no shots for the baby, no interference– exactly as I wanted it to be. I had a second-degree tear and needed some stitches. Sumi conversed with the doctor and held my foot for support while I got stitched up, giving me reassuring nods here and there as she saw the nervous look on my face. My vagina had already been through enough!
I was busy admiring my son anyway, watching him root around in search of my nipple, which he found and latched on to with ease! I felt like a warrior. I had just performed magic and none of the pain from the past 2 days mattered anymore. I was a mom now, and it felt so good.
When everyone went home and we were finally alone with our baby, Ivory held him skin-to-skin for the first time and I watched him become a dad before my eyes. We named our son Ivory, too. We just stared at him and at each other in disbelief. I thanked my body for this whole new human. I felt like I’d already known him forever. My son, Ivory Josiah Williams.
She earned her Bachelors Degree in Classical Violin Performance from California State University in 2016, and her Masters Degree in Contemporary Performance and Production from Berklee College of Music in 2018.
Outside of music, Korina (Korie) is also passionate about herbalism, literature, plant-based cooking, and yoga. She currently lives in Long Beach, California with her fiancé, Ivory, and their 4-month-old son, Ivory Josiah.
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