Luka's Birth Story

 When I was pregnant with Oren in 2022, I met a young couple at Good Foods Grocery, who were trying to conceive their first baby. We struck up a friendship over a love for fresh, raw milk (we had a cow at the time), and since then we've enjoyed sharing meals and building deeper relationships. They decided on a freebirth for their first baby, and she asked me to support her during a couple hours of the labor portion of her birth. I am so grateful and proud to call Cayla, Steven and Luka my friends. She did it with the support of her husband and the Holy Spirit. 

Luka’s birth story-2023

Cayla’s story:

“ On March 3rd I lost my mucus plug at 9am when I used the toilet, right after greeting husband at the door for his return home from work. Perfect timing. I called him upstairs to show him and we both had tears well up in our eyes. We get to meet our baby soon! We went about our day, grocery shopping and making dinner later and everything in between with a lot of “anything yet?” from Steven. I lost a few more bits of the plug throughout the day. That night, on my way to bed, I said to my mom that I think it would be the last time Steven and I go to bed together alone. And it was. At 1:30am on March 4th I felt my water break which brought me to the bathroom immediately. I saw a little blood and what was the rest of the plug. Steven was supposed to go back to work for a 48 hour shift that morning so I kept debating and waiting to see how things were going before waking him up. I read time and time again that the best thing to do at the onset of labor is to try to rest. I had a feeling I would have a relatively long road ahead of me so I decided to lay back down and try to sleep. Within an hour, contractions started. So around 4am, I got up and grabbed sourdough crackers and laboraid (both homemade by my dear friend, Karyn) and started swaying on my birth ball. I woke my husband up at 4:30am telling him I was in labor. We decided that it would be best if he let his work know what was going on and that he wouldn’t be in for his shift. I’m so glad we did because I really wanted him by my side for the whole labor, since I wasn’t sure what to expect, and that’s exactly what was able to happen. Around 9:30am Steven drew me a bath and I stayed in for about an hour. I was breathing through contractions and practicing relaxing through them as best as I could to avoid tensing up. When we got back in the bedroom, time started to blend together. I had asked Steven a few times what time it was. It was encouraging to me in a way to know that time was passing and not standing still, which was a fear I had — that I would feel the hard work and not the time passing. It reminded me that time was passing no matter what I was doing. I continued to breathe through contractions, alternating between moving and resting between them. At one point I attempted to eat some more crackers which made me feel like I was going to vomit. I was feeling hungry but had no appetite for food. I just wanted my baby to be here. I continued on the rest of my labor drinking water and laboraid. Around 3pm I got back in the tub. Things were starting to feel more intense. I decided about 30 minutes later that I wanted to go back to the bedroom. This was about when transition seemed to kick in. I was flowing in and out of reality between contractions, partially falling asleep, partially day dreaming. Like nothing I’ve experienced before. Things were feeling extremely challenging now. My friend, Karyn, arrived around 4pm to support me and my husband. She prayed over us, she encouraged me, guided me with the Word. Time felt like an illusion — it didn’t matter what time it was or how long I was doing this, our baby would arrive right on time. By now, I felt a strong urge to push through the contractions. The amniotic sac had bulged through and I pinched it to break it. I thought to myself “the head has to be near then!” and it was not. I realize now I held onto ideas of how I thought some things would go. So I felt discouraged. Why wasn’t my baby’s head behind the sac? A couple hours in, I checked to see if I could feel anything. I didn’t feel the head (in hindsight, I actually did! My brain was too hazy to connect the dots of what I felt). Again, I felt discouraged. I wasn’t really sure what I was feeling for and the more facts I tried to find, the more it distracted me. By this time, I was getting very tired so I was grasping for knowledge. I felt like I was hitting a brick wall. I didn’t think my pushing was effective. I was alternating between a few positions during contractions to help open up my pelvis. It was two hours into pushing and I still couldn’t feel my baby’s head (remember, I actually had). I literally wondered if I had a baby inside me. I was feeling so confused. I cried out to the Lord for mercy. My throat was becoming exhausted from roaring. I didn’t want to push for this long. After 4.5 hours of pushing, I got back in the tub. I needed to relax everything. About 10 minutes into pushing in the tub, Steven tells me he sees the head — and there’s A LOT of hair. I instantly went from “I don’t know how much longer I can do this” to “I can do this”. My baby was finally coming. The burning was intense. I imagined pushing baby down further with each contraction. Breathing in between them so as to not rush this part. This part of pushing was the hardest. There was a delicate balance. Once I pushed the head out completely, I told Steven to grab the baby. My body just wanted the baby out. He couldn’t reach the baby from how I was positioned. Steven had called my friend and my mom in by now. At this point I reached down and pulled the baby out with one final push. The relief was immense.. And immediately me and Steven were in tears. We pulled the cord aside to check — “WE HAVE A BABY BOY!” He was born at 8:22pm after 5 hours of pushing. My mom and Karyn were in the bathroom with us now and were celebrating the arrival of our sweet boy. I pushed for a total of 20 minutes in the tub. While we waited on my placenta, my husband fed me homemade granola (also from Karyn) and mango. The placenta made its exit within about 30minutes. We placed it in a bowl and relocated to our bedroom so I could get comfortable. I felt very adrenaline ridden and also so weak from not eating for so long, so getting to the bedroom was shaky. We laid in bed with our boy swooning over him while we waited to burn the cord. Burning the cord took 17 minutes and it was worth every moment! After the cord was burned, my mom held our son while Steven helped me rinse off in the shower which felt cleansing but also uncomfortable because I was physically weak. I definitely wanted to just be in bed. Our son latched beautifully when he was ready to nurse. Karyn and my mom had helped us clean up the mess before my friend left, which we were so grateful for — laundry thrown in, blood wiped up, etc. I bet there are things I’m forgetting about, or didn’t even get around to paying attention to. But I know for sure that I felt supported and loved my entire labor, Birth, and immediate postpartum and it was truly a blessing. He delivered!”