Ep 48: A Midwife's Long Labor

I want to start out with a phrase I hear from a lot of mothers.  “Oh, I had a really long labor.”  And in my experience, a “really long labor can be anything from 9-48 hours, depending on the mother.”  I consider my first birth to have been obnoxiously long.  I went into early labor on a Thursday night and didn’t have my daughter until 2am on Saturday morning.  Whew.  Long one.  Madeline, however takes the cake when it comes to long labors, as you’ll hear in her birth story. Today’s guest is no stranger to the podcast.  I interviewed Midwife Madeline Murray on episode 23, and we discussed her brand, passion, life’s work, Believe in Midwifery.  If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, I highly recommend you scoot on over right after you finish this one.  I’ll make it easy for you and put the link in the show notes.  Even more excitingly, this is not the only episode you’ll be hearing from Madeline this week.  Nope!  Be sure to tune back in this Wednesday, as we celebrate the launch of Madeline’s new course, Believe in Midwifery’s Guide to Sustainable Practice.  It’s an amazing episode for both midwives and mothers, so don’t forget to subscribe to the show on your favorite platform so you don’t miss it. Speaking of your favorite platform, if you wouldn’t mind, I would be so grateful for you to head over to iTunes and leave a review for the show.  Reviews are so helpful for reaching more mothers, and I know you want to get the homebirth message out as much as I do!  Remember that if you leave a review, you have the opportunity to be selected as the reviewer of the week, and I’ll give you a podcast shout-out and e-mail you a happy homebirth sticker.  So….worth the 3 minutes. Okay, on with the show!  Please remember that the opinions of my guest may not necessarily reflect my own and vice versa, and although Madeline is a care provider, neither one of us are functioning in that role during this episode, so continue to see your doctor, midwife, or if you’re like me, your chiropractor.  Let’s jump in!    Show Notes As a midwife, Madeline says she was a terrible pregnant woman. She thought her clients told her everything, so when little things would be different, she would always wonder, “Wait, is this normal!?”  She would go to her friends, who always asked her the questions!  “Yep, you just sound pregnant.” “It was humbling to ask for help.” Her plan was to have as much of an “unassisted” birth as possible. She wanted her friend Jen, who is a midwife, to come to Atlanta from Oregon when she was in labor and be there with her, but wanted a hands-off situation. She knew that “anything” could happen. The only thing she wasn’t expecting—was her water breaking before Went to Scollini’s for dinner—wanted to have an eggplant baby (the restaurant is known for sending moms into labor) Water broke that night (Sunday night) Had a full day of no contractions. Early morning, around 8, she got out of bed because she was having somewhat significant contractions “Classic first time mom”: tells her friend she can come over and have coffee, calls her mom, calls her sister-in-law After an hour or so she noticed she wasn’t progressing, so she kicked everyone out. Around dinner time, finally her contractions started picking up somewhat. Madeline and her family members played Settlers of Catan that evening By 3 in the morning, she was definitely in active labor. Got in the birth tub around 5 am and started feeling some pressure (Wednesday morning) Madeline decides to check herself, and can only feel baby’s head and the pubic bone. She got into a deep squat for a few contractions and pushed hard. She then decided to have her friend check her. She was 7 cm… #classicfirsttimemom Had her sister-in-law text all of their friends and family asking for prayers and energy. Her mom sent a text to all of the ladies at church asking for prayer She needed her tribe to be there with her—every time she had a contraction, everyone would moan and sway wit