Testimonials Continued...
Jennie N
Our journey with Lincey began when I was 34 weeks pregnant with our first baby. My husband and I had met with a doula the week before and she convinced us to have our birth at a birth center with a midwife since we were wanting to do everything as naturally as possible. We scheduled a consultation with Lincey and immediately felt at ease with her the moment we walked into the exam room. We were used to having about 5 minutes with the doctor to try and answer all of our questions and always left our prenatal appointments feeling like just another number. Our first appointment with Lincey lasted about 2 hours as she got to know every detail about us and the pregnancy. She answered all of our questions, including "What happens if there is an emergency since we're not at the hospital?" She explained that she never lets a birth get to the point where it becomes a critical emergency and she is always proactive in dealing with momma and baby. We knew then she was the perfect person to deliver our baby. What also sealed the deal for us was how inclusive she made my husband feel. Previously, he felt pretty left out of the whole pregnancy process as healthcare providers tend to only focus on momma. Lincey asked my husband if he wanted to "catch" the baby when he was born. This totally threw him off-guard, but at the same time made him excited and more engaged in the whole birth process than he had ever been.
We had a total of 7 prenatal appointments with Lincey and each one made us so much more excited to meet our little boy! We knew our baby was going to be a big boy and Lincey did everything she could to help us prepare for that. She consulted us about my nutrition, exercise, and supplement intake to ensure I was adequately prepared for labor and birth. Needless to say, we looked forward to every appointment, knowing we were going to spend time with someone who was turning into a lifelong friend.
Our little one must have sensed we enjoyed these appointments so much, because he decided he would take his sweet time coming into the world! My due date came and passed with not a contraction in sight. Eleven days past my due date, I woke with contractions which were stronger than any I had felt in the previous days. Still nothing major, so we waited most of the day to see if they increased. At our appointment that afternoon, Lincey told us we were likely in early labor and that I needed to take it easy and rest as much as possible. She recommended I go get a chiropractic adjustment to hopefully get things moving along too. After my adjustment, we headed home to eat dinner and low and behold, things really started happening!
Around 9pm that night (Thursday), my contractions were to the point where we felt like it was time to start timing them. By 11pm, my contractions were coming every 4-5 minutes and lasting for at least a minute, but sometimes longer. We had been texting with Lincey all evening keeping her updated and at this point she told us to go ahead and come up to the birth center so she could check my progress. We got to the birth center around Midnight and Lincey checked to see how far along I was. I was only 2cm dilated and about 75% effaced, which meant it was still early and since it was the middle of the night, she recommended we go home and try and get some rest. I think her exact words were "Not that this is going to happen, but you could be in labor for 24 hours so you need all the rest you can get!" Oh, little did we all know!
We headed home and tried our best to rest, but my contractions kept getting stronger and I was to the point where I really couldn't respond to anything while they were happening. At about 4am, we headed back to the birth center and thankfully I had progressed to 5cm, meaning we were able to stay there until our baby came! We headed to the birth suite and began the hard work. Lincey coached my husband and I through many different positions and labor techniques to help ease the pain and also to help keep the baby in good positioning. Early in the morning, she suggested I use the birth tub to hopefully ease some of the pain and allow me to rest more in between contractions. We labored all through the morning and early afternoon and Lincey was right there encouraging us and making sure both baby's and my vital signs were in a safe range.
By about 3pm, I was almost fully dilated, so we began pushing very gently with each contraction. My water still had not broken at this point, but Lincey wanted to give it a little while longer to see if it would break on its own. After about an hour, I needed to take a break from pushing to allow myself to fully dilate. After the time had passed, we got back to pushing and Lincey decided it was time to break my water to hopefully make my contractions and urge to push stronger. Throughout the entire process of breaking my water, Lincey made sure the baby's heart rate was not in distress and helped ease our minds that everything was going smoothly. After breaking my water, we tried just about every position imaginable to push our little guy out. After about an hour and a half, the baby had not moved down any further in the birth canal. At this point, it was about 6pm on Friday and I had been in active labor for 21 hours. Since we hadn't made any progress after pushing for so long, Lincey, my husband, and I made the very hard and extremely rare decision to pack up and head to the hospital. Granted this is definitely not what any of us wanted, but in the best interest of the baby and myself, we knew this was the decision that had to be made.
At this point, Lincey switched from being my amazing midwife to my caring doula through the transition to the hospital. When we met with the doctor, she informed us that she thought the baby was most likely too large to come out vaginally and recommended we have a C-section in order to get him out. At this point, I knew this was how it needed to happen. We headed back for the surgery and after a short time we we're blessed with a 10b 9oz miracle baby boy!! Everyone, including the doctor, were blown away by his size. The doctor also informed us he had flipped to posterior at some point during labor, so that's why he wasn't able to come naturally. No one could have imagined that he was also so big!!
All in all, we have the "what happens when something goes wrong and you're not at the hospital" birth story, but with the savvy and knowledge of our incredible midwife Lincey, we were able to have a very happy ending with our baby boy. I would not have changed anything about my pregnancy, labor, or birth, except for wishing I had been with Lincey from the very beginning instead of finding her near the end. We trusted everything she did during labor and knew she had my husband, my son, and my best interests' in mind. She has a servant's heart and I couldn't imagine going through this incredibly intimate time of my life with any other midwife. Not only has she become one of our greatest friends, but we will be life-long clients of hers when the time comes to have our next baby.