07/12/2026
✨December 4’th 2025✨
This is Bennett’s birth story.
“I was 41 weeks 3days pregnant, it was Wednesday 12/3 when things finally started, we had an induction scheduled for Monday if baby boy would not make his appearance!
I woke up Wednesday to some light back cramping that was pretty constant all day. I feel like for days I had continued to ask my sister (who doubled as my doula) how will I know when it starts?! And I just felt like when I woke up Wednesday with all the back cramping, it was close. Wednesday night, I went on a walk, went swimming, was doing all the things to get this baby out, until I felt like I finally had some of my first contractions Wednesday night around 7pm. Things we very light and inconsistent from 7pm -11pm and then things started to pick up. I labored around the house with my husband all through the night, trying to get 20- 30 minute intervals of sleep but by 2-3am the contractions were getting stronger and closer together. We finally called my sister over around 6am, contractions at that point were coming about every 5 minutes consistently over the last 1-2 hours. She called the midwives and we got the green light to head to the birth center!
We got to TOL around 7:30am, I was 7cm dilated, contractions were stronger and closer together, we thought surely this would happen quickly! I had been having constant back labor the entire time, I had little to no relief in the back cramping even between contractions and that only got worse! Unfortunately I ended up staying at 7cm from 7am to close to 7pm. 12 LONG hours of constant position changes, circuits, manual attempts at repositioning, literally pulling out all the possible steps. Having 2 sets of hands on me for every contraction to help with the back labor, my poor husband and sweet sister did the MOST. Turns out our sweet boy was sunny side up so he was stuck under my pelvic bone. I was so exhausted at this point, I was constantly asking how much longer, an answer that no one could give me. Lots of tears and feelings of getting close to defeat. I labored in and out of the tub all day, on the toilet, on the bed, but always coming back to the tub where it seemed to be the only place my back would calm down! Around 7pm there was a shift change and a new nurse came. My sister gave her the run down of all the positions we had tried over the last 7 hours and she said “oh have you tried runners pose?”, she came in with me for several rounds to give my sister and the other midwives a little break. Finally things started to shift around 7:30pm after that magic position! Then from 7:30-10:30pm I went from 7 to 10cm. By that point, I had moved from the tub back to the bed so that our midwife would be able to manually work on progressing Bennetts position while I pushed. I was only able to push 1-2 times every contraction round because I had already given it everything I had up to that point. I felt like I had literally nothing left in the tank, a type of exhaustion that there are no words for. After pushing for an hour, finally our sweet baby boy came at 11:30pm. 14 crazy, unbelievable hours at the birth center and we finally had our baby boy!
We went home 8 hours later after the best best staff let me sleep just a little longer.
Bennett Todd
8lbs 8oz
21in long
An unbelievable experience, I truly could not have done this anywhere else, I am confident it would have ended in additional measures that I did not want had it not been for the amazing midwives, nurses, and my sister! There are not enough words of thanks! I look back on this with awe of myself and my baby and with the utmost thanks for the tree of life 🤍”
