Elizabeth's Birth Story
by her mother
March 8, 2006
Having birthed our son Jack at the Greenhouse birth center in October of 2003, when we found out we were expecting again there was no question in our mind that we would return to the care of the wonderful midwives at the Greenhouse Birth Center! We had become members of the GBC community in the first two years of Jack's life, attending many mother's groups and getting to know other like-minded families. We couldn't wait to share the wonderful gift of a Greenhouse Birth Center birth with our new baby!
As I had come to expect, my pre-natal care was attentive, caring, individualized to me and educational. We took the childbirth classes again as well. Not only were we interested in getting a "refresher" course, it was also some special time that we could spend together with just our new baby.
As my due date grew closer, I could feel the baby was very low. I often joked that I could dilate myself to seven just by walking up the stairs. I felt so much pressure in those last few weeks which I had not experienced with my first pregnancy. At my last appointment, Kip was feeling for the baby's position and said to me "Contracting a bit, are we?" I looked at her like she was crazy...I couldn't feel a thing.
The day before Elizabeth was born went on as a normal day. I lanolized some wool diaper covers I had gotten for the baby and did some other last minute nesting things. At five p.m. I had a massage scheduled with Molly, the birth center masseuse, (AAAAHHHH) which was wonderful and relaxing. She later told me she also felt me contract as she massaged me but because I hadn't said anything, she didn't bring it up either. In reality, I wasn't feeling anything yet! By about nine o'clock that night, I began to feel the slightest pains. They were so light I assumed they were braxton-hicks contractions. I remember taking a bath with Jack, changing the sheets on our bed, and walking him to sleep for the night. My husband was at his weekly poker game and I didn't even think to call him. I went to bed around 9:30 or so thinking that I should try to get a good nights sleep in case these cramps would lead to something, possibly labor in the next day or two?
By the time Alan came home at 11:30, I was sleeping, but aware of light contractions every now and again. I woke up and told Alan I might possibly be in early labor, but wanted to sleep on it because the contractions were so light I was sleeping thru most of them. As the night wore on, I woke up to a few more contractions that were growing slightly more in intensity but still very manageable.
Then 4:30 AM hit. I was brought to my knees by a sweeping contraction. I howled in pain which shot my husband up on the other side of the bed. Pretty quickly after that my water broke, but it wasn't like I had imagined it would be. It was like a constant slow leaking. After that my contractions began to come one after another, hard and fast. I remember going to the bathroom thinking to get in the bath but doubling over the side in the midst of a contraction. When Alan came in I remember saying to him "We've waited too long, we need to call the midwives." He called the answering service, Kip called back quickly and we all made arrangements to get to the birth center as quickly as possible. But it would take me another 15-20 minutes to get out of my house. At that point it was like I was having one continuous, never-ending contraction. Sometime during all of this my sister Mia and her husband Kwafo showed up. Mia was coming with us to the birth center and Kwafo was to stay with Jack.
The drive to the birth center seemed very long. Not long after we left our house, I began to feel the urge to push. When I announced this, my husband said “No! You can't push yet!”
Of course, anyone who has ever been in labor knows it's not possible to not push when you feel the urge!
We finally got to the birth center at six a.m. Thank goodness, Clarice had already gotten there and had the lights on, bath ready, etc. I remember falling into her yelling "Clarice, the baby's coming now!". Somehow, I climbed in (with help I'm sure) to the tub and immediately felt relief from my pain. We had made it to the birth center and the baby wasn't born yet...yeah!! I really relaxed then and let my body go to work birthing my baby. Only eleven minutes later, Miss Elizabeth Kate Gurski made her entrance into the world. She was 7 lbs 14 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. We were elated to discover she was a girl and I was still amazed she was born already (I pushed for three hours with my son Jack). It was all so quick, it almost seemed like a dream. We spent the rest of the morning at the birth center getting to know Elizabeth while I took a VERY long herbal bath, about three hours long. Her brother Jack came to meet her and then around noon we decided we were ready to go home and start our life as a family of four. As with Jack's birth, we left the birth center feeling grateful to the wonderful women of the birth center for helping us have the type of birth we needed. We will forever be grateful for the existence of the Greenhouse Birth Center in our lives!
