Sharing this little guys birth story with you seemed like a perfect way to spend this chilly day today. I met his mama Samantha on a super hot and sunny summer day, and she floated in like a breath of fresh air. We sat and chatted about her birth and what she was hoping for, and just clicked! I was so excited to work with her at her birth, and thrilled when she told me she felt the same.

Through our prenatals, Sam was so open and willing to learn. She and her partner asked tons of questions and it was so heartwarming to see how invested in making this a positive experience they were. They had been lucky enough to secure a Winnipeg midwife, and had a great birth team surrounding them.

The day before her due date, Sam messaged me to let me know some things were slowly happening. The little man had decided to be extremely punctual! She laboured at home throughout the day with the help of friends and family, finding the perfect balance of rest and work. That evening after dinner contractions were picking up and they decided to have the midwife come and assess where things were at and what her next step might be. It was suggested that some rest might be the best thing, and around 10pm they tried to settle in for some sleep before the contractions picked up even more.

As babies tend to do, the little guy laughed at their plans and instead labour picked up significantly! After only a bit of rest, they made the decision that maybe it was time to move to the hospital. I grabbed my things and headed out the door to meet them. We were all so excited as we could tell the birth was getting closer!

At triage around 3am they were greeted by the best news- Sam had laboured so well at home that she was now 5cms already and was being admitted right away— no wait time! Those of you local to Winnipeg know how rare it is to get into a room right away, so this was a major feat! We were super excited for her to get settled into her room and let her amazing nurse know that she was ready for her epidural once the anesthesiologist was ready.

While waiting, Samantha did an amazing job of breathing and moving through the contractions. She was able to meet the beginning of each one with a refreshing breath and move her hips to keep the energy flowing without tensing up. While she was eager for her epidural, she was such a rockstar at waiting calmly and listening to her body in the meantime. By 530am the anesthesiologist arrived and was able to get her epidural in place and working. Yay!

Within an hour, she was feeling relief from the rushes and was able to lay down and get some sleep since she’d been up all night so far! Our wonderful nurse was able to grab us a peanut ball so that she could lay on her side and put her pelvis into a great position to open up space for baby to move down. Sam did great at moving from side to side to keep things moving for baby in between sleeping and even was strong enough to be able to walk to the bathroom on her own. Rockstar!

At 8am another exam showed up that she was still sitting at 5-6cms. Hmmm. Contractions had definitely picked up and we were a bit surprised not to see more progress! However, we know that dilation isn’t the only progress happening during labour, and the rushes were still coming frequently so everyone felt good about giving just a little nudge in the right direction. The resident at this point decided to break her waters, and we all had a laugh afterwards when the nurse made fun of his “typical doctor” nonchalance of not thinking to put anything extra underneath her afterwards and leaving the nurses to clean up the mess.

Throughout the whole labour and birth there was such a vibe of happiness and fun through the room. Yes we were here supporting Samantha in her hard work, but she maintained such an amazing positive attitude and excitement that it was contagious, and we spent much of the time trading funny comments with each other and the nurses.

After having her waters broken, Sam decided to try to sleep for a bit more to see what would happen. Sometimes with waters intact, what happens is that there is not a lot of pressure on the cervix, which makes it a bit harder to dilate. The hope was that now, with continued movement from side to side, the baby’s head would encourage that cervix to keep doing its amazing work.

And it did! By shortly after 11:30am, just over two hours after having her water broken, Sam described her contractions as having changed and feeling different. She decided to have another check and it felt a little surreal to be told that she was not only fully dilated, but also baby was at a +2, which means baby is really low already and is an amazing place to be able to start pushing, saving you so much extra work! Like I said, rockstar birther here!

While we waited for Samantha to have a stronger sense of pressure and urge to push, we chatted about what was to come. There was such a contagious feeling of anticipation in the room, and I admit I got a little teary listening to her talk about how amazed she was that he was almost here. The energy in the room was filled with such love and excitement. Shortly after noon her midwife joined us back in the room. And then before we knew it, Sam felt ready to push and help bring this little guy closer to her. She continued being that amazing inspirational birther who smiled through contractions and in between would joke with the nurses about how long it would take her to push. They started with saying under two hours, but after the first couple pushes, her nurse jokingly challenged her that she was sure she could have him here in under an hour. Rather than add pressure, this seemed to keep the mood light and fun. During one contraction where Sam was told not to push she joked that she didn’t want this to count against her total time since she wasn’t pushing and that wasn’t fair.

She needn’t have worried though! At 1:07pm, just 42 minutes after she started pushing, she seemingly effortlessly birthed her baby boy into her midwives hands and the whole room teared up. He went directly into his mamas arms and snuggled up like he’d been there forever. Smack dab in the middle of his due date, and he was here in his mamas arms, being lovingly cared for and loved by her and daddy.

They spent the next couple hours getting to know their gorgeous baby boy, starting breastfeeding, and inspecting all of his tiny details. It was decided that he had daddy’s feet, which caused laughs, but otherwise he is the perfect combination of them both. The room was practically buzzing with excitement and overwhelming love that was so contagious. Welcome to the world Liam!