Birth Story Of myles vernon

I want to share Myles' birth story in hopes that it will help educate others about home birth, inspire other moms, and show the power of Jesus!

My due date was on: 6/18/23.

At each of my prenatal appointments, my belly was measuring 2-4 weeks ahead.

Scarlett (my 10 year old) was determined it was twins. Nope! Just one big, healthy baby from the very beginning.

I will jump ahead to his stats:

He weighed in at a whopping: 11 lb 4 oz! Yes, you read that right! ELEVEN and a quarter POUNDS!

He was measured at: 22 3/4 in long!

Now, here is our birth story:

It was 6/19/23 at 4:00 am

After a full night of the baby intensely kicking inside my belly and waking me up, I rolled over in bed and felt a gush. My water broke. I texted my midwife, Emily Schultz, to let her know. I attempted to rest afterwards.

5:00 am

After a failed attempt to lay back down to get some more rest, I called Emily because contractions were starting to pick up.

6:45 am

Emily arrives (she lives 90 minutes away) and starts to set up. By this point, the contractions were constant, so soon after I filled the bath and was able to take a breather with the pain relief of the warm water and worship with the music in my earbud.

7:30ish am

I felt like I needed to move, so I knelt in the tub and labored until my body started to push on it's own.

8:00ish am

After checking myself few times, it was clear to me that baby wasn't moving down in this position. So I moved out of the tub. I walked to the side of my bed and stood. Emily was monitoring the baby with a Doppler, so I was free to move as I needed to. He always sounded great!

8:26 am

After several pushes, his head slowly crowned and was finally out! Emily could see he was having trouble rotating to get his shoulders out, so she suggested I get on hands and knees and within a few seconds she was able to turn baby's shoulders to help him out. As she was assisting us, before he was out, she gently said, "Your baby is going to need a little help when it's born."

8:28 am

Baby arrived earthside. He was floppy and not breathing. Emily unwrapped his cord from around both his body and his neck and immediately began rescue breaths and stimulation. This continued for about a minute and a half, with Emily reassuring us the entire time: "He's going to be ok. He just needs a little help. Look, he's pink. He's perfusing well. He's going to be ok. Come-on baby, are you gonna do it? That's ok, we'll help you. You're going to be ok." ....... until we heard the most amazing little cry. 😭

I've cried so many times since that day, thinking about how scary that should have been, but there was a peace in the room. A peace I'd prayed for the last few weeks of my pregnancy.

In that moment, as I asked the Lord to put breath into my baby, I KNEW he was going to be ok.

You know how certain words people say to you get burned in your brain? When I had Scarlett in the hospital, 10 years ago, the medical team whisked her off to give her rescue breaths. Then when they returned her to me, they said, "See, that's why we have babies in the hospital!"

I was seen as a pain to the staff there, because I had refused a lot of interventions, as I was striving for a natural birth.

This time, Emily handed me my baby and said, "You did hard things Meagan." Those words were so healing. Birthing an 11 lb 4 oz baby was absolutely the hardest thing I'd ever done!

My last two births I hemorrhaged immediately after delivery, so prior to this birth, Emily and I talked a lot about a plan for preventing and/or correcting this. I worked hard on developing a healthy blood volume in pregnancy. We also discussed options for management if it was needed. We discussed all of the options and she let me decide, knowing we would discuss it again in the moments, if it happened again.

I ended up choosing to plan to have her close, monitoring my fundus and bleeding, watching me closely, as indicated and needed. When I did show the first signs of heavy bleeding, I decided to go ahead and take an anti-hemorrhagic medicine right away. That is what felt best to me, after being educated on all of my options. Not long after, the placenta delivered beautifully with no further bleeding!

I spent the next week in/around my bed, getting to know my baby, nursing, sleeping, and healing. My mom and sister were there every day, watering my garden, doing dishes, and keeping my house tidy. Friends from church brought us meals and my chiropractor and friend Dr. Joshua Steinke stopped by to adjust the whole family and pray over us. They all are such a blessing! ❤️

There are many misconceptions about home birth. Certified midwives do carry medication and resuscitation equipment. They are highly trained and skilled medical professionals. The key is finding a midwife you trust.