While at dinner with my son Cameron and my mother, my water broke at approximately 7:30 p.m. We quickly got our food to go and headed for home. Contractions started immediately and were getting intense and powerful. After getting home and settled, we called the midwife and our doula and they came right over. Around 8 pm, we started timing contractions and they were coming every 2-3 minutes. Very soon I noticed they were becoming stronger and were requiring much more of my attention.

I got into the labor tub and instantly noticed a huge difference. The water soothed my aching back and tummy. Much of the rest of the birth was a blur until I remember a nice 5-10 minute break. I wondered if this might be my labor switching to second stage, as I had started ot notice quite a bit of pressure and little bit of urge to push coming along. I was right and soon after my break, I began having more expulsive type contractions. After a heat wave and a little vomiting, I began pushing with my very strong contractions. I began to feel the baby's head descending. With the help of my husband, mom, doula and midwife, I finally pushed out Foster Davis Morrill at 9:54 pm.

My husband and son and the incredibly supportive women at my birth made all of this possible for me to do. Their strength, encouragement and continuous support helped me to allow this incredibly fast and intense labor take over and have a healthy baby boy.

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