Explosive birth

The entire baby burst through my body in one motion.

Birth is supposed to contain built-in elements of self control. Many first-time birthers complain that their birth was complicated because baby’s head would move forward in a “2 steps forward, 1 step back” pattern. That’s actually perfect. Moving through the birth canal in that fashion allows the mother’s birth canal to open up slowly and smoothly, reducing the chances of injury to her body.

In my explosive birth, there was nothing controlled. The baby’s head appeared at the vaginal opening. I was able to take a little breath while looking in the mirror, feel a little comforted that the head was, indeed, the first body part to greet us, and within seconds we greeted the rest of her.

In normal births also, once the baby’s head passes, it sits there at the opening and the mother’s body rests for a minute before the baby’s shoulders come through one at a time. The nice thing about this is that the head is the largest thing to pass through and that once the shoulders are through, the rest of the baby slides out gently.

Not for this child. The same fluid instant that brought forth her head (face up and top-first instead of crown) also brought forth her shoulders; not one at a time, but together. Instead of squirming through the little cavern, she shot out of a rocket. Instead of pausing after the head was born, she paused with her waist and elbows suspended at my vaginal opening.

I untangled the cord from over her shoulder, and seconds later, my body gently allowed her bottom half to come through.

Each of her shoulders left their signature, engraved on the sides of my vagina.

The technical terminology was that I had a precipitous labor (less than 3 hours) followed by a precipitous birth. The prognosis is good. Especially since I’ll never be having another.

Babies #2, 5 and 6 were all precipitous labors. Babies #2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were all precipitous births. Babies #1 and 6 were Posterior.