Why I chose *here* to labor with my baby

Happy bday to my little boy, and (finally) the birth story for you

This is where I labored outdoors last summer. It embodies all the paradoxes of a powerful childbirth. Amazing it’s been over a year ago already!

I chose this place to labor because it makes me feel good, while embodying all the paradoxes of a powerful childbirth:

flowing free and wild; contained by the safety of the banks

electrically energizing; auditory soothing

full of ancestral history; unique to this day

My family was with me, including my mom. As the surges would crest, she’d look at me with sideways laughter, “Daughter, shouldn’t you be heading home now?”

“Not yet, Momma,” I’d reply. “I still need one more swim.”

A happy birth story for a lucky mama and handsome baby boy

It was July, hot, bright and sunny. I had attended 2 home births as a doula earlier in the year (well, one I walked through the door to hear the baby’s cries, right at the pinkening dawn of a late winter morning). I was grateful my baby was coming in the summer, and that I had had plenty of time to get ready.

When labor started, I knew I wanted to be at the river. It was perfect.

Perfect for… floating in the water to help baby find his ideal position above my pelvic inlet… gathering anti-inflammatory electrons…. soaking up infrared and UV light… building up the neurotransmitter dopamine to strengthen my muscles for work… creating the hormone serotonin to convert to melatonin in the evening.

On this particular day, we were blessed with the rare sight of a blue heron as we arrived—surely a good sign!

Because of my research, I knew the circadian switch from serotonin to melatonin in the evening would tell my uterus when it was time for serious work.

Until then, under the bright sun, I luxuriated in Nature’s warm, safe, patient, optimistic arms.

With this, my fourth baby, I knew he wouldn’t come in the day, so even as my labor progresses, we stayed by the river’s edge. I remember enjoying my silent knowing it would be my last pregnant swim of the summer. I’d be in my postpartum nest after the baby came.

Not only was I secure in my labor process from the inside, I knew my midwife and doulas were on call for me and the VitaClay was working up a bone broth soup for dinner back at home.

We had all worked hard to have the right conditions that allowed me to spend this glowy early labor by the river.

Nourishment for birth

Something I wish I had better understood for my first 3 pregnancies is eating is a full-time job in pregnancy. I had heard the requirements, but they seemed so impossible. This time around, I ate. I really ate. This really fueled up my reserves, not only of “energy,” but also of hormones. Hormones are all either made from protein or fat.

This was my minimum checklist of super-foods I tried to eat every day of my pregnancy:

Animal protein x 4 servings

Eggs x 3

Raw or fermented veggie x 2 servings

Cooked veggie x 1 serving

Vitamin C foods x 2 servings

Raw or fermented dairy x 2 servings (I can tolerate this, not everyone can)

Seaweed to taste (a half sheet of nori plus these flakes on meals, to taste, and others like wakame, dulse, kombu and arame)

Healthy fats to taste (for me, this included grassfed butter, ghee, coconut oil, beef tallow, lamb tallow, and small amounts of lard, extra virgin olive oil, and extra virgin sesame oil)

Other proteins to taste

Trace minerals, magnesium, DHA, desiccated liver, collagen and gelatin to taste

This was based off a modified-for-me version of the Brewer Pregnancy Diet. Even though I tend to make pretty good food choices, I have a hard time eating enough.

Eating perfect ingredients in an insufficient quantity is a common mistake people who eat “healthy” make—especially in pregnancy.

My midwife and I discovered this was leading to my blood sugar plummeting in the wee hours of the morning.

This blood sugar drop before waking would lead to a super high spike when I would test my fasting blood sugar before breakfast.

Before we figured out it was from not eating enough, I was severely limiting carbs to try to fix the problem…

…But maybe all this diet stuff would be better for another post. Reply to this post if you’d like to hear more about pregnancy nutrition from me.

I’m also happy to do consultations (link at the bottom of the post).

As I had prepared so well, by the time my labor was happening, I was feeling very good and confident.

My blood pressure had stopped creeping up and my blood sugar was fairly well regulated.

Regulations for home birth in Oregon care A LOT about what those values are, and since the midwife I chose is licensed with the State, I knew I needed to stay within the guidelines for her to continue feeling safe in turn with supporting me and I was grateful we were able to figure out together what was going on.

The local midwife I chose likes births to be fun. This was perfect, because in many ways, this was a redemption birth. I found her support in dreaming up my perfect birth so helpful and it all worked out so beautifully, as you will read.

I also had the virtual support of Margo from Indie Birth, and Katie, Jess, and Martha (plus all my cohort friends!) from Doula Training Center backing me up with good cheer, good wishes, and trust in me and my birth process.

Of course, you can’t know if you will have a redemption birth until after the fact.

And it’s not really like any previous experiences are redeemed… but this was one of the phrases that kept popping up through my pregnancy. I’d love to hear if you know of a better way to describe an easy pregnancy/birth/postpartum that follows a difficult one.

Once I was saturated with the good river vibrations, my walking staff made the perfect companion to trek homewards for dinner and a checkin with my midwife.

Here’s where I shared about my appreciation for this overlooked labor tool:

My midwife was, as always, a great companion that late afternoon. She even helped me with a last round of tidying! Before giving birth, I always want to get things buttoned down. Dishes washed, floors well-swept, that kind of thing.

After dinner, we timed a few contractions and they were so gentle and easy, we agreed it was still early labor. She went home to have her own meal, and I went upstairs to have a nap and get ready.

My healthy baby boy arrived 20 contractions later!

1: tried to lay down and realized I wasn’t going to be able to sleep after all

2-9: did the miles circuit for 3 contractions per position (https://www.milescircuit.com/the-circuit.html) to bring baby into a good position for birthing

10-11: on the pot (mantra: baby, this pressure is bringing us closer to meeting - Thank you to Maryn Green for these mantras for birth)

12: face-first into bed (this is the only contraction I shied away from, and I consciously brought myself back into the labor process when it faded)

13: upright looking out window and began singing (mantra: make only beautiful noises—my oldest daughter had read that in one of my birth books and had been reminding me of this recommendation throughout my end-of-pregnancy aches and pains 😂)

14: deep squat while talking to husband (he texted the midwife after this conversation) - at this point, I was planning to ask him to run a bath when he got back (LOL)

15: pacing and tried to do one last round of “dip the hip” (spinning babies exercise that I used instead of lunges or curb walking in my miles circuit: https://www.spinningbabies.com/pregnancy-birth/techniques/other-techniques/do-the-hip/)… ended up on my knees feeling baby coming down the birth canal

16: crowning with water bag intact

17: put one leg up into a runner's pose knowing this would help me catch the baby, and grabbed a quilt off of the bed to put under me… I held back from pushing, just letting my body and gravity find their equilibrium

18: head out

19: shoulders and body out, my husband came back upstairs, bringing the older children dumping a bag of towels all around me (since the birth waters had spilled all at once, everything was very wet!)

pause: I sat down for a moment on the pile of quilt and towels and birth waters to greet baby and feel him awaken to life in the air

20: back to squatting as the placenta wanted to come what felt almost immediately (all but my first placenta has come quickly—I think my first did, too, but I didn’t know to stand up and let it come down with gravity then so my first one sat at the inlet of my uterus for about an hour—my first birth happened before my first midwife could arrive, too. Highly recommend Indie Birth’s course about placenta birth, which you can purchase from inside their Mighty Network)

My husband called our midwife and she came back—hardly more than an hour after she had left. He also called the friends who had agreed to act as doulas for us.

Under a cozy blanket of red light, we all celebrated until midnight (white light only for briefly checking vitals), then I fell asleep with peace and triumph, tucked safely with my baby in our futon bed.

Here’s what I think could be useful in this birth story of mine for other families and settings:

• labor in a woman with a healthy circadian rhythm tends to begin with peak melatonin overnight or in the early morning¹

• since I hadn’t gone into hard labor by mid-morning, I predicted I would be in early labor through the day because I have had this pattern with all but one of my babies (my one hospital labor started at night and lasted through several days, no doubt from the difficulties of that environment - light, emfs, strangers)

• melatonin regulates the contractility of uterine muscle²

• melatonin is also a pain regulator³

• if I had felt the need to rush things along, instead of going for outdoor breakfast around dawn, I might have instead created a dark, warm, moody cave to make love, gyrate, moan and groan baby into the birth canal

• serotonin itself, aside from being melatonin’s precursor, is thought to be what gives women their transcendental and psychedelic experiences in labor, which is why I wanted sunlight, bone broth, breath work and rhythmic motions of swimming and hiking to be part of my labor activities

• sunlight increases dopamine receptors⁴, while dopamine increases frequency of contractions in spontaneous labor⁵

• stalled labor is associated with inflammation and oxidative stress⁶, which is why I wanted to gather plenty of anti-inflammatory electrons⁷ from Nature during the long part of my labor

It’s a joy, this year, to introduce my baby to the same river.

Have you labored in Nature, or would you like to? I’d love to hear about it in the comments:

QUANTUM BIRTH PLANNING WITH NIKKO

Most birth professionals don’t know the deep connections we need to Nature—yes, Nature itself—in order to have an easy, “natural” childbirth.

I have studied birth for the past 17 years, supporting myself as well as clients through this special rite of passage.

By integrating wisdom from circadian and quantum biology, it’s possible to make tangible improvements to the labor and birth experience.

When you schedule a virtual doula visit with me for birth planning, we will spend 90 minutes working through how you intend to support not only your physical, but also mental, emotional and spiritual capacities through childbirth.

Schedule a free meet & greet to learn more, or, if you are ready to book now, you are welcome to find a time on my Calendly:

I look forward to meeting you!

1. Reiter, R. J., Tan, D. X., Korkmaz, A., & Rosales-Corral, S. A. (2014). Melatonin and stable circadian rhythms optimize maternal, placental and fetal physiology. Human reproduction update, 20(2), 293–307. https://doi.org/10.1093/humupd/dmt054

2. Sharkey, J. T., Puttaramu, R., Word, R. A., & Olcese, J. (2009). Melatonin synergizes with oxytocin to enhance contractility of human myometrial smooth muscle cells. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, 94(2), 421–427. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2008-1723

3. Xie, S., Fan, W., He, H., & Huang, F. (2020). Role of Melatonin in the Regulation of Pain. Journal of pain research, 13, 331–343. https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S228577

4. Tsai, H. Y., Chen, K. C., Yang, Y. K., Chen, P. S., Yeh, T. L., Chiu, N. T., & Lee, I. H. (2011). Sunshine-exposure variation of human striatal dopamine D(2)/D(3) receptor availability in healthy volunteers. Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry, 35(1), 107–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2010.09.014

5. Urban, J., Radwan, J., Laudański, T., & Akerlund, M. (1982). Dopamine influence on human uterine activity at term pregnancy. British journal of obstetrics and gynaecology, 89(6), 451–455. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0528.1982.tb03635.x

6. Mittal, P., Romero, R., Tarca, A. L., Draghici, S., Nhan-Chang, C. L., Chaiworapongsa, T., Hotra, J., Gomez, R., Kusanovic, J. P., Lee, D. C., Kim, C. J., & Hassan, S. S. (2011). A molecular signature of an arrest of descent in human parturition. American journal of obstetrics and gynecology, 204(2), 177.e15–177.e1.77E33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2010.09.025

7. Oschman J. L. (2007). Can electrons act as antioxidants? A review and commentary. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 13(9), 955–967. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2007.7048