I Was in Labor for THREE Days - My Birth Story (Season Finale!)

As we wrap up this incredible first season, I’m excited to share something deeply personal and close to my heart: my birth story. This journey into motherhood has been transformative in ways I couldn’t have imagined, and I’m honored to take you behind the scenes of one of the most defining moments of my life.

In this episode, I’m opening up about:
✨ The emotions and mindset leading up to labor and delivery
✨ What went according to "plan" and what didn’t (because God does His own thing)
✨ The role my support team played in creating a positive experience

Whether you’re preparing for your own journey, reflecting on your birth experiences, or supporting a loved one, this episode is a reminder of the strength and beauty we carry as women—and the importance of feeling supported every step of the way.

Watch the vlog on YouTube here! 

*note: I experienced prodromal labor, which is common but not the typical length of labor. Have you ever heard of or experienced it?

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If my story resonates with you, I’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts, experiences, or questions by sending me a DM or tagging me on social media

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Planning for pregnancy, birth, or postpartum? Don’t miss my free resources, "Trying to Conceive 7-Day Prayer Journal " and "The Doula Interview Guide", to help you navigate your journey with confidence and peace of mind. 

Christian Hypnobirthing App & Classes: Click here

Thank you for joining me this season and for being part of this amazing community. Your support means the wo

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If motherhood is in your future, your preparation starts now!

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Transcript

Yeah, three days so from Sunday to 8:36 AM on Wednesday I was in labor. It's time. It's time that I tell my birth story. I'm nine months postpartum. and I'm ready. Hello, beautiful people, welcome to Birthing and Faith, the podcast for Black Christian women. My name is Imani Fitch. I am your host today. and every day. Um, but this is actually my season finale episode and I'm so grateful to have gotten through the first season of my first podcast and I appreciate everyone that has listened so far and everyone who will listen in the future. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. um but yes, on today's episode, I wanted to round off this season with my first story. Birth stories are so important to me. One of the main reasons why I got into birth work and um decided on the ways that I wanted to have my birth as the first time mom. was because I watched birth videos, um all different types of birth videos, but especially positive birth videos. during my pregnancy, that was one of the main things that I did to keep a positive vision in my mind of what I desired and what I prayed for. And so, um, on that note, I just wanted to give you all a backstory. I have notes, so you'll see my phone here as as you may or may not know, I became pregnant in July 2023 at the same time, my mom had a major surgery to remove cancer from her body. And so, my pregnancy was very, very enjoyable physically, but emotionally, and mentally, I was I was really not in tune with my pregnancy as much as I would have liked to be. Two months before, I had my baby, my mom passed away, and so that meant that a lot of my preparation that I had originally planned to do way back over the years. um I wasn't able to really dive in as much as I wanted to, so I had to really focus on a few things. um that was like being physically um active on a regular basis, and my mindset, um so I used a Christian hypobirthing app and I loved it. love, love, love it. I highly recommend it to anybody. I will bleng the information and the description and there's also an affiliate code if you are interested in their childbirth education class. but um I use the Christian hypnot birthing app for mindset and meditation and and affirmations. I also wrote my own affirmations and um and I worked on my breathing. So, those are the main ways that I prepared. I had a dull and I did a chop of education class because I had a birth on her birth and if you've never had a birth in her first, they require their childbirth education class, um and despite being a dull myself, a child breakth educator and a registered nurse that is labor and delivery years, I still took all the typical measures because it was my first baby. So, with all that to say, I did not have any fear going into labor. I will say that I had apprehensions. I just really wasn't sure if I was gonna be able to have a natural birth. That was my main thing. I didn't know if I was gonna be able to be on medicated. You already don't know 100% if you will be a candidate for the birth center's birth. Like if you have a medical issue that they are not qualified to like to manage like gial diabetes or um preclampsia, then you would have to transfer to a hospital, but I really was not sure if if I had qualified for my birth or birth, but I was I going to mentally be able to handle it? Um, and so, yeah, those were my honest apprehensions going going into Park throughout my pregnancy and so I went into labor on I'm gonna say this flat out. I was in labor for three days. From the beginning, my early labor contraction started to when I had my baby was three days. So let's get into it. Basically, my contraction started on a Sunday. You know, I was um I was 39 weeks. I think I was 39 weeks and one day, and so my due date was on the 30th, I actually did not want to have my baby on my due date or before, um, because I have a lot of March birthdays in my life. and I just felt like it's too much. I wanted my daughter to be born in April. I was okay with, like, going past my due date. So when I started having contractions, I was like in disbelief. The night before, so Saturday night, we me and my husband, we went to a birthday dinner for my friend. It was like a really fun time. It was the first time in a while that I had been out with friends and just laughing and celebrating. and so I really think that the accident oxytosin from that night affected my labor, and so I Sunday when I was at church, I have been having Brax and eggs for months. um I tried to get out of jury duty at eight weeks, trying to say I had Braxton Hicks. I was having contractions, but they weren't having that. Um, but yeah, I was having Braxton Hicks and I told my best friend at church that felt like they were just really consistent and that it might be labor and my best friend was like, are you keeping track of them? And I was like, no, like, I'm not worried about it, I'm not in labor. So I went about my day. That day, my sister and I had plans to go to lunch and so at the same time, I felt like I was not feeling very moved as normal and being a nurse like, mm mm. that's something I don't play about. So I called up the midwife on call and I said like, hey, this is what's going on. is it cool if I come to get a check after I finish eating? Because of course, it wouldn't be hydrated and fed before you get on the monitor to make sure that it's not that that's causing the baby to you know, not move as much. Um, but she was like, yeah, of course, like, whenever you're done, let me know, and I'll head there, I meet you. So, I said IV eight, we had we had lunch and then she drove me to the birth center and my husband met us there. And so I would get on the monitor and um I can see that I'm having contractions, like they're showing up. So I'm really excited and I'm like, you guys, I'm I'm in labor. Um, but I wasn't getting like you know, too excited, but I just was like, wow, this is actually happening. It's funny though, at the same time, someone was in labor. and we could hear her screaming and that, like, I already know the sounds of flavor, because that probably would have scared me, but she was like, had to be pushing or really close to pushing, so I prayed for her because I just know that that's a whole nother beast. So, um, yeah, I on the monitor, um it was showing that I was dehydrated, so my midwife um gave me a bolis about a liter of fluids at a rapid rate, and so that really helped baby's heartbeat come up. baby started moving again, and um it was all normal, told me to go home, of course, and Monday, I was feeling crampy, like, for my period, I do get cramps and I would say that they're about five out of 10 on the scale of pain. So, my my period cramps are pretty painful. um, but these these were like a three, um, these contractions, but they were like low in my belly and they were crampy and I was having some little looseoops. and I was like, okay. these are some signs, but the crazy thing is that Monday was also my youngest sister's birthday and her grandma's birthday. So I was like, a't no way. My my biggest is being born on the day like that would be crazy. And if it was a girl, that would be crazy. So, um, I'm just chilling. My sister's with me, my husband's with me, we're just chilling. I started to feel like resting was getting hard. So I called my doula and said, hey, like, um feeling what I believe is early contraction cramps, can you come? And I just want to her tens machine to be honest. like, the tens machine, I knew it was gonna like, help me feel distracted from the discomfort of these little cramps. And so she came over, she booked the time machine on me and I was like, hey, you know, you can go. I'm just gonna go to sleep. And she was like, no, I'm I'm gonna stay around, so I took a nap. and she um she hung out and and I woke up, we started to, you know, get to it as far as trying to keep the progression of labor. I remember that we we walked, did herb walking, um I did squats. I was on the um the birthball. You put the um my pumps on me. Y'all, I have set up a breast from for so many women before in the hospital. I I know how to use them, but I didn't know how to use them. I didn't know how to use them all myself and I didn't know what the numbers were for. I didn't realize that I didn't know what I was doing. If that makes sense? Like I just didn't know how to do it for myself. So I'm d talk me through all that and um yeah, the whole point was to just get these contractions to come longer and stronger. During that time, we also put together my SIPA herbs. um she has a whole, like herb box that she like she knows what each one is score. Like if you're in low key crunchy, she's the duel it for you. um and then we also use some Clary Sage.ar Sage is an essential oil that, like, we use a massage oil or you smell it and inhale it, it helps to bring on contraction. So I we have my husband give me a belly massage with the clarie sage oil. That was really nice. Yeah, that was just it was like a lo slow, like casual, but semiactive day um on and the Monday night, we were on the couch just again, chilling, trying to keep that oxytocin flowing, and we watched the show on Netflix called "ove on the spectrum, and we really like that show. It's just a feel good show, but I think around 10 or 11, I started to, like, get tired again, so I went up to sleep. My duel list just stayed on the couch, she said, hey, I'm here. She was so certain that baby was coming that night. and when I started to lay down, I think I was able to sleep for like an hour and then the contraction started to intensify. and they were really intense when I was laying down. They weren't really sporadic, but they weren't regular. It was weird. And then I was using my again, like Christian had no birthing app and just listening to those um affirmations and and breathing tracks. I was on the toilet sometimes, just trying to, um cope honestly with the contractions. I would say that they were I could do six seven add ten, so at that point, I wanted to call the midwife and go in just to see what was going on. So I think it was like 5 AM, we call and the midwife is like,eah, come on in, I'll meet you there. We go on the monitor, to get an NST, maybe it looks good. I am contracting. So then, uh the midwife ask if I wanna have a surgical check. So I note, and this is the beauty of a birth center. If you've never heard of or heard about a birth of birth, there is so much, um power in, like, autonomy that is placed on the mother and I personally love that and I desire that. like, but my midw wife asked me, do you want a cervical check? and I say yes, she said, do you want to know? And originally my plan was not to know, because I just felt like it would it wouldn't be helpful for me mentally. but this time, I felt like there were decisions in the balance, so I said I wanted to know, and I was one centimeter. I I I I sat up. it was like a deep breath and I said, well, okay, if if I'm only one centimeter, I'm gonna need something. And when I said I'm gonna need something, cause obviously I'm aiverse center, I'm not getting at a girl, I'm not planning to get a girl, um, but there are are pain options in in a birth center. um, such as, um nitrous oxide or gas in area, you might call it, um, but there's also something called therapeutic breasts, which is a mut a shot in your muscle, uh, it' a combination of medications that give especially in early labor that give really good um pain relief and until you go to sleep, it can be given in active labor, but it's just not as effective. It kind of just makes you feel disconnected. kind of like what nitrous oxide, that heady feeling, but it doesn't yeah, it just works the best in in early labor, so I said, let's let's let me just get that in in and let me get on, because it was around 7 in the morning. I didn't wanna have to come back in the middle of the day in Atlanta traffic. So um she gave me the shot and she also talks me about other forms of relief, like the chiropractor or the massage therapist. I was just like, that's too much variability for possibly having to still come back and get a shot. So, I'm gonna go with the shot. Um, and I'm telling you, by the time I got in the car, I was feeling it and I was I was comfortable. I was very comfortable, so I went home and I knocked out. I was asleep. I still woke up and went to the bathroom and was drinking water doing that time, but for the most part, I was asleep, and I was so grateful. So around three, I woke up and I was a little groggy, but I was up and my sister had bought some breakfast from my favorite place and I eat my French toast and just stilling with my family, still waiting for the contractions to progress. They have really fizzled out for the most part. I was not uncomfortable, truly out feeling, like little cramps, but they weren't they weren't nothing. They even started to come and, yeah, like I was just trying to gain positions, do things to help bring the baby come. I was on off wars a lie on the ball, um, doing some lunges and some squats, um, and watching more love on the spectrum, just some feel good shows, and I truly was exhausted, like, one thing about labor that people don't talk about is how much your body is doing without you physically doing it. And so it's exhausting, very um and that's gonna be another conversation that we have to have about this whole not eating and labor is ridiculous. Like how can you run a marathon without any fuel? Anyway? I had it up to bed around 10 o'clock and I again, I think I rested about two hours and the contraction started to pick up again around 11:30, they were they were coming, and I think around midnight, I couldn't I couldn't lay down anymore. It was one contraction that came like, it was strong, it was so strong. I like rolled out of my bed onto all fours and like screamd help me. I looked at my husband and he was asleep eating did not hear me, so I like crawled. I crawled to the bathroom and I got on the toilet and I just sat there on the valuation station, um backwards on the toilet, put a pillow on the top of the toilet thing and put my head down and just let the contraction come. I know from my training, the toilet is somewhere that I recommend like my my clients. um try to tell my patients like, hey, sit on the toilet to help these the the baby come down so you you can dilate. And that was my goal. And so I was on the toilet for like, maybe I don't know. I think it was on the toilet for like an hour, but it's funny because our toilet seat was broken and I I had bought another one that I didn't we didn't put it on. So in the middle of the night, I I woke my husband up and I said, you need to change the toilet seat. And he was like, are you serious? Like, in the middle of the night? I said, absolutely, yes. So I went to the guest bathroom and then came back into and got right back in my seat and I would say it was around yeah, it was around three when I told him call call my dull, like, I need her here, I need help. Um, he was he was providing me with like, hip squeezes, hip squeezes where everything. but it was just tough. for me. I needed more than just hip squeezes, I needed the full support, and I needed to not be the one thinking about what I needed. So she came and I was like, I had moved from the toilet to our bedroom and she was trying so hard. It's funny how how the douo of the n nurses, like the worst patient and she would ask me, like,ey, I think you should do this position. I was like, no, can't do it. But honestly, my so the contractions at this point were they were very frequent and very intense and very long. They were like a minute and a half to two minutes long, every contraction coming like from every three to seven minutes. like, I was not getting a break. By the time I think it was like five or six, I I was like, uhuh. I was coping, but I was at the point where I was like, this is labor. Like, this is real labor and it was to the point where I was really, really worried about traffic for the drive to the birth center. And one thing I was scared of, I know I mentioned that I had no fear, but I had no fear of birth, right? I I I had fear about other things. So one of the things I was afraid of was the drive, like how I would endure with no hip squeezes, no ability to change my position in the car. And so I called the midwife on call, and I was like, hey, can I come in? Basically, or this is this seems like real life. They get everything together in the car again., and I'm just like,ord, please help me. Please help me on this commute because I I don't know what I'm do. I don't know how I'm going to cope because breathing is already just hard enough. And so I put on my Christian hypnot birthing tracks in my AirPods and I got in the car. It took 20 minutes to get there. Let me tell you, it was like I only felt really contractions the whole ride. I don't know if I had more than that, but that was all I felt and they were not bad. They were like a three out of ten, I I just I could breathe through them. I am so grateful to God that is one of my biggest, like memories from that time is how my big one of my big fears was pacified in, like, in real time. um so we get to the first center and slowly make it in and um another fear I had was getting into getting there, getting checked and then being told that I was not in labor and that, you know, at that point I was like, if in my mind I was like, if I'm not in labor, take me to Brady, take me to Grady so I can get neidural as I'm out of that series. In my mind, I had that made up, so we go to triage and um the Midwife, like, puts me on the monitor again. Baby's looking good and I am tolerating it. uh, the contractions aren' definitely showing up. She asked me if I wanna be checked I said yes, she asked me if you wanna know, and I I said again, like, I need to know, I have decisions to make based on what my what I'm what my d violation is. And so when she said I was five, I was like so can't I stay? I was so like, let me be sure that I'm saying. I don't know. I used to work at this birth center, so it's funny that I could't remember, like, like how what the cut off was for admit admission or or not, um, and she was like, yes, yes, but we're gonna get the room ready for you. Um, and it was really special because this is the same midwife that was there on Sunday, um when I went and got fluids and she also was one of the midwives that cared for me when I had a miscarriage and so this was my rainbow baby and she has been there for me um in so many capacities when we work together, we had some amazing births together and so if it was like such divine appointment that she would be there for me as I was being admitted for labor and the person who was empty. There are three rooms, um water, earth and fire. I went water, so I got my pig and I I'm just I was so grateful for all these like this little yeses. I felt like this were little yeses from God and I was just really grateful. um so we get in the room and um I'm so uncomfortable, so so so uncomfortable. um everyone is tired. My sister is like, I don't even know how she made it to the person, and she was so tired, but I give you I'm telling you my my husband and my dulo worked over time. overtime to help me in my in my time of need., they were doing hip squeezes like nobody's business, tagteening on them, too. But um, yeah, so I went in the shower, like, let the hot water just come all over me, um, so that I can, you know, continue to progress, stay upright and um I also needed another bolus of fluids because I had been throwing up and um using the bathroom, not being able to drink as much, so I was dehydrated. so I had another bolus of fluids and then I also had to get antibiotics because, um my I was Gus positive. So by that time, I think it was about 6:30 and I was in a shower, they gave me the andibiotics to my IV, took the IV out, another great benefit of birth center, um, but, um, I was in the shower and it felt if I really good, it felt better, but then I just felt this u, this feeling I had to I had to drop down. And I knew that urge was like, that urge to push and I squatted and I was so scared to squat because I did not want to get stuck there and have the baby in the shower. Um, nothing wrong. I you know, I'd have my baby wherever. Um I was ultimately open, but I really wanted a waterird. and so when I squatted down, I was just like I told my duel it, call the midwife, call the midwife. like, I felt after the push. So she came in and she was like, we can get the a tub ready. and I was like, yes, please get the tub ready. so when they were getting they started filling the tub and she asked at one time my sury checked again, just to see where I was, still active labor is this transition? So I said, yeah, that's fine. I got I slowly made it to the bed and she checked my cervix. I was nine and a half, seven years. Like my active label was so short compared to the early labor. So, yeah, I came in at five and was in at hour and a half. I was nine and a half centimeters. So I got in the tub and even that was just a bizarre feeling. I felt so much better, but it was just it was weird. I remember I got in the water and I was like, ooh. I think I I think my water broke. I think my water broke. Um, and so they came in when I out on the baby, but I labored in the tub and my husband got in. I was so grateful that he wanted to get in the water because that was my desire. He was like right behind me, um holding me up and encouraging me, massaging me, and then my duel it was outside the tub doing, um, hip squeezes sometimes, or giving me water, whatever, my sister was in charge of, uh, reading off my affirmations and just praying over me, she was in charge of the playlist and set an atmosphere, and then my cousin, my little cousin, she was both the Spellman and she was to be OBGYN. so I said, I I really want you to be at my birth if you can, um, because I'm just like, if you wanna be OBGYM, but you've never seen a natural untouched birth, like, no, you have to see it, if you can, so, um, yeah, she came in and she was in charge of, like, getting the footage with my camera or my phone, whatever. um, and so I had like the dream team with me. I definitely was in transition and I definitely had the urge to push, but it was the it was the weirdest feeling. It just did not feel good. I would hear a lot of people say they liked pushing because it felt like something that they could actually control and they were doing. But for me, it just felt like I had a bowling ball in my belly and I had to push it down. Like it just didn't it didn't compute. It didn't make sense. I so I was just I all my techniques and my pushing videos that I had watched, like all the practice I even did went out the window and I was just pushing. I pushed on and off for probably like a hour. It wasn't like continuous. it was just as I felt the urge as I felt the contractions, by the time, like I yeah, like at that time, it was actually shift change for my midwife, but she stayed so I had two midwives with me instead of like a midwife and a nurse. um, like usual, so, yeah, I'm I'm going through it, like, it's amazing how the body in the mind forgets because at this point right now, I do not remember how hard it was, how tough it was like, and honestly, I'm at nine months postpartum, I would say that post early postpartum newborn pain was harder to me than labor. I don't know. I don't know if that's true or that or I just forgot. Yeah, I was pushing and I noticed when the midwife from like, just casually like, yeah, good job, you know, giving me affirmations to like getting stuff ready. So I knew I was close, but I also was like I was going through it. There was no point I looked at them midwife, and I'm just like, help me. And she was like, donate your're doing fine, keep keep doing you're doing it. I felt crazy, but it's just it's laborland, it's the reality of of labor, but yeah, I I was fishing and I thought I was like, oh, I'm so close. like I'm not gonna I can't believe I'm not feeling really gonna fire. two minutes later, I felt Iring the fire. That was that was wild. Um, but it was it was all manageable, like I was just breathing and and giving it my all, like, I'm still in awe of of the whole process. Um, but they're then they're given time like I was pushing and I hear that was the head and the next contractor your baby's gonna be born and I just pushed and my baby came out into my hand, so fast and I was getting out like my eyes were bugged out, and I was just like I did it. I'm telling y'all, I didn't fully comprehend if I was gonna be able to do it. I'm my advocate for a natural birth, I'm an advocate for birth center and home birth and um the beauty of birth, um, I'm medicated. Like I know women can do it, but I didn't know if I could do them. And when I did, I was just praising God, I was just spunned. and, um, like my one of my favorite worship songs he on afterwards it like, it was a beautiful time, beautiful, beautiful time. I'm so grateful, and we didn't know the gender until I was born, and so it was felt like 10 minutes, but I think like two, three minutes later and we like we looked and we we we had a girl.. girl? And girls. It the girl? And it was honestly, like it was a birth of her, but it's also the a birth of me in a new way. Like, I couldn't believe I did that. Yeah, three days, so from Sunday to 8:3036 AM. on Wednesday, I was in labor, and that's my vary. I am literally doing all that that happened. I am b ungrateful for the experience, the positive pregnancy, the positive birth experience with my rainbow baby in the midst of the hardest season of my life, um so much fear of even when my baby survive, um experiencing miscarriage in the past and three years of trying to conceive and and wrestling with these fertility issues or, like, doubting the wondering if having a baby like from my body is even what God desires for my life and for our family, um, wrestling through doubts and uncertainty and, um, working really, really hard to have hope day after day after day, just giving it up to God every single day, every single moment, like, to experience his grace like that and birth was so beautiful and so so redemptive, although it was really hard work, it showed me so much about myself, um that I don't just talk to talk, I can walk the walk, um, which is funny because one of them, like, are my husband and I are ongoing jokes as how much I can just, you know, talk a big game pretty much, um and so, like, yeah, I'm so grateful. And so thank you for um being interested and invested in and not only my journey, but like, also, I hope that this springs encouragement and hope to even anyone listening who may want to experience a birth this way, um and never even knew about it. So as far as birthing and faith goes season two will be coming out in a month. So, go ahead and subscribe or follow, you will definitely wanna be notified or our first episode of season two, you definitely wanna be notified of that. In the meantime, we go ahead and follow me and check us out on TikTok and Instagram at confident care for a go. I would love to hear what y'all would like to hear about in the next season come. I already have interviews scheduled with amazing birthworkers, amazing women who are giving their testimony and birth stories, um of the things that they have walked through because pregnancy and postpartum even it's not a cake walk. We all have things that go through and so there will definitely be interviews coming out about that, and then I will also be talking more about building your birth team and bringing you solo shows with Q&As and um bringing out more information about these professionals who are there to help you prepare for birth and succeed in postpartum. So I am really excited about the next season and I hope you all will enjoy it as well. And I also have some resources, some free resources for any woman who are trying to conceive I have a seven day prayer journal that is bir out of my trying to conceive journey and how I really walked through it with the Lord and so, if you're interested in that, check out my website, and I also have my free dual interview guides for when you're interviewing these duas and the people who are gonna be supporting you, like my duel was fired. um, but I interviewed douas and all of them were fired, actually, but we had to choose one that was gonna be the one for us and not moment, so how do you know what the duel is a good fit for you? Check out that dual interview guy to help you with that decision, but that's all I have for right now. All right, love you'all. See you in the next season.