I wanted to share my experience with care at Willow in particular because I have two babies with two very different birth experiences and outcomes, which I really think highlights the exceptional care at Willow. And I think in particular my husband, who is a little more fearful of birthing options outside of the hospital, really enjoyed the experience at Willow as well.
With my first, we weren’t necessarily planning to get pregnant so when I found out we were expecting, I had to dig in and start doing some research about where we might want to do prenatal care and deliver our baby. If I was the only person making the decision, I would have chosen to do a home birth. I really hate hospitals and feel quite uncomfortable there. And if my husband were the only person making the decision, he would have chosen to be in a hospital as he felt it was safer.
We landed on doing care at a birth center as it felt much more comfortable and “homey” for me and my husband felt that the safety measures in place made him feel that if something did go wrong, we could quickly get to where we needed to be for medical intervention. We landed on Willow because I felt like it seemed the most warm and welcoming based upon all the places we looked at. And my husband felt comforted by the conversations he had with medical staff there. We began care at Willow probably right before 20 weeks and continued prenatal care there for the rest of the pregnancy.
My first pregnancy had a lot of ups and downs. The first thing that was noticed was a velamentous cord insertion. This required more frequent ultrasounds to monitor the baby’s growth and the different doctors that we saw at maternal fetal medicine disagreed upon whether or not we could deliver in the birth center. Additionally, he was breech and so after all of the unsuccessful conservative interventions to try to get him to turn, we had an ECV at 38.5 weeks. We had a head down baby, and there was and MD at maternal fetal medicine that gave us a go ahead to deliver at the birth center even with the cord insertion being a little off.
But then at 41 weeks my water broke and I didn’t go into labor. After 24 hour I had to be admitted to The Mother Baby Center and be induced. This was not my wish and I cried for a few hours while I waited to be induced and my husband went home to get our hospital bags. But at this point, although it wasn’t part of my birth plan, this was the way forward. They began by using Cervadil and only 30 minutes after that was placed, I was having contractions that were only 3-5 minutes apart that I was having to breathe through. I was told I couldn’t use a birth tub as I wasn’t sure if I wanted to deliver in there. I just wanted to labor in the water and I couldn’t predict where I wanted to deliver. So we resorted to using the shower head for a while for some comfort as well as walking the halls.
A few hours later, they did a cervical check and said I was at 4 cm so everyone left and I continued to labor. My doula had just gotten there so my husband could run to the bathroom and take a breather. While my husband was still in the bathroom I told my doula it felt like I had to poop. She suggested I go sit on the toilet. Within a few minutes, I was crowning on the toilet and my doula was the only person in the room. She pressed the emergency call button and what seemed like 10 staff members rushed into the small bathroom for the “emergency” while I delivered the baby over the toilet. (My husband did make it back just in time for the delivery!)
In all, it was about 3.5 hours of labor and about 10 minutes of pushing. They quickly cut the umbilical cord (despite me asking for delayed clamping) because they perceived he was distressed with an initial Apgar of 3. But once they took him away (my husband followed), he was quickly up to an Apgar of 10. They also noted later that I had hemorrhaged and wondered about placental abruption since everything happened so quickly and so much blood was lost (although I felt fine). Overall the experience was fine as I got to have the vaginal delivery I wanted but there was a lot of what felt like unnecessary excitement, and perceived emergency. And then we had to stay in the hospital for an extra day which I could have done without.
Then flash forward a few years to my next pregnancy. I knew I wanted to do prenatal care at Willow to begin with so I started there around 9 weeks. Visits were spaced out quite far initially (even 6 weeks) as I was feeling good, this was our second, I had no risk factors, and the baby and I were doing well. There were very few hiccups this pregnancy and no questions throughout about where I would deliver. Although we figured that since our first came so quickly once induced (no Pitocin), that whenever I do go into labor I would likely quickly be heading to the birth center because things might happen even faster.
The lead up until delivery was a little different this time. I had prodromal labor for a few days where I would start having contractions at night/early morning but then about the time I thought things were progressing, contractions would stop. But finally as we were going to bed on the third night of this, things really seemed to pick up. My water broke at home around 1 AM and were met the midwife at the birth center around 2 AM. I got to labor in the tub which was great. The lights were dark, my husband played my favorite music, and we were generally left alone (as I desired).
I eventually moved to lay in bed around 3/4 AM and my husband supported me in a few different positions so I could close my eyes a bit and try to rest as I was tired. I started feeling “pushy” and asked to go sit on the toilet as this feels like the most natural place to let everything go. The midwife came in and followed and asked if I wanted the lights off. The lights off felt so much more chill so she held a flashlight and waited for things to happen. He was out in one push and she caught him over the toilet. Very calm, just my husband, the midwife and I (we didn’t have a doula this time as we felt like we could do it on our own for our second).
I bled a lot and hemorrhaged after this delivery as well but the midwife very calmly just noted that I was bleeding a lot, asked me to go lay down, and asked if she could administer certain medications. She would administer one, monitor bleeding, and when things weren’t slowing down as much as she would like, asked if we could do additional intervention. I felt very informed and safe. We got to delay the cord clamping until it was done pulsing and I was also asked if I felt comfortable with it being cut at that point. Baby was healthy and I was healthy and we got to be in bed together for a while until we went home around 5-6 hours later and I got to rest at home.
Overall our deliveries (at least the active labor aspects) were very similar. Quick, on the toilet, and lots of bleeding. Be the way it was handled in the different setting was worlds different. And I knew that would be the case which is what made me want to be in a setting like a birth center. To me, birth is not an emergency or medical “diagnosis”, unless things don’t progress as they should and it becomes one. And then we have measures in place to keep everyone safe. I think it was particularly interesting for my husband to see and experience the difference and he was blown away at what a birth experience could be.
Overall I got to have the pregnancy and delivery I wanted to have and it was a fantastic experience. And even with the more tumultuous experience with my first, Willow supported me beautifully through it all. I am so grateful for the experience I was able to have because of the care we received at Willow.
