58 Meet Jodi Part 1: Homebirth in Colombia South America beside the Andes Mountains

It is time for another international birth story!

This episode is part 1 of 2.

This week, Heidi interviews Jodi about her experience as an American birthing in Colombia, South America. After meeting her now-husband in university, the couple ventured to Bulgaria with the Peace Corps for a time before being married in Costa Rica. At this time, they decided to start their family abroad. After much travel, Jodi discovered she was pregnant while in Colombia. Listen in to this episode of Birth Story to hear Jodi’s amazing tales of jet-setting and motherhood.

Jodi’s favorite baby product was the Philips Avent Milk Catcher.

TRANSCRIPTION

Speaker 0 (0s): Welcome to episode 58, which is Meet Jodi you were talking all about Homebirth in Columbia, South America, but this is part one this week I have released two episodes on the same day I was owed 58 and 59 and 59. I hope you will stick around and listen to right after 58, where Jodi talks about her Homebirth and America so let's get to it.

Speaker 1 (31s): What does it

Speaker 0 (31s): Contraction? I feel like, how do I know if I'm in labor and what does the day of labor look like? Wait, is this a normal, Hey, I'm a, Heidi my best friends. Call me hides. I'm a certified Birth DOULA host of this podcast and author of Birth. STORY an interactive pregnancy guidebook. I have supported hundreds of women through their labor and deliveries, and I believe every one of them. And you deserves a microphone and a stage.

So here we are listen each week to get answers to these tough questions. Birth story, where we talk about pregnancy labor deliveries, where we tell our stories and share our feelings. And of course chat about our favorite baby products and motherhood. And because I'm passionate about birth outcomes, you will hear from some of the top experts in labor and delivery, whether you were pregnant, trying desperately to get pregnant, or you just love a good Birth story.

I hope that you will stick around and be part of this Birth Story family. You guys. My book is out. I mean, it is out in the world. I can not believe it. I have been writing it for several years and it's just mindblowing BIRTH STORY pregnancy guide, book and journal is a one of a kind discovery into your pregnancy that provides you education through storytelling. So what does it really about in the 16 years that I have served a women with every personality type I noticed there was a huge disconnect between what my clients were craving for childbirth education in a book, and the books that were actually available on the market they're seem to be an unlimited resources.

If you are looking for an unmedicated birth or a natural birth or a home birth, but there just weren't a lot of resources from my clients that were part of the 92% of women birthing in a hospital and very much open to medical interventions, like an epidural, nitrous, oxide, and opioid medications. So I wrote that book to fill the gap for you. Week by week throughout your pregnancy, you will engage with material meant to educate and empower you as you plan for your own birth Story hospital, medicated unmedicated or something, in-between you are welcomed each week with a postcard from the womb, which is an adorable note from your baby about their miraculous development, as well as the amazing changes occurring within you.

Then you are invited to use an uplifting Birth affirmation and to respond to an introspective journaling, prompt to document your feelings, curiosities and wonders every single week with room to memorialize your own birth story. This book will become a memory keeper and a legacy gift for your baby. You are encouraged to read one of my favorite Birth stories each week filled with childbirth education, tidbits, and explanations of important medical terms and procedures.

These are real life accounts shared with permission from the birth of this that I've attended during my career as a Doula. And I gave you a great mix in the 42 week guide to your pregnancy and 42 Birth stories, seven of them, and in Sicilian section about half are unmedicated in the other half are medicated deliveries. This is a judgment free book. So take what you need from each element and leave the rest.

Okay. Are you ready to buy? I would love for you to go to Birth story.com and buy it directly from me, but I totally get it. If you're an Amazon girl, you can head to amazon.com and just type in Birth Story pregnancy and the book should pop up. I'll deliver it straight to your doorstep. And I would venture to say that you might be an audio book, kind of a woman, because you are listening to a podcast. So if you would prefer to listen to this book, then I have recorded it, and it is available for download@audible.com or on your audible app.

Thank you for being part of the Birth Story community. I am so excited for you to have this book in your hand, once you've purchased it, and it has arrived. I hope that you will give me your thoughts and feedback, and don't forget to take a selfie with your book and post it on Instagram and tag at Birth Story. Podcast welcome. Jodi to the Birth Story Podcast how are you? I'm great. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm so excited. I am really excited to, I had no, very little, I just know that we're going to talk about your two home births, one in Columbia, South America, not South Carolina and one here in North America and North Carolina.

So I'm really excited. And let's stick and tell us though, like a little bit about like who you are, how old are your kids. And then I wanted to know, like, how are you living in Colombia South America and now the North Carolina at and how that shakes out? Okay, well, I'm originally from North Carolina and I have two kids to have a three, almost four year old daughter named Quincy and

Speaker 2 (5m 58s): A five month old daughter named joy that I grew up here in the Charlotte area and went to the university here where it, my husband and I met and the education department at UNC Charlotte. And he, after we graduated, he moved to Bulgaria with the peace Corps. And I stayed here in North Carolina and I was in the teaching fellows program at UNC Charlotte. So I was teaching in North Carolina for four years. And so he lived in Bulgaria for two and a half years, and we did long distance.

I went to visit him a couple of times. And then when we knew that when he finished that we wanted to travel together. So when he finished his service in the peace Corps, which he, he taught in a small school and as a small village there in Bulgaria. And when he moved back, we spent a year kind of figuring out what we wanted to do while I was still teaching here in finishing that my commitment with a teaching fellows scholarship. And we first moved to Costa Rica and we lived in Monte Verde there for two years and we weren't quite ready to move home.

And we found the salmon's Colombia and we taught at a school there, both, both the schools that we taught at were mostly local families and children. And so bilingual kids, we taught English immersion and we lived in a Colombia for four years and we just loved it. It's a beautiful place to live in a beautiful place to work a very, very special time in our lives. And so after my first daughter was born, we spent her first two years and Colombia, and we were just ready to be a little closer to family and we moved back to Charlotte.

Speaker 0 (7m 51s): Wow. Okay. So my family is Colombia son and they're from Bogota. And so where were you in Colombia?

Speaker 2 (7m 59s): Yeah, we were in money Sally's, which is West of Bogota. So we always flew in and out of Bogota and especially When once we had the baby, we were, we would spend a couple of days, we would split up the travel and fly from my name's Alice to Bogota and stay there for a day or two before we came back to Charlotte. And so I did spend some sometime and build a tattoo.

Speaker 0 (8m 24s): Oh, cool. Okay. So your living in Colombia and telling me about getting pregnant, was this planned?

Speaker 2 (8m 32s): Yeah, it was, we were ready. I ha I'm one of those people who have always wanted to be a mom and I was, I've been running for a long time and, you know, I never really imagined starting my family abroad when they move to Costa Rica, we met, we were friends with several other families, had kids who had either started or their families or abroad, or were traveling long-term with their families. And it really just opened my eyes to what that can be like and the possibilities there.

And we got, actually, we got married when we were in, in Costa Rica. We had our wedding in Monteverde, where he lived. And when we move to coast to Columbia, we are ready to start a family. And so we actually found out and got a pregnancy test and I took it at home. It was my husband's birthday. I took it at home by myself. I was so excited. And when he got home later that day, we had celebrated his birthday and I was waiting to tell him, and after we had celebrated his birthday and had dinner and exchanged, you know, give them a gift and everything.

I said, I think I have one more birthday gift for you. And I showed him the pregnancy test. And that was the beginning of that. And, you know, we were very fortunate that the school that we worked IN had just a phenomenal, a support system for foreign teachers. And so, you know, my Spanish, we had already lived for two years of Costa Rica. And we were in, are at this point I had, it was my fourth year living and a Spanish speaking place. So my Spanish is pretty good, but we had some staff at a school where we worked, who really helped me navigate, finding a doctor and appointments and, and all of that.

So did you have

Speaker 0 (10m 28s): A primary care provider? Yeah,

Speaker 2 (10m 31s): I had seen the doctor that I ended up seeing four, the first half of my pregnancy. I had seen him the previous year, just for like a yearly physical, but not really talked much about family planning so much. And he was a gynecologist that many of the foreign staff, he was a parent of a kid at our school. And a lot of the women teachers at our school who were from a United States and Canada would, would go to him.

And so he was a well-trusted and spoke a lot of English, which helps a lot to do that.

Speaker 0 (11m 10s): So you went to see the provider for the first, like say for four to five months of your pregnancy. If you have continued with this provider, did he deliver in a, in a hospital?

Speaker 2 (11m 25s): Okay. So I saw him until I was 20 weeks pregnant and I loved him so much and did not want to see anyone else, but it got to the, he no longer, he was shifting his practice to oncology care, gynecological oncology, and he no longer was delivering babies. And he basically was like, Jodi, I love you. But you got to find someone else who's going to deliver your baby. Started seeing Quincy daughter was born at home, but I did not know that that was an option for me until very late in my pregnancy.

So I, after I left dr. Lee is the one that I stopped for the first half that I saw actually two other doctors in the meantime, and then found out when I was 36 weeks pregnant. That Homebirth was an option.

Speaker 1 (12m 19s): Okay. So what did you know about Homebirth like before then,

Speaker 2 (12m 24s): Do you remember that show a Birth story on TLC a long time ago? And I have these vivid memories of being probably like 11 or 12 years old and being home from school. And on days off, when I would, they would play this kind of shows in the middle of the day and just being so enamored with these Birth stories. And I would just watch these marathons of BIRTH Story TV shows that all of the different ways to give birth and the process of giving birth have been on my heart.

I been drawn to them for most of my life. And so I was always interested in it. And I just didn't know that it was an option at all in Monticello is because it was, I mean, there's definitely not a Homebirth community. And the way that I found out that I could have a Homebirth was we were approaching the end of the pregnancy and I asked to go to two or the hospital. And as I'm touring in the hospital, you know, of course my husband and I kind of stick out where I'm not Colombia in and our Spanish is not perfect at all.

And so we were talking and I was asking about if there were, if there is a possibility to have nurses or doctors that spoke English, I, wasn't very confident in my Spanish speaking skills, given during labor, you know, and it's one thing to speak Spanish at the grocery store. It's another thing to do that, like while you're giving birth for the first time and they recommended me a Doula that they knew of, and they gave me her name and what I met with her, we have this hour long discussion about how she could support me, because I don't know if you know this, but in Colombia, most women are not accompanied by their husband while they're giving birth.

So she will, but I would have been had I given birth in the hospital because we have private insurance, but most women don't. And so she was talking about the different ways that she could support me in the different ways that she has supported women in the past at the very end of our meetings for a very casually, she said, Oh, and I, I also do home births. And I was like, Whoa, wait a minute. Like we need, this is a whole other conversation now. So we talked about that. Like I said, it was very late in my pregnancy. I was like 36 weeks pregnant.

And it really threw everyone, my family for a loop. Yes. Tell

Speaker 0 (14m 54s): Me more. I want IN exactly.

Speaker 2 (14m 57s): Yes. I was like, wow. If I would have known that in an hour ago, this whole conversation would have been about that. I was very eager and excited to learn that that was something that I could, I could try.

Speaker 0 (15m 9s): Now. What gestation were you when you went into a spontaneous

Speaker 2 (15m 14s): 39 weeks and four days? I think

Speaker 0 (15m 18s): FOR okay. So for almost the next four weeks, you shifted towards like the Homebirth setting that's right. Yeah. I mean, I want to hear all about it. Like, walk me through, like, do you have to like a rent, you're a birthing tub? Like, does your dog coordinate these things for you?

Speaker 2 (15m 37s): Yeah. How does this, you know, how does this work? Okay. So our midwife, she was from our city, but she lived about an hour away. And she worked with a doctor who worked in the hospital setting, but also worked privately with Marcel, all of the, the midwife. And she, in the weeks following, I continued to get parallel care at, with the OB that I was seeing at the end of my pregnancy. And she actually didn't do any of my like prenatal appointments towards the end, but she did host like a, like a seminar kind of for me and my husband in her home.

And she brought all of the Birth tools and like the pelvis and like showed us about like the different stages of birth. And it was very informative, especially, you know, for me and my husband to experience that together and talk about, I also studied Hytner babies. And so I had some, a lot through that, but she was very communicative with me over the phone and was just a very available. And as we got closer, she would check in on me and she had all of her materials.

And so I didn't have to rent a tub, which I mean, there was really no, no way to do that. Especially if, if I would've had to get my own materials, it wouldn't have been possible to do it in that amount of time to like, get them shipped to Colombia. But she had everything. The only thing I think that we got was like a tarp for the bed, but she had the hose to connected to the shower. She had the liner, she has them biblical cord clamps. Like she had everything, which is different than my experience, having a home birth here, where I ordered the Birth kid.

That is awesome.

Speaker 0 (17m 23s): And I love that you did hit no babies. I'm a certified hip, no babies doing that.

Speaker 2 (17m 27s): Yes, it was. I love, I did it for my second Birth too. And it's just, I would recommend it to anyone.

Speaker 1 (17m 40s): Hey, it's, Heidi

Speaker 0 (17m 41s): Interrupting the Podcast to let you know about a free resource that I've created for you@birthstorydotcomoryouhavetodoistobirthstory.com and then click the tab that says the workbook. Once you put your email address in an entire resource library, of all of my secret sauces are available to you for free as my thank you for listening to the Birth Story Podcast and being part of this community@birthstory.com under the workbook, you will find a birth plan template articles on circumcision, delayed cord clamping, flipping a breech, baby, packing your hospital bag, acupressure points, placenta, encapsulation, and so much more.

There are over 20 free articles ready for you to download@birthstory.com. Now let's get back to this amazing episode. Yes, I would, as well. It just changes everything. So if anyone's listening in, they are not familiar with HIPAA. No, baby is, is a type of self guided relaxation or a partner, a guided, even relaxation through the script. Reading is a very specific type of childbirth education.

But one of the main examples I love to give is if you walk into a hospital, at least in the United States to give Birth one of the first things they ask you in triaging is honey, what is your pain level one to 10 and, you know, vomit, but it's, you know, a very specific language. So we do not say labor. We say birthing time, we don't say contraction. We say Serge as our pressure waves.

And we certainly don't say pain scale, comfort scale, or like, how comfortable are you on a scale of one to 10? So it's really just reframing the mind for positive outcomes through positive language.

Speaker 2 (19m 40s): I definitely have a very positive experience with that. No babies both times. And I found it to be very empowering in that way that I could understand more about what's happening to my body. And it wasn't this, like I'm predict what it is unpredictable, but it, it wasn't this scary, unpredictable thing that was happening to me that I could understand more about how to manage the sensations that I was experiencing.

Speaker 0 (20m 7s): Yeah. A bit really helps you be in an active participant in the process of your birthing time. So one of the main questions we get is how do I know I'm in labor? And like, what does it look like? And so at 39 weeks and for days, or maybe even 39 weeks and three days, I don't know what time you went in to your birthing time, but Jodi walk us through how you knew for sure that you were in your burden.

Speaker 2 (20m 38s): Okay. In the, about the week before, I would have a very, very mild menstrual cramps in the early morning hours sometimes and the night. And, but then they would go away basically immediately when I would get up in the morning, the week of the birth, I gave birth on a Thursday. And that Monday I felt this like enormous surge of energy. And I wanted to, we lived in the Andes mountains in these gorgeous city, but right outside the city, I mean the, the, the edges of the city were right into nature.

So there is this like mountain, I call it a Hill, but it was really a mountain that I'm going to walk. And I just like, Oh, look, I've got to go. I've got to get up there. And so we just like pushed it in that day. I had like a very light bleeding and I thought, well, maybe I don't know, you know, but nothing happened the next day on Tuesday, we went to go see my from one of my last prenatal appointments. And I told him that I had been having some light minister, like that felt like menstrual cramps. And he said, well, those could be contractions.

Let me send you to the hospital for monitoring, just to see if you are having contractions. So we went, they did like 20 minutes or so of monitoring and they get, I remember sitting there and my husband and that gave me a sheet and it was a flat line. They were like, Nope, you're not having any contractions whatsoever. And I had kind of convinced myself that it would, you know, I would be at least a week over because this, I don't know why I thought that. But

Speaker 0 (22m 16s): Because of the average gestation for a first time, mom is 41 weeks. And one day probably hip, no babies taught you that.

Speaker 2 (22m 25s): And so we went home, that was a Wednesday, the Wednesday that we got the monitoring and we went home and we were like, okay, lets just, you know, close the IN it was summer break. And so we had stayed in Colombia for the summer and most of our friends had been traveling and we're returning those the end of July, we are returning back to Colombia to get ready for school, to start again. And so we have some friends over that night, we ha we ate pizza and just hung out and I didn't feel anything. So then that night I went to bed, woke up the next morning and had some of the light cramps again.

But I mean just very mild. And I stood up and went to the bathroom and right as I was passing through the door, I felt like a surge. It is that's the best word to describe what it felt like was, or the surge or that sort of, I had a rise in fall and I remember looking at my husband and I was like, I think I had a contraction. I think that that felt different. It felt more like a rise that came to a peak and then just kind of fell back down.

And then when I went to the bathroom, I had the bloody sho and I texted my midwives and she was like, okay, this means your body's getting ready. And I had read so much that I was like, not ready to go there yet. I knew that, you know, pre-labor could last days. So I wasn't in it for the first while. I wasn't really convinced that I was actually going to have a baby that day, but really within.

So that was like seven in the morning, within the hour or two hours that they were coming every like seven minutes. And I decided to get a shower. I was looking at my notes from the, in those days. And by mid morning, the, the surges were coming every five minutes. And so it would be called the midwife and she started headed that way. And once I knew that midwife was on her way was when I was finally convinced that, OK, this is probably going to happen today.

Speaker 0 (24m 35s): Oh, I love it. Well, I really feel like this is just an accurate depiction of the way that most spontaneous birthing times or labors began. And it's a really like you get this warm up period for about a week before hand, you know, I'm curious to see if you had lost your mucus plug in that, you know, a week or if that was when you had your bloody show, if that was the first mucus that you had seen.

Speaker 2 (25m 0s): No, I definitely did lose it throughout. It's just especially as a first-time mom, it's such a bizarre, these things that happen. You're like, wow, okay. That seems like something different. And I remember taking a picture in a magnet for this project come out and the big pieces. And I remember sending pictures of it too. My, a midwife and her just saying, yep. That's that looks about right. You're doing great. Just keep on. Checking in.

Speaker 0 (25m 28s): This is so normal. My whole entire phone is like filled with pictures and I'm like almost every client. And even like, I got one of the other day that was like literally three little drops of blood on the toilet, you know, in the middle of the room. And it was like, Is this normal? And I'm like, Oh yeah, there's going to be a lot more than that. So like, so lots of blood and lots of mucus are signs of cervical softening and ripening and dilation.

And so those are all really good things, but just the way that your birthing time unfolded some cramps and some warming up and you know, your mucus plug coming out and just different irritability and then surges of energy. And some other people will have like frequent pooping or urination or even they'll feel a little like offer foggy. So they'll go from that burst of energy to like the fogginess. And it kind of sounds like you went through all of that for that week before. And that's kind of like you said, you are in your birthing time.

Like I consider that it's called latent labor or prodromal labor. It's like the beginning, the buildup. And then you had a distinct start, a distinct peak and a distinct end to a surge. And then that surge grew longer and stronger and closer together over the next couple of hours. That is the best way that you just went through that I could describe how to tell that you are in active labor is that distinct start in peak and stopped.

And then, and they're getting kind of closer together and a little bit stronger and a little bit longer. So your midwife heads over in, like, what are you and your husband doing?

Speaker 2 (27m 17s): Okay. So this was in 2016 and I don't know if it's still on now, but there was a show called stranger sayings. And my husband was really into that show up at that time. And so for the first like hour or two, we were like, we were laying in bed and he was watching Netflix and I would just like nudge him. When when I felt something star and he was time with them on his phone. And so he was, we were just there together just enjoying the time, just kind of being chill. And then eventually I decided, and I remember having read that a change in activity could let you know if it was pre-labor or like real.

So I decided to take a shower and to see if, how things about, and I say in the shower for a long time and it was just glorious and it helped me. It felt really nice. And it also, my contractions just kept going. And so I knew that it was probably gonna keep going. And there is a point where I kind of passed over the reins to my husband. They want to stay in touch with the midwife. And he was sending her screenshots of like my timing's that he had taken of how far apart things were and how long they are lasting are some of my first contraction that I felt was like, 7:00 AM that morning around noon is when my midwife, who was also to Doula ARIDE with the doctor.

So the midwife Marcella, she acted as a DOULA in our city for many families because there's not a huge Homebirth community in my Sally's. She served mostly in hospitals as a Doula.

Speaker 0 (28m 58s): So they all get there around noon. Yes. And what phase of active LIBOR are you in at this point? Just five hours later

Speaker 2 (29m 8s): When they arrived, my contractions were around five minutes or less a Part labor first started. It was very manageable. I was talking and able to especially talk between contractions. I would stop and focus when it learned When came by the time the midwife arrived, I was in the zone. I listened to my, the birthday affirmations with no babies. And I kind of, I stood next to the crib that we have set up in our room.

And I just felt this little bubble around me that I didn't want to leave. There was a little, maybe two or three foot circle that I stayed in for hours and I stood and rocked back and forth vocalizing. And I just felt like this cozy little bubble that I didn't want to go out of. And I stayed there for a while. When the midwife came, she had this warm red rug that she came and she put it on the floor under me and she would occasionally come and give me some oil massages on my back.

But I remember being next to the crib, staying in that little, tiny little space that I wanted to stay in. And just really focusing, they got started pretty much right away, setting up the birthing pool and I'm getting the water going. They did a combination, they hooked up to our shower, but my husband also put on like cots of hot water on our stove support in. And it's just this, I mean, I get, do some thinking back to those moments, just being in such a different world and watching them come and go out of the room and getting things ready.

And there was a point I think, I mean, maybe by let's say like two o'clock more or less. So when they first arrived at 12 o'clock, they did check my dilation and I was at seven centimeters. Then I say next to the crib for a while. And then eventually Marcella has said to the doctor, I think she's ready because she, and, and this wasn't the case with my second Homebirth that she wanted me to wait until I was 10 centimeters before I got into the pool.

She at one point said, I think she's ready. And she later told me that she could just tell like all of her experience you could tell, by the way, my breathing sounded that I was at 10 centimeters. And so, and they checked and I was, and I remember just thinking back, I would just in awe of that, that she could just hear my breaths and to ask

Speaker 0 (31m 52s): No, I think being a midwife, a Doula birth worker have any kind of, sort of a calling and it's hard to explain sometimes this concept, like a lot of my hospital birth clients will say like, well, how do we know when to go transfer to the hospital? And I don't know how to explain it to them other than like, not just me, but my other colleagues and the Doula community. Like we are listening to your body and your breath and feeling the sensations.

And, you know, I put my hands on your uterus and I can feel that the, how strong the surgeons are. And it's very easy to tell if someone at FOR or at seven or at 10 without any cervical exam at all. So to hear you honor, that is just awesome.

Speaker 2 (32m 51s): It was beautiful. It was just, it was really wonderful. And so When after that I got in the pool and it was just heaven. The contractions kept coming, but they just, the edge took the edge off. I remember I would the feeling, the rest that will come between the surges, I actually fell asleep. And a couple of times I would have dreams between contractions and or like wake myself up snoring.

And I mean, this has, you know, it, at this point in my birthing time, that rest time would sometimes be less than a minute, but I would fall asleep and then just like wake back up and keep going.

Speaker 0 (33m 41s): Yeah. And do the work that you needed to do. And then it is so amazing that our body gets flooded with natural opioids. And, you know, often the process, especially in a hospital Birth, it's interrupted with, you know, epidurals and bright lights and people talking and all of these other things, but especially at home or as, as natural as possible, it allows our body to surge with natural endorphins and opioids and in an oxytocin and all of those things that make us feel so drugged and so good and can fall and people say, how can you sleep in between?

And it's like, will you just have to trust? That will happen. You will be. So your body will take such good care of you that you will rest and sleep in between now at seven at noon, you, that would be technically the medical definition of, you know, transformation or, you know, transition. And so you're doing hard, hard work. So what time was it when you know between seven centimeters and 10 centimeters when you climbed into the tub and what time is it now?

Speaker 2 (35m 3s): I think around. So just to give you the full scalp, she was born at three 48 in the afternoon. Wow. And then, so I think I got in the pool around, I, I'm not sure on that, like after the mid-west cane, I know when she was born, but the, so the timing in between there is a little fuzzy, it's a little fuzzy, but so I was seven centimeters at noon when they arrive. And then I would say maybe like between a one and two or one o'clock and two o'clock is one I got in.

And then I worked in the air, the water for a while. And then I remember laying there, laying back. And then I started pushing like the first time it was just this little tiny push and I'm in my eyes popped open. And I looked at Marcella and there is like, I think I just pushed. And she just smiled and said, okay. And I just, I didn't expect that, that, like my body really just knew when to push and I wasn't expecting it.

I didn't tell my body to push. It just did. And it was just a phenomenal experience

Speaker 0 (36m 21s): And is a miraculous, the fetal ejection reflex and feeling it and allowing your body to experience the whole circle. I mean, it's just, it's magical. And I bet you didn't push you for too long. It's amazing that it starts off with little, a little like, kind of grunty pushes. And sometimes, you know, I'm not sure was yours.

You may have one or two searches where you don't, you're not really feeling grunty are pushy. And then it comes on again,

Speaker 2 (36m 59s): Exactly what they did there to say. Well, it started kind of slow. And so my, and also my, my water's does it break through all of this? So I started, like you were saying kind of a little grunty push and there will be small and not laugh the whole time, but then it didn't take long for it to kind of pick up. And the sensation of the contractions really faded. And then like the urge in the power of the pushers took over and it was kind of, it was almost satisfying in a different way because that's when you could really start to feel something happening.

I remember telling them my wife that I can feel her moving down. And I could just thinking about now, like, you can feel the head of a human being moving down in your body. And it was, it was the pushing part for me was really motivating because it was so powerful and I could feel something happening.

Speaker 0 (38m 6s): Yeah. And it's also an awareness of like the, in between worlds, right? Like you're in this labor land world, you're kind of aware that these other people are serving you in their own pushing time. We sort of come back to our body two and then feeling the head moved down and kind of feeling the transition of like, we're moving away from being pregnant and now moving into full motherhood.

It's absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you said it so beautifully, so Quincy emerges in the water.

Speaker 2 (38m 45s): Yeah. So she, okay. So I was laying back and I was pushing in the middle of the, asked me to get up on my knees and just minutes before she was born as when my water broke. And so I remember that feeling as well and seeing it like come into the water and there was meconium in the waters, which wasn't a problem. But then I got up on my knees and I just pushed harder than I have ever pushed before.

And her cord was wrapped twice and the doctor reached down and scooped them. I scooped it off her neck, man. When she came out in those last moments, you know, it was just like nothing you just can't describe. I could have never expected or understood or imagined what the room felt like in those moments where it was silent, except for like the roar of my pushes and the people in the room with me, it felt it was quiet, but electric, you know, everything, the air was charged and it was just so beautiful.

And I felt so respected and honored by the people who are there with me. And she came out and she took a minute to, to breathe. And just as they were going to give her some air, she took that first little verbally cry. And it was just, it was divine. It was just something for someone who's been watching, doored stories on TV on her days off from school, since I was 12 years old, I could've never even dreamed of how magical that moment was.

And it just, I mean, when I think about it, I can see like, I can feel the way my skin felt. I can see the way the sun shone in the room. I can see the vernix on her skin. And it was just the happiest moment. It was really beautiful.

Speaker 0 (41m 3s): I mean, I have goosebumps all over my body and I'm like Zen tears and my eyes like unbelievable. Well, tell me about the third stage of labor and delivering the placenta.

Speaker 2 (41m 16s): So we stayed, stayed in the pool for a few minutes and my husband cut the cord and that placenta didn't come super quickly. And we, and I got up on the bed and the midwife massage my stomach. And after waiting a little bit, she very, very gently. She has the umbilical cord.

She kind of just very gently moved it in circles. And eventually it did come. I did FOR exactly for weeks postpartum experienced some hemorrhaging, which I later found out was due to retain placenta. And I had a DNC when I was four weeks postpartum to remedy that. And I actually had some, some challenges. What are my five, just five months ago when my second day he was born with the placenta as well, having some, some challenges coming.

But once with Quincy What, once the placenta came all was well and we were already home. And so we just, I did tear a little bit. And so the doctor was there and she was able to stitch me some and we just stayed in bed for the rest of the day. And we had soup and just bass in the glory of a new person they're in our room.

What is it?

Speaker 0 (42m 53s): Beautiful. BIRTH STORY. And I would have done anything too, have been your DOULA in the middle of Colombia on the edge of the Andes mountains, like feeling that sunshine with you as you became a mom. I mean, I just really, the way that you're an incredible storyteller in the way that you shared that experience. I think all of us listening just felt like we were right there, you know, with you Jodi I have to have other questions about your Birth.

The first is, did you encapsulate your placenta? Is that something that your midwife offered and Colombia?

Speaker 2 (43m 34s): I did not encapsulate my placenta. I did plant it. There is, you've probably seen it's a common, exotic flower are called the bird of paradise. Yes. And we, and that's a very common flower there. And I planted it was a bird of paradise and it was very special to me. And it bloomed for the first time on the day that my grandfather passed away.

And it just was a very beautiful symbol to me about life and death and the circle. And so that was a very special, a special time.

Speaker 0 (44m 17s): I think that that is a very symbolic and I think your grandfather was definitely speaking to you in that bloom. Wow. Well Jodi, before we finish on this episode, will you share with all

Speaker 2 (44m 32s): Of us, like, what has been your favorite, like baby or a mommy or a pregnancy product through your whole experience in your inauguration and to motherhood? Well, I'm thinking back to those first days of motherhood with my first baby and when my milk came in, it came in a lot. And I remember being like, we'd be from the hormones and tired and overwhelmed, and then also like waking up and puddles of milk.

And I have a coworker of mine gave me some of the milk catchers that go inside that you can wear them inside of your bra or inside of a nursing shirt. They saved me a lot of sanity because I would just take them in one feeding would collect like overnight look like, like four or more ounces just from like sitting there. And so I would just pour them and I would keep it a little cooler next to my bed with the huddles in it.

And I would wake up and just pour it out into the bottle's with a little ice bag in there. And so it kept me from being so Milky I'll over my shirt and she, and everywhere. And also I saved the milk. She didn't actually end up taking a bottle, but we would use it in like baths and in different things like that. So that saved me a lot of sanity in my first couple, couple of weeks. Is there a particular brand of milk catch or that you recommend?

So the one's that I use in Colombia I do not know they were given to me and I'm not a, I don't think that they were even marked with a brand, but I did use some with my second baby. The brand that I used were Phillips Evans, comfort breast shell. And those are the ones that you used when you were back of the United States. Well, Jodi, we are so excited to hear about the second Homebirth joy and how different that was, you know, from Quincy's Birth and birding and Colombia than birding here in the States.

And so everyone we'll just have to stick around for the next episode where we continue on in your birth stories. So thank you for sharing part one, and that everyone stick around for part two. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure Heidi

Speaker 0 (47m 14s): Thank you for listening to Birth STORY Michael is you will walk away from each episode with a clear picture of how labor and delivery might go, and that you will feel empowered by the end of your pregnancy to speak up plan and prepare for the birth you want. No matter what that looks like.