Sarah N'Guessan - Natural Childbirth

[00:00:00] Kelly: Hello. Today I have with me Sarah Andan. Sarah is the mother of a beautiful girl. She is an educator, a curly hair specialist, and has her own YouTube channel, curl to Curl.

Sarah, welcome and thank you for joining me.

[00:00:15] Track 1: Thank you so much for having me, Kelly. This is

[00:00:17] Kelly: Yeah, I'm excited. I know your birth story is awesome, so I can't wait to hear.

[00:00:21] Track 1: Yeah, it's something I love to share and don't get that much of an opportunity too. I actually wrote it down for my daughter. but yeah, it'll be exciting to have a verbal documentation

[00:00:31] Kelly: Oh yeah, that's so awesome that you wrote it down for her. 

[00:00:34] Track 1: So, like Kelly mentioned, I am a mom of one, so I've actually only ever had one pregnancy. we started trying, to have a baby after we had been married for about four years. originally we had planned to start. Trying for a baby two years after marriage, but my husband is French and we were moving back and forth from countries.

We just had a lot more moves than we were [00:01:00] anticipating at the beginning of our marriage. So, uh, child bearing just got kind of delayed. at the same time. We weren't really in a hurry, so I was 29 and my husband was 36 when we started trying. And it took us a little over a year, to get pregnant since I wasn't in like that Geriatric age. I had to be trying for a year before the doctor would come in and do anything to help or do any tests. So I was tested first and everything came out fine. And then my husband was tested and he had, a varicose vein around his testicle. which is actually the number one cause male infertility, but it's also very easy to fix. so the first step was to give him, some male prenatal vitamins and his urologist, recommended them.

I guess they're like, you don't have to have a prescription for him, but he recommended them and we ordered those. [00:02:00] And if the prenatal vitamins didn't work, he was gonna have to have. But we got pregnant within like one or two months after he started taking the vitamins, so that was awesome. My pregnancy was pretty smooth. I did have a few things happen. so at work, I was walking up the stairs one day when I was pretty far along and I passed out and that was. Related to, I have Vasco vagal response, so I've passed out two other times in my life prior to getting pregnant. And so with Vasco vagal response, it's basically if your heart rate gets really high and then you stop suddenly you can pass out.

And so, When you're pregnant, just walking upstairs can be a lot of exercise. And then I just walked up the stairs and then stopped suddenly. But luckily I didn't fall in any way that, harmed my daughter or anything like that. so that was that. another condition that they found during my blood test is that I carry [00:03:00] the beta thalassemia minor trait, so I don't have any symptoms from it other than just mild anemia. But since I didn't know about that before, my husband had to be tested to make sure he didn't carry the trait too, because if he did, it could have been serious issues for my daughter.

And luckily he did not carry that. . and so then the only minor issue I had during my pregnancy was heartburn. I got a lot of heartburn, especially towards the end of my pregnancy, which I guess is normal, but I asked the, Nurse practitioner if I, if Tums were safe to take.

And she told me that, yeah, I could take Tums, but it's really just calcium. So I could just drink milk and I love milk. I've always l loved milk my whole life. But I had been vegan for the two years leading up to my pregnancy. And so I drank so much cow's milk during my pregnancy. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I was drinking like three gallons a week by [00:04:00] myself of milk

So I was drinking a lot of milk, I guess I was making up last time. So I don't plan to get pregnant again, but if I did, I would probably just take the temps instead of all the milk I was drinking. So the practice I went with with my pregnancy office had both doctors and nurse practitioners and midwifes. I didn't do like a lot of research about where. what practice I wanted to use. That's just the office that my gynecologist was located at for the couple years prior to that.

So when I got pregnant, that's just who I went with. but I was very happy with them and my whole experience with them. when I was early on in my pregnancy, people would ask me what my birthing plan was. And I feel like for someone I grew up in the Mormon church, literally having babies was Destiny in life, right?

But I felt like for having that be like my number one goal in life. I feel like I knew so little about it, , and so when people would ask [00:05:00] me what my birthing plan was, I was like, I don't know, like have the baby. That's my plan. Just listen to what the doctors say and have the baby.

and so I didn't really know there was much, to it. I was worried about the pain. I obviously did know that it was painful to have a child to birth a child, but, um, I didn't know that there were like a lot of different options to prepare for it. like I said, I just planned to do what the doctor told me.

I did early on without a doubt, planned to have an epidural. I had read the book bringing up Bebe cause I lived in France with my French husband. And so I had read that like several years before I got pregnant. right after I moved back from France to the us. And so I planned to do motherhood like the French Way,

That was all I really knew about what I wanted to do. . and one thing that was different about French women was that they didn't call birth without an epidural natural birth. They just called it birth without an epidural. They don't consider anything about [00:06:00] it natural, and they just don't do it. like they all get French, women get epidurals.

So that's what I plan to do. also have a very low pain tolerance, so my thought was why wouldn't I just take pain meds during what would likely be the most painful experience ever we ended up taking a birthing course at the hospital where my daughter was born that was recommended by my practice and I was really glad we took it cuz it covered everything.

everything I felt like I needed to know before I gave birth. It covered natural birth with an epidural. You know what to expect if you were induced. What if you needed to have a c-section? I felt just way more prepared. than I did and then also a coworker of mine who had just had a baby offered me a copy of her book Hypnobirthing, and I don't even think she had used it herself. But I did have a really close friend who had three kids already and she did hypno birthing. I don't know if she did it for all three kids, but she definitely did it. At least her last [00:07:00] one and maybe her last two, and she highly recommended it, and it was someone I trusted.

I didn't really have money at the time to spend on like a hypnobirthing class, but I figured I could read the book and it was just more out of curiosity that I read it because I thought it was gonna be like a little too woowoo for me. but I re read it and I actually found it really practical.

I don't know if I had a hypnobirth, like the things that stood out to me about the book, from what I remember, cause my daughter's seven , so it has been a while. But what stood out to me, in the book was the description of the pain you feel during childbirth isn't because something's going wrong, like the pain you feel when you break your arm or, know, stub your toe or things.

Those are all pain. Your body's telling you something's wrong, but the pain. you are experiencing during childbirth is usually cuz everything's going right. And it kind of, the book explains everything that's happening, like your cervix expanding and how you become a face and all of that. And so like just knowing what was happening in the philosophy [00:08:00] of hypnobirthing helps make it less painful cuz you can tolerate it if you know like what's happening.

And I found that to be true. I also learned, I don't remember if it was from that book or the class that I took, I also learned that if I had an epidural, I wouldn't be able to be up out of bed walking around during labor. And, and so I didn't want that. So my plan changed to like doing it without an epidural.

I was always like, I know people's plans change, but that's what I'll. so back to my pregnancy. My due date was March 24th, which was during my spring break. Like Kelly mentioned, I'm an educator, so, I was convinced that my daughter was gonna come after spring break. I also wanted her to come after spring break so I could get her room ready during spring break.

March 28th was Easter that year. My half birthday is March 27th, so I thought it would be cool for her to be born either of those days. I had had no Braxton Hicks contractions, so [00:09:00] I thought for sure. I knew she was coming late and like, in a weird way, I thought I could, will her to come late, like I thought I had some kind of controller say in and so, she dropped a few days before she was born, which was causing me a lot of back pain. A. So I had my 38 week appointment the afternoon before she was born. So I went to my 38 week appointment. I talked to the nurse about some spotting and back pain.

she asked me if we had had sex recently and we had . And so she said that, you know, could have, that could be. That could cause the spotting. And she asked if I wanted to be examined at my practice. They didn't do like regular examinations, and so I didn't want to because. either from the book or the class.

I learned that like sometimes people are dilated a to like a four for multiple days or multiple weeks. So I just didn't wanna like living on the edge and get my hopes up or feel like I was about to give birth and [00:10:00] really not be about to give birth. So I didn't wanna be examined.

and for my lower back pain, she recommended a prenatal massage, which I never had time to schedule . cause by 7:00 PM So, that appointment was at like three in the afternoon. It was after work. And so by 7:00 PM that night, I started to actually think that know, might be in pre-labor or labor.

but I was having contractions that were getting worse. And my thought that night, know, especially early on the evening, I was like, this isn't that bad. But it also hurts enough that I hope it's not false labor, because if this is false labor, real labor's gonna hurt a lot more.

But you know, I was overall feeling pretty good. Um, my husband and I used some of the soothing techniques we learned in class. I really liked being, like on all fours, and my husband liked massaging my lower back. That was something we learned in class that was really, really helpful. For me, we called the midwife at the hospital a few times to what I was experiencing and to [00:11:00] try and like decipher if it was real or false labor.

And she told me to drink a lot of water and walk around a lot because if it was labor, you know, no amount of walking or water would make it go. and so that was on March 16th and I told my husband, I don't think we're having an Easter baby. I think we're gonna have a St. Patrick's Day baby. and my husband got out our book from class and went to the chapter on false labor and tried to convince me that I was false labor He apparently was not ready, so he, uh, thought he knew better than me, . I told him to get some sleep, cuz if we were having the baby soon, I would need him rested. So he goes to work super early in the morning. So he had, you know, Late in the evening, probably like nine or 10 at night by that time. And he, wakes up at 1:00 AM.

and So he went to bed. Well, he went to bed later, like around one. He went to bed cuz yeah, he had been up like 24 hours by the time I told him to go to bed. I had been up about 19, but there [00:12:00] was still like no way I could have slept through the contractions. . so while he was sleeping, I took a bath.

I rocked on my glider. I was catching up on my TV shows, . And this was the Thursday before spring break. So technically there was another day of work before spring break. So, but my coworkers, I don't know, they could tell I was gonna have the baby the next day. I don't know. They're like, you're not coming in the next day.

So, I wanted to avoid going to the hospital too early because I was told when you go early, you're more likely to have a lot of interventions. so it was about five. O'clock in the morning by the time we left for the hospital and my contractions seemed like they were, whatever they recommend, like one minute contractions, one minute apart for an hour, I think is what they recommend when you go to the hospital, if I have those numbers right.

And so I had hit that, but then when I went to the hospital, the hospital's like a 15 minute drive from. And I only had one or two contractions, so I was [00:13:00] real worried that like we went in too early. but when I got in, I was a hundred percent a face and I was dilated to an eight. And, in the hospital, my husband and I used like the same soothing techniques we used at home.

My water had not broken, so they offered to break it for me and told me things would escalate really fast. I said, And thanks to the class I took, I knew what that meant. Like to have your water broken. I had like, held the tool that they use, in the they passed around, things like that.

So you really had some knowledge before you were in the moment having to make decisions. It's like a tiny little thing and it has a little hook and it just breaks your water. So, once. They broke my water. It did escalate really fast.

Like they said, it hurt like hell. I asked for an epidural and the midwife laughed and said it was too late for that

and my sweet daughter. Was born about 20 minutes later after they broke my water. so I mentioned the midwife. The midwife was with me, [00:14:00] during all of the delivery except at the very end. cuz during the time I was pushing, I guess that's when they realized, my daughter had had a bowel movement.

During, delivery. And so she had swallowed her own poop. So the doctor came in, The second she was born to pump her stomach. It was super fast. It felt like she was only away from me for like 10 seconds. Maybe it was probably longer than that, but it felt super fast. And then she was back in my arms.

I. Think giving birth a magical spiritual experience for me. I had a really good, wonderful experience, which I did not anticipate. Cuz like I said, I have a really low paying tolerance. my recovery was also pretty quick. But something nobody warned me about is that milk can come in real fast and heavy.

and mine did. Mine came in like within hours, and my boobs were the size of half volleyballs. They were massive and they felt. [00:15:00] Like bricks. It was very, very painful. my daughter wasn't latching very well at first. We did discover a few days later, like ac I think actually the day we got out of the hospital and just did like her doctor checkup.

That's when we found out she was tongue tied. So once that was snipped, all was well. But in the hospital she la latching very well and I didn't have an. Pump because my insurance, said I had to wait until after the baby was born to order it, for it to be covered. And for me, I didn't think that was gonna be a problem because, you know, I had maternity leave and I was gonna, I didn't think I would need a pump until I went back to work, which wasn't gonna be until two months.

The hospital was also fresh out of loaners of electronic pumps, and so they gave me manual ones, , so I was literally pumping my boobs, the way those manual pumps, it feels like you're spraying a water bottle is what it does, but it's the opposite. [00:16:00] It's unsparing a water bottle, I guess,

and my, like I said, my recovery was quick. six days after I gave birth, we walked miles to go see the cherry blossoms in DC with the crazy crowd. So that was my daughter's first outing, and my first outing postpartum. I really did fall in love with motherhood from the start. I didn't experience any postpartum depression or anxiety.

I just really was, I guess, lucky you can say, I just didn't experience what a lot of people do experience after giving births. So that is my birth story, and thanks so much for letting me share

[00:16:37] Kelly: I love it. Okay. I'm curious, Do you remember, all the stuff that they to help with labor, personally I loved the rocking chair, but you probably didn't have time to even sit in the rocking chair . By the time you got there, 

[00:16:49] Track 1: Yeah. I mean, I, we got there at five and she was born at nine. So we were there for hours before she was born. 

I just kind of came in, had my hypnobirthing, music. I don't remember [00:17:00] if it, I doubt that it was on my phone seven years ago. I think I think we're, it was a cd we were playing directly from a laptop or something like that, so we were listening to that.

We kind of had our own little things. I did take a shower at the hospital. I had taken a bath at home, I took a shower. They don't have, like water bursts, but I, I did take a shower and we just kind of did the things. I did rock on a rocking chair at home, we lived in a small little condo, and I took the rocking chair out of the, what was gonna be her nursery into our living room and just sat in front of all my shows.

[00:17:30] Kelly: Yeah, yeah, that's what I did. That, that's why I was really, really grateful for that option the second time. So I didn't deliver my first there. I was on a stretcher with my first, it was awful. it was the worst pain ever. But I found that I could do a lot more just sitting in. a glider would work as well. Just the whole point of that is to help the baby's head descend in the pelvis without putting 

too much pressure on one spot. And that's helpful for you and baby because it helps the baby rotate, and it helps you get through the labor. And I feel like I was able to get, so much farther [00:18:00] without as much pain.

Now when the baby did calm down 

and there was all that 

pressure after my water broke, that was, 

that was crazy. I really just, I, I love rocking chairs. So anybody has a rocking chair. I know the ball is popular, but I just really want to advocate the rocking chair because the ball is so labor 

intensive. 

[00:18:21] Track 1: yeah, I was gonna say that I, we didn't have a ball at home. but I feel like I did get on one in the hospital, but just like overall, But I think what I ended up doing was I just had to be on all fours and I think I maybe like leaned over the ball and my husband massaged my lower back.

It was just, that was the sweet spot for me.

[00:18:41] Kelly: Right, because it's hard to relax your whole body during the contractions if you're having to hold up your body and 

especially your core if you're sitting on the ball. It works for some people, but it just 

wasn't for me. It wasn't very good So usually here's what I ask most people, first of all is if there's anything that you wish you could go back and tell [00:19:00] yourself so that it would make the process easier. what do you, do you think that there's anything you would go

[00:19:04] Track 1: I actually don't like. I really a good experience. I don't know that I would change anything. Obviously, if I was going to have another baby, I would. Know more, but I feel like I knew what I needed to know when the moment came. And then also, anything could go extremely differently for a different pregnancy, a different delivery.

[00:19:28] Kelly: I mean, I agree that you're very prepared and I think that your attitude towards it and being open and. you know really not having preconceived notions just following the directions that.

you I wish that you could like tell all my patients, I mean, anybody listening to this, do it this way. Listen to your, listen to your midwife when she says, you know, go walk. Do all those things come in when the contractions are, you said one minute apart, but I know what you meant. There's like one minute in between contractions, so that's considered 

every two minutes [00:20:00] for an hour. Because it's the beginning of a contraction to the beginning of another contraction.

So if your contraction is one minute long and you have a one minute rest period, then that's a really good 

regular contraction pattern. Um, so if that's going on for an hour, yes, absolutely. Come in and then do all those things at home while you're in the comfort of your own home, like the bath. Oh, that's, that feels so 

good.

And like I said, 

the rocking chair and all your favorite shows, have those lined up for 

sure. be prepared to just distract 

yourself. so all those different things, all those distraction were just perfect.

I'm so glad that, I think that birthday class is really, really

helpful that you went to, I've had a 

lot of moms that have loved that. 

[00:20:37] Track 1: Yeah, I have a friend who, goes to the, my same practice and they still offer that class, so her and her husband are gonna go to, I was like, yes, do that. It's just funny because she lives kind of in the general area where I lived.

I was like, you're like living my life. You're, you're going to the same practice. Yes. Do the things like I loaned her my hypno thing. 

book. 

[00:20:59] Kelly: [00:21:00] Yeah. I kind of wish I'd known about the hypno birthing because I know a lot of people that some success with that. Like I did Bradley, That's the one where 

it's like the husband 

led

[00:21:07] Track 1: Yeah. Isn't Lama with the partner too? 

[00:21:10] Kelly: also? Yeah, I, think so. I didn't ever take that, that there's a 

lot of like breathing with that and I was like, I'm not gonna be able to breathe 

but I don't know about you, but I felt like breathing was 

the hardest part 

of 

Did you have any 

difficulty with that? 

[00:21:22] Track 1: It probably was, but I don't remember. 

I think you 

know, you block out the bad parts so that. 

You wanna do it again, right. 

[00:21:28] Kelly: right. 

[00:21:30] Track 1: seven years. It was a magical birth experience, like I felt close to heaven.

[00:21:36] Kelly: Yes, for sure. Yeah. That's the 

only way this species has survived, It doesn't sound like 

a spiritual 

experience most of the time. 

[00:21:44] Track 1: I actually brought it up at dinner and he is like, he's like, don't talk about it. I'm having dinner. I was like, what do you mean? He's like, I just think about all the blood. You know? He had a very different view 

of the experience. 

[00:21:55] Kelly: for sure. Yeah. My husband said he went to the bathroom after the baby was delivered and he walked back out 

and he [00:22:00] says, he was like, you were like, fla open I was like, 

really gross.

[00:22:05] Track 1: Yeah, anytime the nurses came in and to check on us when we were still in the 

hospital, he was Like 

can

you check her? There was a lot of blood and they were just like, there was actual minimal bleeding . I was, I did have to get stitched a little. I was still like, just like two stitches. 

I think it 

was 

[00:22:21] Kelly: yeah. That's good. So 

did you push for very long? 

Do you remember? 

[00:22:26] Track 1: just like I mean, when I 20 minute whatever, 20 minute push. And I, I mean, I feel like I wasn't even pu she was born 20 minutes later and I don't like, I mean, I, I feel like I p pushed very few times.

It was like, 

[00:22:40] Kelly: Yeah. Well cuz when you come in a hundred percent a faced and eight centimeters , like the ment, I feel like is the one of the hardest parts. Cuz once you get that cervix nice and stretchy 

and thin, it's just like the baby's just gonna come

out. 

You know? You're not gonna have to do a whole lot, 

[00:22:53] Track 1: Yeah. 

[00:22:53] Kelly: and then did they notice 

that she had meconium before she

delivered or was it afterwards and [00:23:00] then

they call. 

[00:23:01] Track 1: It was before she delivered because I, them saying you know, rate it, rate when she came out. So I don't remember how close it was. I do think it was after they broke the water. So I do think it was like within that 20 minute window, if that's 

[00:23:14] Kelly: Oh yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. If they, I didn't, sometimes if they break the water and it's clear and then a little bit later or after delivery, they'll notice the meconium. And if the baby inhales, whatever's behind the, there's the four bag, and then if the baby's blocking everything in, then sometimes all that's what they breathe in, 

[00:23:33] Track 1: So what would've happened? if I had her at home, like just with a midwife and her stomach wasn't pumped? would she have gotten really sick? could have been 

fatal like that? 

[00:23:41] Kelly: it's hard to say. the recommendations change at this point we just evaluate and if the baby has to have that deep suction, like where they go all the way down to the stomach, then they'll go ahead and do it. And it just, it's depending on how the baby reacts. And then if there's further, respiratory symptoms, then they might do [00:24:00] a chest x-ray.

And if there's any, Further symptoms of like lung problems or the possibility of any kind of infection, then they might do some treatment for that. But it's kind of just watch and wait Cause it's hard to know if it goes directly into the lungs or if they swallow it or what happened.

But they'll try to suction out anything if the baby's having some trouble, breathing at the time of birth. Now, back when. your daughter was born seven years ago. They did recommend, I believe, if I remember 

correctly, from what N R P was 

back then, I believe they went ahead and suctioned after a 

meconium delivery.

[00:24:36] Track 1: Yeah, 

[00:24:36] Kelly: but now it's kind of a, they've 

[00:24:38] Track 1: pumper stomach was the words they used. That's, 

[00:24:40] Kelly: Oh, they called it that? Yeah. It's a, I mean, essentially That's,

what it is. They're just trying to 

get the stuff out of the stomach, because that's probably where it went. But if she took a deep. And then for a while they would say, don't stimulate the baby, because they didn't ba, anything in the mouth to go into the lungs.

So the reason that you stimulate a baby after they're born is to get 'em to take [00:25:00] that big, deep breath. But 

then the fear was that if they took the big deep breath, then the meconium would go in there and cause 

problems. 

[00:25:05] Track 1: The screaming when she came out 

[00:25:07] Kelly: she came. 

out 

screaming. Oh, good. Yeah. So they probably, that was just the 

practice back then that they would suction out the. or like however deep the pediatrician 

decided that they needed to go. but Yeah.

like I said, it's changed a little bit, but

you know, you know better, you do better. And we can't do studies on babies. We have to just go based on evidence and we would review charts and all that stuff. So it takes, it takes a long time for changes to come. So, you, how long, how 

much time did you 

have off

after she was born? 

[00:25:37] Track 1: I could have had a little bit more I would've had more paid than I did. But I'm a school testing coordinator and so my daughter 

came right after one testing window and you know, A month and a half before another testing window. So I went back to work after a month and a half, I would've had two weeks.

And honestly, if I was still just teaching in the classroom, I probably would've taken that last [00:26:00] month and a half off, unpaid and just had her through the summer. But my main role in my school is giving standardized tests, which happened heavily at the end of the school year.

So I came back, for that. My daughter went to daycare, in-home daycare. right next to the school, I work out and we call the name of my school, we call that daycare because all the teachers send their kids there. It's in-home daycare.

She's amazing. And she actually ended up watching my daughter. When she was much older, like four during the pandemic as well 

[00:26:33] Kelly: Oh wow. 

[00:26:34] Track 1: different things like that. 

So 

[00:26:35] Kelly: those in-home daycares, man. They're pretty amazing. 

It sounds like she's got a corner on the 

market too, if she's right next to the

school. 

[00:26:41] Track 1: yes, And 

just takes teachers from our school cuz she 

likes getting 'em early and then getting off early in the 

afternoon. 

[00:26:47] Kelly: Oh, nice.

so were you able to still breastfeed? Did you 

go

to daycare 

to, 

[00:26:52] Track 1: I just pumped. I pumped and the same way my milk came in strong. 

I could pump two bottles in 

like 10 seconds. 

[00:26:59] Kelly: Oh [00:27:00] my 

gosh. That's awesome.

[00:27:01] Track 1: I had a coworker. It was actually the 

coworker that gave me the book. 

know, we would pump together. We had a pumping room that we would pump together. Her baby was several months older than mine and she would say to me, cuz she had limited supplies, and me, she looked at me one time and she said, I know what it feels like to be a boy in the locker with a small wiener

She's like, I feel so jealous of your mouth,

[00:27:26] Kelly: That's funny. Yeah. I can definitely relate to that because being a nurse, we had our pumping room as well, and it was always like, we would always fluctuate and some people were, would be having a lot of milk at 

one time and some people wouldn't. And were just like,

Ugh, why 

can't we just like combine it?

You know? 

[00:27:42] Track 1: Yeah, I definitely had extra. I definitely did donate some. And I froze 

as much as I could. I was blessed. I was able give breast milk to my daughter for know, several months after. I was physically breastfeeding her because at the time, breastfed her, I think 14 months.

So at the time she was already on [00:28:00] solid food, so she wasn't taking that much breast milk, but I still had a lot for her to take a bottle with for a very long 

time.

[00:28:07] Kelly: That's awesome. when you went back It was probably like, 

was It April or May?

[00:28:12] Track 1: It was yeah. Beginning of May. Yeah, beginning 

of May. 

[00:28:15] Kelly: then did you take 

the 

summer off? 

[00:28:16] Track 1: yeah.

I 

I 

[00:28:18] Kelly: Oh, that's good. Yeah. ....I didn't know if you had

to do like coordinating during the summer 

[00:28:23] Track 1: Yeah, no, I mean sometimes I, I used to work over the summer, 

know, just doing summer school testing. 

but I haven't done that since the pandemic. 

[00:28:30] Kelly: Yeah, 

So you kind of answered way this when you're stressed out and you're trying to process new information, if you do anything unusual, that's, I think it was

your husband that did that though. 

Cause he was trying to 

convince you that you weren't a 

labor 

[00:28:43] Track 1: Yeah, I feel like 

I was very sound mind. I 

[00:28:46] Kelly: right? Yeah.

You were very 

mentally prepared. 

[00:28:48] Track 1: Yeah, I talked to my brother like around seven, 

like right around that time I was thinking I was in labor and I didn't say anything cuz I didn't 

want, I didn't want anything and I didn't, I didn't want my family [00:29:00] there.

My family all lives far away. My dad was coming first and then my mom. I didn't want my family. In the hospital and it worked out that way. cuz my dad got there March 20th, which was his 60th birthday born. So like right after I was getting outta the hospital. So 

that worked My 

dad's in Florida, my mom's in California, so, then my husband's family is in Africa, . 

So, I've been married 13 years. I've never even 

met my in-laws. 

Yeah. 

[00:29:25] Kelly: Oh my 

goodness. so did your parents come at the same time or

did they like alternate and did you have help for a while? 

[00:29:31] Track 1: So My dad came first 

with his wife, and then my mom came later and I, my mom's an educator too, so I think she came hers. Spring break maybe. I don't remember how we decided or whatever, but that's just how it was. My dad was there for his 60th birthday and then my mom came a few weeks later, so it was 

good.

[00:29:51] Kelly: That's great. Did you feel like 

you had good support at that point? 

[00:29:55] Track 1: Yeah.

I did 

cuz at 

church, called it March Madness. There was like [00:30:00] five of us in my congregation that all had babies in March. One of my, still to this day's best friends. she lives a little bit further away from me now, but she's still in the general area. But her due date was much earlier and mine was the 24th, so it was a little bit later.

We didn't anticipate being in the hospital at the same time she delivered at the 

same 

me. 

[00:30:21] Kelly: Oh my gosh. And you guys were 

there 

at the same

[00:30:23] Track 1: We were there at the same time. Her daughter 

[00:30:25] Kelly: Oh my 

[00:30:25] Track 1: day before. My 

daughter, 

[00:30:27] Kelly: Aw, 

[00:30:27] Track 1: so 

say they met in the hospital, she came wheeled herself over and said hi to us and she said, yeah, the nurses came to check on us and like, where are they

Like they never people leave the room where they didn't know. So yeah, so. 

[00:30:41] Kelly: That's 

[00:30:41] Track 1: Our daughters literally met, met in the hospital and are still besties to this day. So that's a lot of fun. And yeah, so I felt like I had a lot of support, which was nice because I kind of feel for the moms who had babies during the pandemic in terms of not having that support because [00:31:00] where I was living, you know, and I had my D daughter seven years ago, so that was several years before the pandemic.

you know, I had so much community, but since I've moved to a new area during the pandemic, I feel like I still have yet to find that same community that I had. Then, which is okay now cause my daughter's older. But I feel like I would've been really lost without that community when my daughter was a newborn.

So it was very helpful. I always said to that friend in particular, she had a son before, so I was like, it's so much easier to be like two on three than one-on-one. Like I was 

like, ,let's be 

sister wives. But like,

[00:31:37] Kelly: right? 

[00:31:38] Track 1: Other's, husbands, 

[00:31:40] Kelly: Um, yeah. 

That's

fair.

[00:31:44] Track 1: we should just all move in together and like have babies 

together 

and like take turns.

[00:31:50] Kelly: for sure. Yeah.

That village is super important. 

Well, if there's nothing

else, that you wanted to share, 

thank you so much, Sarah, for joining me. And [00:32:00] 

don't forget to check out Sarah's YouTube channel 

Curl to Curl. I'll put it in the show notes. 

[00:32:05] Track 1: Thanks so much, Kelly, 

[00:32:06] Kelly: yeah. 

[00:32:07] Track 1: me. Have a great 

[00:32:08] Kelly: Huh. You too. 

Do you have questions that you wish a labor nurse could answer as your due date approaches? Do you wish you could pick someone's brain about all the things that might happen during your labor? When you meet with your OB or midwife, do you forget your questions in the moment? Do you feel like you need someone to take more time to walk you through what might happen in the hospital and how to truly mentally prepare. 

You're in luck because I'm offering this as a free service in 2023. To get details on how to schedule a free session with me. Email me at birth journeys, R n@gmail.com.