At Home, With Nature
Ariona's Story
The birth of Jade Chere Preston
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This is the whole, sincere & pure birth story of our baby girl, Jade Chere. I have felt so strongly to share my experience of bringing her beautiful soul onto this earth. On 8/13 at 1:14am our angel was born into the secure hands of her father.
My hope in sharing this story is to inspire you to feel confident and trusting in your ability to birth your baby. I wish to bring comfort & encouragement through my words. This is me telling you my interpretation of my birth. I’m sure there are a few details I cannot remember because of the surreal & dreamy state of consciousness I was in but this is the gist.
The observance of life. I had never experienced anything like it. Too often, birthing is looked at as something that needs to be controlled. And while I am grateful for the knowledge and abilities we have now, I feel it takes away a lot of the courage & knowing women should have to birth their babies.
It was primal. It was lively and exhausting all at once. The morning of August 12th around 8am, I was outside watering my garden. I would take this time in the morning to feel the sunshine on my belly, and speak to my sweet baby. I noticed halfway through gardening that I was having a sensation in my tummy, it felt grounding. I thought maybe it was braxton-hicks but I was 4 days past my due date so I wasn’t sure. I began to notice that this was happening around every 30 minutes. This continued through the morning. Around 12pm I texted Shauna and let her know what I had been feeling. We already had an appointment scheduled at 2pm so she told me she’d be by then & would see how I’m doing. I laid on my couch dreaming about the arrival of our baby. When Shauna arrived she listened to my baby’s heartbeat & asked me a few questions about how I’ve been feeling. She had watched me have a surge & told me that I could be in early labor because my contractions were still pretty far apart. She left & I continued my day.
I felt an urge to walk around so Reed (my partner) and I wandered through our land, talking about how delighted we were to meet our sweet baby girl. When we returned I noticed that I had some bloody mucus running down my leg. I was so joyful to see this, because it meant our baby could be joining us soon. Around 5pm I began making dinner, some chicken breast with zucchini. At this time I was surging about every 10 minutes. I noticed that I couldn’t even sit down anymore, I had to squat or kneel. I finished cooking dinner around 6:30 but I was too distracted to eat, and food didn’t sound appealing anymore. After this, things began to blur. I put a few drops of clary sage essential oil into our diffuser and we began to set up for the birth. Reed brought in the tub we had purchased. I prepared the bed & hung up some birth affirmations I created a few days before. Our bedroom looked surreal. I was so happy to be in the comfort of my own home.
By now, it was about 8pm and things were becoming powerful. I was kneeling on the floor squeezing my yoga ball, breathing through the sensations, moving my body naturally the way I felt to. I would look up to read my affirmations, “I welcome each wave, I am open, I am safe”. Through all of this, it still never occurred to me I was truly in labor, my mind never let me think that thought. I was just present in the moment. I had very few thoughts. Around 9pm, my surges were getting closer together, about 5 minutes apart. Reed called Shauna and let her know that things were progressing and becoming more profound. He started to fill the tub with warm water. Only about 30 minutes passed when we called Shauna again and let her know my contractions were now 3 minutes apart. Things were progressing fast. She told us she was going to pack up and would be on her way!
When Shauna arrived it was about 10pm, and I had just got into the tub. The warm water felt incredibly soothing. I was in such a dreamy state of consciousness. She proceeded to wash her hands and asked if she could listen to our baby’s heartbeat. I said yes and in between a surge we listened. It was beautiful. She asked me if I wanted to feel around my cervix & see how dilated I was. I reached up & felt something round and hard. I didn’t quite grasp that this was the head of our baby girl but Shauna assured me this is what I was feeling. I was surprised, it felt unreal! It was so empowering to feel myself. I felt so in control of my own birth, but also safe with the presence of Shauna around. Mischa (her apprentice)then showed up. We talked about how I was feeling & then another surge came on. This one was very intense and felt very deep, I continued to breathe through it. Afterwards I said something like “I cannot believe women do this!” or something along those lines. I was in such awe, feeling my body do exactly what it needed to do to safely deliver my baby. Shauna and Mischa sat in my living room and I continued laboring in the tub with Reed by my side. I was having visions of strange flowers & moaning and roaring. It felt so sweet to be alone with Reed in this way. Mischa came in to check on me and brought to my attention that it seemed like I was trying to “escape” from myself instead of feeling it. She told me that I should breathe down, into myself. After she spoke this to me I really understood! I began breathing down, focusing my energy down. Slowly bringing my baby down.
I had lost track of time, I didn’t even know what time was anymore. It felt like I was in a pure state of dreaming. I could no longer answer to anyone, I was so deep in myself. I began to have doubts and felt like I couldn’t continue, I wanted to cry. I believe that this was the death of my maiden self. I was transitioning from maiden to mother. And then I began to feel nauseous, I wanted to throw up. Shauna brought me a trash can but I never ended up throwing up. I believe this was my body’s last attempt to purge out everything. Shauna came in to check on me and I reached down to feel myself and noticed that my bag of waters was bulging out of me. She asked me if I wanted to get out of the tub & have a few contractions on the toilet. She and Reed helped me out of the tub and onto the toilet. Those few surges I had on the toilet were the most intense yet. I was grabbing onto Reed, squeezing him and roaring. Surrendering to my body. After about three surges I felt a pop and it was my bag of waters bursting! I placed my hand under myself to feel and my baby girl's head was almost there! I was surprised because I had not even begun pushing! My body was doing all the work for me. Reed and Shauna helped me back into the tub. Shauna boiled a kettle of water to pour into the tub to make sure it was warm enough for our baby. This warmth felt so incredible. My surges became further apart, it gave myself a little break. Some time to rest. I could feel another surge coming on so I reached down to feel our baby’s head coming out. My body was opening up more & more. I kept envisioning a flower blossoming. The depth. The pressure. It was burning! I remembered saying how much it burned. Shauna told me to breathe and to just take it slow. I felt the next surge coming and this one was very intense! I couldn’t hold it back, my body pushed so hard and I felt a big release. I knew that this was her head. I felt such deep relaxation and relief. I could feel the buoyancy of the water pulling her up, this felt very uncomfortable. Shauna told me to just wait for the next contraction. Mischa helped Reed get ready with his hands open to catch her and when the next contraction came on, I took a deep breath and pushed hard as her shoulders and body slid through.
Those first few seconds of her coming out of me are a complete blur, I do not recall any of it. I just remember Reed bringing her to my chest, and instantly I began crying tears of joy! I screamed, “my baby!” I was so relieved, and filled with so much love. Our sweet girl was finally with us. I remember looking down into her eyes, they were sparkling in the light, so bold. She made a few sweet sounds, but nothing like a cry. Her essence was so warm and peaceful. Shauna & Mischa made sure to keep her warm by placing blankets on her so we could lay and bond together in the water. I remember looking at Reed, so amazed at what I just endured!
I then understood that babies don’t need to come out screaming like I had pictured in my head. Babies can come out peacefully & joyful, with sweet sounds of life. Our baby was happy and at ease. We could not stop staring at her and crying such happy tears. I did it! I really did it. I was so proud of myself. I felt so empowered. It was the greatest feeling in the world.
I had completely forgotten about my placenta! I asked Shauna why I was still contracting, and she reminded me that I still had to deliver my placenta! I was not pleased. She told me not to worry and that it was soft and squishy and would be easy to push out. It wasn’t painful at all, I just gave a slight push and it slid right out. Shauna placed the placenta in a bowl so we could keep Jade attached to it. I was amazed that I had created this red blob that had nourished our baby for 9 months! It was so beautiful! My heart had never felt so full before. Shauna and Mischa helped me out of the tub and onto the bed. I was so shaky! I couldn’t even hold my own weight up. They got me onto the bed and I laid there and began to nurse our baby girl. Looking down at her little mouth sucking on me was so beautiful. I thought about how amazing it was that she just knew how to eat!
These moments were complete bliss. The sheer best of my life. The entire birth was more alluring and powerful then I could have asked for. Shauna cleaned up our room and made sure we were comfortable. We were in our sweet little home with our baby, laying in our own bed! Only hours after she was born. We all laid together and settled into sleep around 4am. But now as a family of 3. From now on, my life would never be the same. I had transitioned into a mother.