Corban's Birth Story

So Grant was hoping I would post "his" birth story, or rather, his account of Corban's birth. I never did write my version, so we'll have to rely on his for accuracy. :) He did a great job...he actually wrote it the day Corban was born and surprised me with it.

Well Everyone, Corban David Mora is here! Our son was born at 1:31 am on October 20, 2003. He weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz; and was 23 inches long! Very LONG AND LEAN! Apparently the pain Rebekah was feeling under her collar bone really was Corban kicking (ok so it was only her lower lung…) He currently has a LOT of brown hair, and very deep baby blue eyes… lets hope he keeps those colors!

As some of you know, Rebekah and I strongly support and desire natural child birth, but were not opposed to Medical Intervention if either her or our child were threatened. Here is the short version of our labor story written by me, alone, with out Rebekah’s review, VERY quickly, while checking on the dog before returning to her and Corban at the hospital… for a more accurate and complete version you will have to ask Rebekah… Oh, for those of you who think to be concerned about Corban’s vitals through the Labor, rest assured he has a fantastically strong heart and was never in any stress… in fact it appeared as though he enjoyed the stimulation!

Rebekah went into labor on Saturday morning at 9:30ish, and was admitted to Labor and Delivery at 7:00 pm (Dilated at 3 cm, 80% effaced). We arrived with more gear than you could shake a stick at, one nurse didn’t even know what our birthing ball was, and all were impressed by Rebekah’s ‘Birth Plan’, foresight to have a medical power of attorney for me, and her overall knowledge, and preparation.—My wife is remarkable and I AM SO PROUD OF HER!

Back to the story,
Rebekah remained in Active 1st stage labor until early Sunday morning. At 10:00 pm we had only progressed to 4 cm but were 100% effaced. By midnight Saturday night, after 2 more hours of even harder contractions we were disappointed to be informed that she was only at 5 cm. The rest of the night and early morning Rebekah labored hard, REALLY HARD. We thought for sure we would have that baby soon! Alas, that was not what God had in store for us.

We think Transition Stage (where you go from 7-10 cm, and is typically the hardest and shortest Stage of Labor lasting between 10 minutes and an hour) began at about 5:00 on Sunday Morning, however, we know that by 8:00 am when her midwife checked her she was at 8 cm, there she remained for the next 7 agonizing hours (though she spent a total of 12 hours at 8 cm). At about 12:30 pm she was checked again and it was discovered there had been no forward progress, we decided to intensify her contractions with natural methods to no avail, that is, the contractions came faster and harder but when she was checked again at 2:30 pm we were again told we were still at 8 cm.

At this point While I was very tired, I hadn’t been laboring for 30 hours like Rebekah… she was exhausted both because of the labor and because of sleep deprivation and food deprivation… hey guys, you try eating when you can’t even walk from an intense muscular contraction you can’t stop or rest from…. Let’s put it in perspective… do you exercise? Try doing bench press, pushups, incline press, decline press and every variation there of to totally smoke one muscle group… FOR 30 HOURS STRAIGHT… and see if you have the heart to do what Rebekah then did…

As Rebekah’s Coach, I knew my Athlete really wanted a natural delivery, and I truly believed that we were close, really close, to the magic 10 cm mark. I gave her a good pep talk after discussing some not so fun options with our midwife and doctor, which included the mention of a Cesarean Section. We then did our best to intensify contractions again with natural techniques, and by 3:00pm things were REALLY moving. Doing her best to relax through her contractions, and focus on surrendering to the labor, allowing her uterus to do the work it was designed to do, Rebekah fought through another hour of what was some of the most amazingly intense contractions you could imagine.

When the agreed upon time came for our midwife to check her again, Rebekah was still only dilated at 8 cm. – I could not bring myself to coach her though another hour like that, not at the exhausted state she was at… we needed a break, Rebekah needed some rest or she would never be able to push Corban out. Fortunately both of us felt that an Epidural was the way to go, followed by the breaking of her waters. We did not break her waters previously because the Bag of Waters serves as a great natural cushion to keep the intensity of uterine contractions from overwhelming a laboring mother…

At 5:10 pm on Sunday, Rebekah received an Epidural and at about 5:35 her waters were broken. Two hours later she was still at 8 cm… despite these two interventions. Again the Doctor brought up the subject of a Cesarean Section, and again we wanted to avoid it, an internal monitor was fed into her uterus in order to be ‘squeezed’ and therefore get a very accurate reading on the strength of her contractions. We discovered that because of the extremely long labor, her uterus was no long able to give contractions powerful enough to finish dilating the Cervix, let alone be able to birth our son. We opted for Pitocen, a medication that stimulates uterine contractions, in order to finish the labor.

Finally at Midnight on Sunday night Rebekah had reached 10 cm, but still had no overwhelming urge to push. After another hour of contractions Rebekah had an urge to push… and at 1:00 am on Monday she began pushing.

Second Stage Labor… Rebekah originally intended to give birth to Corban in the squatting position using a squatting bar. However, the Epidural made this an impossibility. The next best position, which was our alternate planned position, should Rebekah’s knee give out, was the Assisted Classic Position. In this position, the Labor Coach sits behind the Athlete and acts as a backrest while pulling back on the Athlete’s thighs ‘simulating’ a squat from a seated position. All the Labor and Delivery Staff were amazed to see this… I guess they don’t see to many couple that do their homework or train for this like Rebekah and I did.

After only a half hour of pushing Corban came screaming into this world and was immediately placed on Rebekah’s chest for bonding. With digital cameral in hand I snapped our first family photo, minus our dog.

Third stage labor we won’t discuss, as most people leave during the credits of a movie anyway…

Well there you have it, the story of the birth of our little boy, Corban David. A total of 40 hours of labor, 12 of which she spent at 8 cm dilated… my hat is off to my wife, she has more than proven my claim that she is capable of anything. Our little boy is a strong little tike with lots of hair, and fantastic leg muscle definition, I am sure his Uncle Eric is already dreaming of the Mountain Bike races he will one day coach his Nephew to destroy his opponents in.

Grant stopped by a bakery and got this adorable ice cream cake for us to celebrate. We ended up giving most of it to the nurses, because we certainly couldn't eat it all!