A Mama-story of how her practice morphed

Happy Birthday Turtle Man!

Two years ago yesterday I birthed my little boy with a fantastic team of providers and my husband.  My son’s conception changed how I handled my pregnancy, gave me the gift to see how small changes in the everyday pregnancy can affect the outcome at birth, and motivated me to follow through with a wish and conversation had in a NICU under his big sister’s isolette.  Today I am going to share with you what the changes were, the gift he gave me and my family, and a peek into the wish and conversation.

Conception and Change  - A Second Chance for a Better Birth

As most readers will know, my daughter’s birth was full of excitement, trauma, and a journey we never expected.  She was a breechling who surprised us with her sensitivity to birth and her amazing resilience for recovery.  Here is a link to her birth story.  Bruce, my husband, and I, had initially planned to have our children 14 months apart but Miss. Magnolia wanted a little more space   between   herself and her sibling.  So, when Bruce and I finally got up the courage to have the discussion about getting pregnant again, I think we accomplished it the same night. ;-)  We agreed that I would get time and support to tandem nurse as long as possible, be able to go to yoga as often as needed, get counseling, and receive chiropractic and massage as often as possible.  We were determined to repair my pelvis and create as much space as possible for Baby 2 to be in a head down (vertex) position, and hopefully occiput anterior – for the geeks out there.

My eating for this pregnancy changed immensely from Magnolia’s pregnancy.  I ate what I wanted, when I wanted with as much protein as I could ingest.  During my first pregnancy I took everyone’s “advice” about, oh don’t eat that it has too much fat, don’t eat this it might cause blah, blah, blah.  I didn’t know any better.  This time around I learned a girl has got to eat.  So, lots of trail mix, avocados, and wild caught and organically raised meats.  A HUGE THANK YOU to Jack Bull for the deer and Robin and Gigi of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm for the organic foods.  It nourished the little Turtle Man and me. 

Our next big change was our birthing method.  We had used Birthing from Within for our first, and this time we took Bradley Method from Karen Bruce.  Bradley was an excellent method for my concrete thinker of a husband.  He walked away from the classes feeling like he really, finally, understood what labor and birth looked like. 

An aside:  I think it is important for everyone to find the birthing class that fits their needs.  There are so many wonderful techniques out there.  To name a few… Hypnobabies, Hypnobirthing, Lamaze, Calm Birth, and I am certain there are a multitude of other methods out there.  Research them, pick one, and invest in taking a class that goes beyond the weekend crash course at the hospital. 

Our friends Pete and Terri graciously took little Magnolia for us to be able to take the Bradley classes.  Thank you so much for giving up your Tuesday nights for 10 weeks.  This leads me to the next change.  Ask for help.  When your friends ask, “What can I do for you?” tell them.  Raising children really does take a village.  On the other end, after you have gotten your children out of babyhood and into toddlerhood, you can pay it forward to the next generation of family that needs support.  We have heavily relied on our friends to help us out with childcare and support.  This made it possible for me to stay home with the both kids for three months after the Turtle Man’s birth, a great gift to Bruce and I, and especially the children. 

Back on track, I get easily distracted.  I started going to yoga every Sunday, with Clare Welter, at about 12 weeks.  Very little deterred me from going.  I felt my body become stronger, my pelvis became more stable, and my endurance was getting better.  In the last month to month and a half I added yoga classes at Blooma because I wanted a workout that would build more tone and really push my endurance.  Thank you Sarah Longacre for the fun, juicy classes!  In addition I was getting out for long walks as often as possible.  I really was feeling much stronger and more prepared.  Squatting was my life! 

The Team:

Bruce and I agreed that planning a homebirth again would probably put us over the edge.  What if the Turtle Man had an unknown disorder like his sissy?  What if something odd happened during birth again?  All the usual questions filled with anxiety.  We agreed that Denny Hartung would help with the birth of our second.  He was so wonderful and respectful taking us on so late in our last pregnancy, we could hardly imagine birthing with another OB.  Besides, as we all know, he is the gold standard for hospital birthing care in the Midwest.  Denny was the only team member from our last birth we kept.  I spoke at length with Magnolia’s doula, Vanessa Plantenberg, and we both agreed it would be alright for me to use a different doula.  So Bruce and I settled, almost immediately, on Sarah Biermeier of Genea Birth – who is now a fantastic midwife!  Sarah was a great fit for us and it turned out that our Bradley instructor Karen Bruce was her back up.  It could not have worked out better. 

My complimentary care team changed as well.  Amber Moravec, D.C., of Naturally Aligned Family Chiropractic did my adjustments for me throughout the pregnancy and postpartum.  We had delightful and informative conversations about chiropractic care.  Magnolia fell in love with her too!  We miss Auntie Pop!  My massage therapist was Gina Potgeiter – colleague, friend, and amazing therapist.  It was so nice when I did get to see her.  Busy schedules make for difficulty in scheduling, but when you make these appointments hold them like a dental appointment.  And my ever patient counselor, Maureen Campion, guided me through the anxiety of this pregnancy, helped heal some of the guilt from the last birth, and made me feel more empowered to be able to have the birth I wanted.

The unsung hero of this pregnancy, of course, is Gail Tully.  I followed her around like a puppy learning as much as possible about BellyMapping and reading up on Spinning Babies.  I was religiously doing the Spinning Babies techniques and going to every workshop she had in the cities that spring.  She graciously palpated my silly tummy every time I asked, answered my incessant questions, and assured me this little guy was head down but occiput posterior – sunny side up.  

 I even got my belly painted by her and my belly graced the first pair of testicles she drew on a mama belly!  I LOVE that!  It was perfect because Turtle Man was direct OP so it was meant to be, and we knew he was a boy.  

Our co-madre relationship was born after a Belly Mapping workshop at Blooma in the parking lot.  I will tell that tale a little later on.

The other part of this pregnancy that was vastly different from the first was that we kept the prenatal appointments to ourselves, left the family out of the loop, and firmly decided that no one would be contacted in the last few weeks of the pregnancy until 24 hours after the Turtle Man arrived.  Well, Turtle Man surprised us with arriving three weeks before his estimated due date, the night before Sarah was supposed to leave on vacation.  I still feel a little bad about that. 

How did the labor and birth go?  Fast!  Water broke all over my beloved, aged dog West who just looked up and went back to sleep.  And the contractions started at 4 minutes apart and 30 seconds long and increased to 3 minutes apart, 1 minute long in a half hour.  Of course it was 2 am.  When else does this happen?  Magnolia got picked up by a good friend, Sarah arrived and started pushing on my sacrum – posterior babies make for some incredible back labor, and Bruce, well Bruce was packing and trying to wrap his head around being awake before 9 am.  Once I was dressed and had my contacts in, I decided I didn’t want glasses on during labor; I hustled outside to get in the car to head to Hudson – from South Minneapolis.  I will never forget the 430 am air, cool, crisp, loamy, earthy, lovely smell.  If I had been near the woods I would have marched in, found a pool, and birthed there.  Sarah pulled around in her van, fresh from the API camping trip, Bruce was not exiting the house quickly enough for me so I got into Sarah’s van and we headed east.  (Turns out the van was almost out of gas, I am told we arrived on fumes.  Thanks for holding the faith Sarah!)  I got on my knees in the front seat, used the dash as a counter pressure on my sacrum for contractions, and Sarah navigated us out to 94.  I distinctly remember when the Turtle Man turned to occiput anterior.  I had a very intense contraction, we had just crossed a river, and I felt him rotate and drop.  I have to say being more aware of your pelvis for the second birth is phenomenal and exciting.  It almost seemed like this little one was going to be a Hwy 94 birth but we made it to Hudson.  We got into the L&D to the water tub room and the nurses were a buzzing.  The noise was something else.  Nothing overtly loud but the click, click, click of typing, the whispered chatter, the tense voices.  I was checked because they were not confident that contractions that were 2 minutes apart and 90 seconds long meant the baby was on the way.  Nor were they willing to accept that I could feel the baby at +1.  They finally called Denny and I was allowed to get into the tub.  The water was amazing!  The discomfort from the contractions halved themselves and I was able to relax more.  Sarah stayed right by my side.  When Denny arrived the entire room calmed and quieted.  Thank you for being able to make that happen Denny!  I believe I labored for another hour and began pushing in the next hour.  (Bruce says I squatted for “Like an hour and a half!”  Those squats paid off!)  The sensation of that baby coming through the birth canal, rocking back and forth with the contractions, rotating with the contractions, crowning, and birthing out into that perfect startle posture was otherworldly.  I was told to scoop him up – and I did.  

We let the cord pulse out, I got out of the tub, and the placenta was born.  That little boy did not leave the arms of either parent for anything or anyone.  We discovered that the Turtle Man shares his birthday with Dr. Dennis Hartung, what a wonderful gift for us!  I only hope that my little man becomes as wonderful as Denny.  Later in the afternoon Gail and Clare visited us!  Another wonderful surprise!  Of course he chose to have his birth on a day when a breech workshop was happening…when else? 

The little Turtle Man was named later in the day…Bodhi Lee Johnson.  Bodhi is Sanskrit for the banyan tree, which is the tree the Buddha became enlightened under.  Lee for Bruce’s mother, and of course Bruce’s surname. 

A Wish and A Conversation

About three and a half years ago Gail and I were sitting on the floor in Magnolia’s NICU room talking about what had happened, why we thought it happened, and what can be done to change this type of outcome for other families.  (By the way, my daughter is quite well.)  We both knew that at some point we would end up working together.  My wish was, and still is to contribute my knowledge of anatomy and physiology to the Spinning Babies techniques.  

Let us jump ahead a two years.  I had been reading as much of Gail’s work as I could get my hands on and head around plus following her around town like a puppy.  I had signed up to go to a Belly Mapping workshop she was giving at Blooma and she invited me to talk about the psoas and do some demos with the other participants.  It was joyful!  We had a great time!  Gail was painting tummies, Nickie Kerrigan (a wonderful midwife as well) was doing CranioSacral work, and I was releasing psoas’.  Of course the evening passed too quickly and the sun was setting as Gail and I strolled into the parking lot.  For many months I had been getting up the courage to ask if I could write for her and help with curriculum.  I finally asked.  She said yes!  Can you believe it?  I couldn’t.  So I started writing up a storm and doing research and putting stuff together and the next thing you know it is eighteen months later and we are presenting at the 3^rd International Breech Conference in Maryland together!  My wish came true!  It still is coming true!

Since then we touch base as often as possible with two very full lives working together.  We have collaborated on a few projects and had the joy of teaching together again.  Gail has taken me in and given me a way to shape my skills in a way that I hope will change lives.  Thank you for that!  As I move forward I continue to learn about birth and women’s bodies not only from Gail but also the plethora of talented birth workers in our community here in Minnesota and Wisconsin – well, and for that matter all over the world.  I am hoping to bring massage and bodywork into pregnancy and birth as a tool that can be used to ease pregnancy, help mothers recover from past injury and trauma to prepare for their next or first birth, teach families what they can do to create space for baby to be in optimal position for labor and birth, and make the postpartum recovery more comfortable.  My next post will begin to outline what I do with the tools I have and who has gifted me each tool.

Thank you everyone for being there for me, supporting me, and helping guide my hands to where they are now.  I am humbled by your love.