04/14/2026
Cesarean Awareness Month ✨Leo’s Birth Story. As a midwife, I’ve witnessed every kind of birth. I didn’t have a strict birth plan for myself, but I hoped to avoid a cesarean if possible.
I did all the “right” things for a healthy pregnancy — lifted weights, exercised, did pelvic floor PT, watched my carbs, and powered through 17 long weeks of nausea. I only gained 5 pounds and felt proud of how prepared my body was.
At 35 weeks, I started feeling off. When I finally checked my blood pressure, it was high — and stayed high. Preeclampsia meant a 37-week induction. Not ideal, but baby was measuring 99%, so maybe meeting him a little early wasn’t the worst thing.
Amanda started my induction with a foley balloon and cytotec, then pitocin, and breaking my water. Kelsy took over the next morning. I chose to get an epidural before I was super uncomfortable because I had a gut feeling it might be tricky, and the anesthesiologist on that shift was one of my favorites. Placement took a little work but it started out okay. Then we waited. And waited. And waited.
We tried everything — position changes, patience, teamwork. Between my amazing nurses, Kelsy, and myself we racked our brains and tried all the things to help the baby rotate into a better position. I sat at 6 cm for what felt like forever. Somewhere in there, the epidural stopped working well and things start to get fuzzy in my memory. I remember being exhausted. I remember feeling done.
Then suddenly, I was complete and it was time to push. I had developed intense neck pain related to the epidural complication, and after pushing for a while, I asked Kelsy if anyone would come try forceps. This was the one thing I had wanted to avoid my whole pregnancy, but I felt desperate and I trusted my team that if they felt it wasn’t a good option, they wouldn’t try. Assisted delivery with forceps was attempted by one of the amazing maternal fetal medicine doctors I work with, but my baby was wedged in a tough position — sunny side up, head tilted sideways, not budging.
At that point, a cesarean became the safest way to bring him into the world. Continued in comments…