Ep 281: Long Labor Turned Surprise Breech Homebirth
Breech birth is supposed to be rare, right? How would you feel if you had more breech babies than head down babies?!
This week we’re speaking to Stephanie Kase, who has had twice as many breech babies as she’s had cephalic presentations! Stephanie is mama to 3 under 3, wife, and online business coach from Greenville, SC. She's married to her husband, Michael, of 7 years with 3 girls - twin toddlers and a baby girl. She's a huge believer in trusting your God-given intuition in birth.
Episode Roundup:
1. I can’t help but start with Stephanie’s mindset. Wow. As soon as she heard that she was pregnant with twins, her reaction was delight. Her first thought wasn’t, “oh my goodness, how are we going to do this?” but instead, “oh my goodness, what a blessing.” This could be seen throughout her story– Even when she shared about her experience with the NICU and the obvious difficulty that had to have come from having her plans change and giving birth in the hospital, and then spending weeks at that hospital….. It’s very clear to me that Stephanie has taken these experiences and learned to look at them with positive eyes– quickly pulling out the goodness in how things unfolded, even while acknowledging the areas that she wouldn’t have chosen for herself by any means.
I feel this is so worth highlighting. Truly, it can be the easier route to see all of the things that didn’t happen the way we expected and then find ourselves hanging in that upset place for days, months, years, even decades. There is something so powerful in being able to take our story, see it for what it truly is: The good parts, the hard parts– acknowledge them all! And then choose the way we are going to interact with that event. Sometimes this requires help and support. But when we are able to genuinely process our births– and many other intense situations– we are able to accept them, see the good parts, perhaps even focus on those, and move on in our lives even more empowered, more confident, and filled with more gratitude. Stephanie really embodies this, and I hope you were as encouraged by that as I was.
2. And next, I love the way Stephanie thoughtfully interacted with her birthing choices. For example, she could have been convinced by the first doctor she spoke with at the hospital who told her she would need a cesarean. Instead, she and her midwife sought another provider. Another example could be seen in her second birthing experience, where she knew that she didn’t want to be checked. She knew that there was no information at that time that she would gain from a vaginal exam that would change anything about her plans of how she would give birth. This resulted in a beautiful breech birth with no need to transport into the hospital. Education combined with intuition– wow, it’s a powerful thing, my friends, and it serves us so well not only during birth, but throughout the whole of motherhood.
Links:
Samaritan Ministries
Happy Homebirth Academy
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