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The Birth Hour - A Birth Story Podcast964| Prodromal Labor Before Long but Empowering Homebirth Birth Story - Kaely McDevitt
The Birth Hour - A Birth Story Podcast964| Prodromal Labor Before Long but Empowering Homebirth Birth Story - Kaely McDevitt
964| Prodromal Labor Before Long but Empowering Homebirth Birth Story - Kaely McDevitt
Update: 2025-02-25
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Beyond the First Latch Course (comes free with KYO course)
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Transcript
00:00:00
I think my water just broke.
00:00:06
I felt like things really intensify.
00:00:08
She was right there and she was coming.
00:00:10
It was it was an amazing feeling.
00:00:13
I'm gonna cry just thinking about it.
00:00:14
I could feel her head.
00:00:16
We heard her cry.
00:00:17
We were squeezing hands and she was screaming.
00:00:21
I'm Brynn Hunt Palmer and you're listening to The Birth Hour.
00:00:25
This podcast is designed as a safe place to come together and share childbirth stories.
00:00:29
Stick around and join us to hear informative and empowering birth journeys from all over the world.
00:00:35
This episode is in partnership with Motif Medical.
00:00:41
Motif designs insurance eligible products for busy moms.
00:00:46
With a focus on innovation and empowerment, Motif's line of breast pumps and maternity compression garments are sophisticated yet discrete and made to support mothers as they navigate new motherhood.
00:00:56
Discover why moms are reporting more milk in less time with the Luna breast pump and see how you can get it covered through insurance@motifmedical.com/birthhour.
00:01:04
You'll also see their other products there like the Aura Glow, which is their new wearable pump that I discussed at the end of this episode with lactation consultant Jackie.
00:01:12
We talk about what makes this wearable unique and how it compares to the Luna and it's really just a great conversation.
00:01:17
So be sure to listen to that at the end of this episode.
00:01:20
Before we get to today's birth story, I want to talk a little bit about our online childbirth course.
00:01:25
It's called Know Your Options and this is the course you've been looking for if you just have that gut feeling that you know you should be taking a childbirth course, but maybe the one that's being offered to you by your care provider is not exactly what you're looking for.
00:01:37
It might be more catered towards the type of birth they want you to have versus making you informed of all your different options and how to address different things that happen in birth because as this podcast has shown us,
00:01:48
birth is very unpredictable.
00:01:50
So we would love to have you check out our 12 module course.
00:01:53
You can go to thebirthhour.com/course to see detailed outlines of what is included in the course.
00:01:59
You will also get a bonus course called Beyond the First Latch that is an additional six modules all about pumping, feeding your baby, going back to paid work if that's part of your plan,
00:02:10
and we have a special coupon code for you.
00:02:12
It's $100FF for $100 off enrollment.
00:02:15
Again, that's thebirthhour.com/course.
00:02:18
Another way to get involved with the birthhour community is by joining our Patreon.
00:02:22
This is where you pledge your support of the birthhour at $5 a month or more and you get perks in return like access to all of our archived episodes.
00:02:30
That's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of episodes.
00:02:32
We've been putting out birth stories since 2015 and those are all available in our archives via Patreon.
00:02:39
And you also get access to our private Facebook community, which is a really great group of people who are there to support you, become friends, and just encourage you on this journey through a parenthood.
00:02:49
So find out more about that at patreon.com/birthhour.
00:02:53
Today's birth story guest is Kaylee, and she's going to be showing her experience with Prodromo labor as well as a really long and difficult home birth labor.
00:03:01
But she describes the experience as a really empowering one.
00:03:04
All right, let's hear from Kaylee.
00:03:06
Hi, Kaylee.
00:03:08
Welcome to the birthhour.
00:03:09
Thank you so much for being on the podcast.
00:03:11
Hey, Bren.
00:03:11
Thank you so much for having me.
00:03:13
Yes, of course.
00:03:14
I'm excited to hear your story, but before we do that, can you tell us there's a little bit about you and your family?
00:03:19
Sure.
00:03:19
My name is Kaylee McDevitt.
00:03:21
I am a new first-time mom of an almost five-month-old boy named Tommy.
00:03:27
And I also work in Women's Health.
00:03:29
I'm a women's health dietitian and I own a virtual practice where my team and I help our clients optimize their metabolism and fertility.
00:03:37
And it was really an amazing thing to get to walk through this whole journey from start to finish after spending the last decade walking alongside our clients.
00:03:46
Yeah, very cool.
00:03:47
All right.
00:03:48
Well, we have Tommy's story here today.
00:03:51
It's such a cute name.
00:03:52
So why don't we start with getting pregnant, finding out you're pregnant.
00:03:56
Anything you want to share there?
00:03:58
Yeah.
00:03:58
So yeah, like I mentioned, this is my line of work.
00:04:01
So it was really exciting to finally enter a season where we could pursue this.
00:04:06
I think anyone that is a business owner might resonate with the fact that it's amazing and that you have flexibility with your schedule and sources of income.
00:04:14
But it's challenging because you don't have any kind of reliable maternity leave to count on.
00:04:19
You know, no one's providing that for you.
00:04:21
And so it really took us about a year to prepare the business for pregnancy.
00:04:26
So it was like this kind of whole other aspect of preparing for conception that we went through.
00:04:31
So it was a blessed oil thing as well because it gave me time and my husband time to really work on our health and mindset and relationship ahead of conceiving.
00:04:41
So there was a lot of work on, you know, the health and nutritional side of things.
00:04:46
Did I handful of labs to just make sure everything was good and just space for a lot of conversation for how, you know, we want a parent and enter this season of life.
00:04:54
So thankfully, you know, conception happened right away when when we wanted it to.
00:05:00
And I felt like I knew within a few days of being pregnant, I just felt different and I ended up taking a test very early because I just couldn't help myself.
00:05:09
I went very quickly from like, oh, I'll just trust my intuition.
00:05:12
I don't need a pregnancy test to Amazon priming like four tests overnight so that I could could know and got that positive pregnancy test.
00:05:20
And, you know, we hit the ground running from there.
00:05:23
All right.
00:05:23
And how was your pregnancy?
00:05:25
It was great for the most part.
00:05:26
You know, there was some humbling moments in there and I think I went into it a little cocky with the line of work that I'm in, thinking that I was going to be able to skip a lot of the first trimester symptoms and I was going to be able to navigate it without fail.
00:05:41
And, you know, definitely got humbled by some nausea and some fatigue and, you know, the typical stuff.
00:05:46
But aside from that, it was a really easy pregnancy, really enjoyable.
00:05:51
I really enjoyed being pregnant and loved the team that we worked with, both a midwifery team and a doula that we were with starting about 13 weeks on.
00:06:02
So you had a doula team did that and come with any like childbirth prep or did you just talk about what you wanted?
00:06:08
Yeah, it was a combination.
00:06:10
So we had a couple of in-person meetings just talking about vision and helping with, you know, the mindset piece.
00:06:16
But it also included hip-no-birthing course.
00:06:20
It was a five-week live virtual training that my husband and I did.
00:06:23
We read the book that went along with that too.
00:06:27
Interesting.
00:06:27
So for hip-no-birthing, when your husband does it with you, I haven't heard of that before.
00:06:31
Does it just kind of like teach them how to support you while you're in your zone or how did that work?
00:06:35
Yeah, well, it was a combination.
00:06:37
So it was a child birth education course for like the first two weeks and then hip-no-birthing for the remaining.
00:06:42
And yeah, it was more just for him to learn the various techniques and just be aware of them.
00:06:48
Cool.
00:06:48
All right.
00:06:49
Well, anything else for pregnancy, you want to share?
00:06:51
No, I guess the only other thing I would add because it'll come up in the in the birth story is we didn't do any ultrasounds throughout pregnancy.
00:06:58
We just used the Doppler with our midwife.
00:07:00
So the position of baby was kind of an unknown variable that'll come come to play in the story.
00:07:08
Okay.
00:07:09
All right.
00:07:09
Well, how did labor start for you?
00:07:11
Yeah.
00:07:11
So at around 38 weeks, I started to have prodromal labor.
00:07:17
I didn't know that it's what it was at the time.
00:07:20
But for anybody that's a fan of the show, the office and that fire drill episode with like Michael Scott yelling, oh my god, it's happening.
00:07:28
That was me every day for like two weeks.
00:07:30
And it was happening at night where I would have Braxton Hicks all day.
00:07:34
And then at night, they would intensify and become more painful and typically really mess my sleep up.
00:07:39
And every night I was thinking, okay, this is for sure it and it wasn't.
00:07:44
And I would fizzle out as the sun came up in the morning.
00:07:47
And that got to be really demoralizing.
00:07:50
I just was so tired from the sleep getting messed up throughout that.
00:07:54
And I was like, oh, man, I really don't want to go into the real thing with this kind of sleep deprivation.
00:07:59
And I was getting more and more frustrated.
00:08:01
My due date came and went.
00:08:03
I actually ended up going 40 weeks and six days.
00:08:07
And I had a conversation with my midwife right at 40 weeks where she was like, hey, I know we didn't do ultrasounds throughout your pregnancy, but I really have to recommend that if you go past 41 weeks,
00:08:18
we consider doing just some other testing to take a look and make sure everything is good.
00:08:22
And I was just really uncomfortable with the idea of adding that into the mix.
00:08:27
And it's funny that I ended up having him like one day short of the 41 week mark.
00:08:32
It's like my my body and baby were all lined on on that timeline.
00:08:36
And then the other interesting thing was that the midwifery team we hired is actually three great midwives in the Austin area here.
00:08:43
But one of the three is a personal friend of mine and who I was really wanting to be there for the day.
00:08:48
And she had a family vacation planned right around my due date.
00:08:52
So mentally this whole time, I was like, all right, we're just not going to have this baby around the due date.
00:08:57
It's going to be before or after.
00:08:59
And I was really planning on it being before because my mom had both me and my brother really early.
00:09:04
But sure enough, my midwife got back into town at 8 p.m.
00:09:07
And I went into labor at 10 p.m.
00:09:09
that night.
00:09:10
So it was like my body just relaxed knowing she was back home and labor was underway at that point.
00:09:16
Okay, so how did things progress from there?
00:09:19
So this started around 10 p.m.
00:09:21
And I knew immediately it was different from the pro drama labor that I had been experiencing.
00:09:27
It was just way more intense.
00:09:28
And I think I now understand when other moms had told me like, you will know for sure when it's the real thing.
00:09:35
And if you're questioning if it is, it's probably not.
00:09:37
So I knew right away it was different.
00:09:39
And very quickly it became clear I wasn't going to be able to sleep.
00:09:43
So I let my husband sleep because I was like, you're going to need this energy.
00:09:47
I'm sure.
00:09:47
And I went all into the living room.
00:09:49
And my friends had sent me a care package that had a bunch of letters from them that said, open when you're pretty sure it's time.
00:09:57
So I was like, well, I'm pretty sure it's time.
00:09:59
So I'm going to open this.
00:10:00
And I sat out in the living room and I read the letters from really important women in my life.
00:10:05
And it felt like they were there with me.
00:10:08
So I was laughing and crying at these letters.
00:10:10
And it was just this really special time where like I knew we were getting really close to meeting our baby.
00:10:16
It felt like my girlfriends were right there with me, but things were not so intense that I couldn't do something like that.
00:10:22
So it was a really special time.
00:10:24
I'm really thankful that I had that.
00:10:26
And after I read those letters, things continued to stay pretty intense and pretty consistent.
00:10:32
So I started to time them because I was just curious.
00:10:35
And I was bouncing around between about four and eight minutes between contractions throughout really the entire night.
00:10:42
I'd have quite a few that were really staying around four minutes.
00:10:45
And I was just about to text my doula and then I'd have a couple that was more spread out.
00:10:49
So I ended up waiting until the morning to reach out to the birth team.
00:10:53
I wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to fizzle out once the sun came up.
00:10:57
Like I'd been my life for the previous two weeks.
00:11:00
And the sun came up.
00:11:02
They stayed about the same intensity, the same frequency.
00:11:05
So we called our doula and midwife and they came over.
00:11:09
They got over kind of mid-morning.
00:11:12
And I walked them through everything that had happened and everybody was bummed about the fact that I got approximately zero minutes of sleep the night before.
00:11:20
It's really not how I wanted to go into it.
00:11:23
But it is what it is.
00:11:24
And I started to notice I was having really intense back labor at this time.
00:11:29
It was a sensation that I wasn't prepared to experience.
00:11:33
And it was making me pretty nauseous to have that back pains.
00:11:36
It was hard for me to eat.
00:11:37
And that was a bummer too because one of the things that I was excited about with having a home birth is that I would have the ability to nourish myself how I saw fit throughout labor.
00:11:46
But I was having a really hard time with appetite, with the back pain that was coming on.
00:11:52
And so my midwife was like, "Hey, do you want to do a cervical check to just take a look at things?"
00:11:58
And going into it, I was kind of undecided on if I was going to want to use that tool.
00:12:02
But after two weeks of progenial labor and a whole night of labor that was real, I wanted to see how far along things were.
00:12:10
And she checked me and I was six centimeters.
00:12:13
And I cried tears of relief at that point because I still mentally was just unsure if this was actually progressing because I think that two weeks of progenial labor just really messed with with my mindset.
00:12:25
And I was so excited that I was already that far along.
00:12:28
And I just remember feeling like, "Oh my god, I can do this."
00:12:31
Like I'm past the halfway point, at least for dilation.
00:12:35
Like we're going to need this baby today.
00:12:37
I was so confident about that.
00:12:39
So we just let things continue throughout the house.
00:12:43
Because I was having back labor, my doula was giving suggestions of different labor positions for contractions to try to help with the potential positioning issue with baby.
00:12:55
The midwives were pretty confident baby was anterior, based on palpation.
00:12:59
But we didn't do an ultrasound so we didn't know.
00:13:01
And we knew there was a possibility that there was a little hand or an elbow up in the wrong space.
00:13:07
So I really spent that entire next day just laboring all over the house in different positions.
00:13:13
Some a lot more uncomfortable than others, but with the goal of helping to get the position more optimal.
00:13:19
After that whole day went.
00:13:21
And at one point, the birth team did leave.
00:13:23
I think they went and got some food and came back because things were holding really steady.
00:13:27
I pretty much spent that entire day at every four to eight minutes.
00:13:30
I was having a fairly intense contraction.
00:13:32
And it never got more frequent than that.
00:13:35
And it still had some variation in time.
00:13:38
So we get close to the end of the day.
00:13:41
And it felt like things were really picking up for me.
00:13:44
I remember feeling like I couldn't really engage as well with the external world as I was up into that point.
00:13:50
And I think everybody just assumed, like, hey, she was six centimeters this morning.
00:13:55
Things seem more intense.
00:13:56
Now we must be getting close.
00:13:58
So my husband filled up the birth pool.
00:14:01
And I got in the birth pool.
00:14:02
And it was just like the most glorious warm water felt so nice.
00:14:07
But unfortunately, labor really started to slow at that point.
00:14:11
And I was actually falling asleep between contractions, which was an interesting thing to be able to sleep in such a short window of time.
00:14:18
But once we realized that it was staying slowed, my midwife had me get out of the pool.
00:14:23
And she did another cervical check.
00:14:26
And things were completely unchanged.
00:14:28
So I went, you know, almost another full day of laboring.
00:14:32
And I was still at six centimeters.
00:14:34
You know, my water hadn't broken.
00:14:36
And I was devastated at this point because it had been a lot of hours.
00:14:40
There was no sleep, not enough food.
00:14:43
And I was just wondering, like, man, how many days am I going to stay in this six centimeter state where, you know, things are intense, but not where they need to be.
00:14:52
So I had a good cry.
00:14:54
And we met in the living room.
00:14:56
We had our doula, my husband, my midwife and her assistant that came with her all sitting around.
00:15:02
And they said, here's the deal.
00:15:04
We can either continue doing what you're doing, you know, try to get you some food, ideally, but continue what we're doing.
00:15:11
Or we could try to see if we can get you an opportunity for rest.
00:15:15
And their idea at that point was to try some IV Benadryl to see if that would help relax my body enough, relax my uterus enough that I could maybe get a little quick nap in.
00:15:26
And ideally a meal and just be able to come back at it stronger.
00:15:30
And I was devastated by the idea of slowing things down.
00:15:34
I wasn't convinced we'd be able to with how intense things were feeling.
00:15:38
And, you know, I was so, I was like, we've done so much.
00:15:40
I just want to get to the point where we get to meet my baby.
00:15:43
And but ultimately I just decided, I think, an opportunity for rest actually does sound nice.
00:15:49
I choke down a meal at that point, even though I was definitely not hungry.
00:15:54
They got me in bed with, you know, a bag of IV fluids first and then some Benadryl.
00:15:58
And then I had a peanut ball between my legs with the hope that again, it would help with some of the potential positional problems as I leave there.
00:16:06
They put a heating pad on my back because the back pain was just pretty excruciating at that point.
00:16:12
And they left, I think, to go get some dinner.
00:16:15
So they were, you know, not far from the house, but hoping that I was going to get a good nap in.
00:16:19
And I know my husband was in the living room laying on the couch trying to get a nap himself.
00:16:24
And I'm really unsure how much time went on at this point, but it really felt like five minutes to me.
00:16:30
I know I did close my eyes, but it didn't feel like a very long time until that labor came back with an absolute vengeance.
00:16:37
It was so intense.
00:16:38
The back pain was wild.
00:16:40
And I actually did like a near backhand spring out of the bed because it was so intense and uncomfortable to lay down.
00:16:47
And I was feeling a hundred percent of the sensation in my back at that point.
00:16:51
And again, I hadn't even contemplated the idea of back labor.
00:16:55
So that sensation felt like, man, there must be something wrong.
00:16:59
So I come busting out of our bedroom as many as I need just close his eyes to try to get some sleep.
00:17:04
And he said, I had a look of a pretty intense terror in my eyes when I was like, this is happening non-stop back pain.
00:17:11
Like, I can't, I think something must be wrong.
00:17:14
You need to call the team to come back.
00:17:16
And so you get on the phone with them.
00:17:18
And they're making their way back.
00:17:19
And they just said, hey, why don't you get in the shower?
00:17:21
You could also get in the bathtub.
00:17:24
Just get some warm water to ease that pain and maybe help slow things down until we get there.
00:17:29
And so they get back.
00:17:31
And I'm in the shower.
00:17:33
I've absolutely lost the ability to control the noises that I'm making to keep them nice in the low register.
00:17:39
Like, they had told me would be helpful.
00:17:41
I was so tense with each contraction.
00:17:44
Like, I was, it was like this physical sensation of trying to run from it.
00:17:48
And it was the first time in that labor process where I was really having a lot of doubt.
00:17:53
I was having a lot of fear.
00:17:55
And I was actually wondering if I was going to need to go to the hospital because I was so convinced that something was wrong with my back if it felt that way.
00:18:03
And so I was really surprised when I saw smiles on the birth team's faces.
00:18:08
And they were like, hey, look, things progressed.
00:18:10
This is exactly what we were trying to do.
00:18:12
I think, I think you're in transition.
00:18:14
And I was like, oh, oh my gosh.
00:18:17
So this is actually forward progress.
00:18:20
There isn't doesn't appear to be anything wrong.
00:18:22
So I had her check me one more time and I was nine centimeters.
00:18:27
And while she was doing that, check my water broke.
00:18:30
And it was funny because she was like, oh, I can see your water.
00:18:33
And like before she could even finish it, it just like out of the movies burst all over the place.
00:18:39
And I remember being so caught off guard by the amount of fluid there was.
00:18:43
Yeah, I was, I was just amazed by how much it was.
00:18:46
And you know, once that happened, things just continued to intensify.
00:18:50
So my husband bless him had to fill up the birth tub again.
00:18:54
I had to like empty out and fill it multiple times because of how long this was taking.
00:18:59
But I eventually made my way back to the tub.
00:19:02
And my contractions started to feel pretty pushy at this point.
00:19:06
And that was a pretty wild sensation to just feel my body doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing like a completely involuntary push.
00:19:14
So I was just rolling with that and, you know, letting it happen and trying as much as I could to relax the rest of my body through this sensations.
00:19:25
Even with, you know, my husband and doula alternating applying counter pressure for me, it was still just really, really intense.
00:19:33
And I'm not sure how long I was in the pool the second time, but when things seemed like they weren't progressing again, my midwife checked me and said that I had a cervical lip.
00:19:44
And I remember listening to a podcast, it was probably on your show since I listened to that on most of my walks during pregnancy.
00:19:52
But I remember hearing that cervical lips and the process of like manually holding it back through a contraction or two was really painful.
00:20:01
But I don't know if it was an unfortunate or fortunate thing that the back sensation was so noteworthy that I actually didn't feel anything related to that noteworthy.
00:20:13
Oh my gosh.
00:20:14
Okay.
00:20:15
So I was like, all right, well, at least I didn't feel that.
00:20:18
We got the cervical lip out of the way.
00:20:20
And I was out of the tub when she was doing that.
00:20:23
And so I was laboring in a few different places.
00:20:26
So I spent quite a bit of time sitting backwards on the toilet.
00:20:31
I was in a supported squat position just kind of moving all over the house.
00:20:36
And progress was just really, really slow.
00:20:38
And at this point, everyone was pretty convinced that there was potentially a hand or an elbow out of place.
00:20:45
And that would have explained the back labor and some of the slower progress and kind of the start, stop, nature of my labor.
00:20:54
So I ended up, you know, my vision with a home birth was the birth pool.
00:20:58
And I was like, I don't want to give birth on my back.
00:21:01
I don't want to do it in my bed.
00:21:03
And I think that irony of this whole experience is that I gave birth on my back in our bed.
00:21:08
Not in the pool, even though my husband filled it up multiple times.
00:21:12
Oh gosh.
00:21:12
So yeah, I'm in bed.
00:21:14
I'm on my back.
00:21:15
And this ended up being an ideal position so that our midwife could be a bit more hands on.
00:21:22
She was in there, like manually making space for babies to send because he was at a weird angle, definitely had a hand up by his head.
00:21:31
I ended up being in this state of pushing for four hours.
00:21:36
And it was the hardest I've ever worked in my life, no doubt about that.
00:21:42
And I think my confidence wavered again after I was several hours into this.
00:21:48
And I was just getting really exhausted.
00:21:50
And they were giving me some herbal tinctures and some honey and some electrolytes, kind of alternating between contractions.
00:21:58
And I remember looking at my doula and saying, Peggy, do you think I can actually do this?
00:22:04
And she was like, you are, you are already doing this.
00:22:06
Like we are here.
00:22:08
We're in it.
00:22:08
And I needed that reassurance.
00:22:11
And then the other turning point for me for this kind of grueling long pushing phase was I still was tensing up during contractions because my back pain was so intense.
00:22:22
And my midwife just looked at me and she was like, what if you just let it be big, like let these contractions be as big as they want to be?
00:22:29
It looks like you're holding them back a little bit still.
00:22:33
And so mentally that just really clicked something for me.
00:22:36
I was like, okay, I can, I can let this be big.
00:22:38
Like none of this is a problem.
00:22:40
This is all my body doing exactly what it's designed to do.
00:22:44
But if I just let this sensation build and build and completely wash over me.
00:22:49
And once I started doing that, like it was an instant change in both my experience and the progression of labor.
00:22:57
We started to see some real progress with baby descending.
00:23:00
So we continued that process for a while.
00:23:03
It was like building contraction, contraction comes and goes, herbal tincture, honey, a sip of electrolytes, and then back into it.
00:23:12
And we make our way to baby crowning.
00:23:16
And I remember my husband being like, hey, like reach down, you can you can feel his head at this point.
00:23:21
And it was the craziest thing to feel because it had been going on so long.
00:23:25
Part of me was convinced this was never going to actually come to the end of it.
00:23:31
But I remember that feeling of his head, I'm sure I will remember it for the rest of my life.
00:23:38
And we got through a contraction that his head emerged.
00:23:41
And I remember looking around and thinking like, okay, like we've got one more contraction and in baby will be born.
00:23:48
And I was waiting somewhat impatiently for that next contraction to come.
00:23:53
But I'm glad there was that pause because I was able to look around the room and see the faces of our support team that was there to see my husband next to me and just know like there's magic in this room right now.
00:24:07
Like a baby is about to be born.
00:24:09
Oh, they can be emotional.
00:24:11
Oh yeah, of course.
00:24:13
And so with the next contraction, he was born.
00:24:17
And my midwife unwrapped the cord and handed him to me, put him right on my chest.
00:24:23
And actually at this point, we didn't know if baby was a boy or a girl, we kept that a surprise, which I'm so happy we did.
00:24:31
It was like such a fun experience to have a surprise, which you never really have surprises in your adult life anymore.
00:24:38
So babies on my chest, he's crying and he gives like the biggest meconium poop ever, like all over my chest.
00:24:47
It was ridiculous.
00:24:48
And we're there just kind of basking in this afterbirth Euphoria and just relief that that, you know, trial is over.
00:24:56
And then my husband's like, wait, we don't know if it's a boy or a girl.
00:25:00
And so I have him check the glyphsal leg up and he's like, oh my gosh, it's a boy.
00:25:05
And so we had the name Thomas picked out ahead of time.
00:25:08
So baby Thomas was born, he's on my chest.
00:25:11
We let the cord stop pulsing and then my husband cut the cord.
00:25:16
And we just got to lay there, really undisturbed skin to skin, just us literally in our bed at home.
00:25:24
And you know, that moment there was exactly why home birth was appealing to me.
00:25:29
I just wanted to be in like the most peaceful safe environment for me where I could relax and feel at ease.
00:25:37
And I really wanted that after birth time to just be sacred and quiet and just like minimal touch for anybody else.
00:25:46
I think it took me maybe another 30 minutes or so to birth the placenta.
00:25:51
My midwife ended up giving me a shot of pitose in due to some bleeding that was happening at that point.
00:25:58
So I'm sure that helped speed the placenta birthing along, but that went seamlessly.
00:26:04
It was intact.
00:26:05
And you know, her assistant ended up helping me to the shower.
00:26:10
And I got to take a quick shower before getting tucked into bed with my husband and my baby.
00:26:15
They brought us snacks and some fresh electrolytes and just went over instructions for newborn care for the next 24 hours or so.
00:26:23
They'd be back the next day for our first postpartum visit.
00:26:28
And he was born at 5.29 in the morning.
00:26:31
So it was wild.
00:26:32
It was like we lived this entire life experience of this long birth, but the sun had just started to come up.
00:26:38
We had this whole day ahead with him.
00:26:41
And I expected to be just so exhausted and needing to sleep right away.
00:26:46
But I was just in complete bliss getting to meet him and that feeling of absolute empowerment from getting through that experience is something I had never experienced prior to that.
00:26:58
And yeah, I couldn't sleep.
00:27:00
I was just staring at him and too excited.
00:27:02
Yeah, that sounds so sweet.
00:27:05
And yeah, the giving birth in the middle of the night and then the next day is such a weird feeling.
00:27:12
So strange.
00:27:13
No, since of time.
00:27:14
Yeah.
00:27:15
All right.
00:27:16
So then you want to talk about your recovery and anything you want to share from feeding and postpartum?
00:27:22
Yeah.
00:27:22
So one thing that happened right after he was born is he didn't latch.
00:27:28
And it was a long labor.
00:27:30
I was pushing for four hours.
00:27:32
I know it took a toll on him too.
00:27:34
He had some decent bruising on his head from coming down the birth canal at a weird angle.
00:27:40
So we were trying to get him to latch.
00:27:42
My doula was helping.
00:27:43
It wasn't happening.
00:27:44
And she was like, okay, we're just going to do some like hand expressing and get him close close to the boob and he'll get some colostrum that way.
00:27:51
We'll do the best we can and we'll try this again tomorrow.
00:27:54
And it already was like, oh, this isn't how I anticipated this breastfeeding journey to go.
00:28:00
I watched enough videos of babies doing that crawl to the boob and things get off to a good start there and it didn't happen.
00:28:07
I'm sure enough that issue continued throughout the rest of the day.
00:28:11
I ended up having to have my husband and a frantically go out to the store to find nipple shields because we were going to try that to see if that would make it easier for him to latch.
00:28:23
And also to quickly order some pump flanges that actually fit.
00:28:27
There's one thing that I tell any friends or clients that are getting ready to give birth for the first time and it is to take a look at that pump ahead of time and get some flanges that actually fit prior to because it wasn't fun having to scramble to do this because I just didn't anticipate any issues in the breastfeeding department.
00:28:44
I just didn't even know what to expect in terms of possible issues there.
00:28:48
So with the nipple shields, he was able to latch somewhat decently but it was still just a struggle.
00:28:54
It was really uncomfortable for me to and my midwife did comment and she was like, look, I can't diagnose a tongue tie but it does look like he has one.
00:29:03
Like the mouth just looks really tight.
00:29:05
You might want to get that assessed.
00:29:08
And so it was in the back in my mind that we may have some some feeding issues and some tethered oral ties.
00:29:13
It's actually something I dealt with myself.
00:29:16
I didn't find it until adulthood.
00:29:18
I just don't think it was something that was looked at much when I was born but this was a path that I was pretty familiar with and really didn't want to take him down if we didn't have to.
00:29:28
So I ended up setting up some bodywork appointments for him within that first week of life.
00:29:33
So we had like a chiropractor visit.
00:29:36
He did some craniosacral work and all of those things really improved his his breastfeeding ability.
00:29:42
So we were able to drop the nipple shield.
00:29:44
He was able to latch himself.
00:29:46
It was still really uncomfortable for me but because it was my first time, I really didn't know if this was normal discomfort or a problem discomfort.
00:29:55
So I ended up having a lactation consultant come out.
00:29:59
I think it was about a week into his life.
00:30:02
She came out and we did a weighted feed and found out that he was transferring about half of the expected volume of milk which made sense because his weight gain was really slow.
00:30:14
And I had been so stressed over this because I just had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn't getting enough.
00:30:20
He was generally not very happy as a result of that.
00:30:24
And I just felt like, oh man, this blissful season of early newborn life is not happening for me because I'm so stressed and concerned about the fact that he's not getting enough to eat.
00:30:34
So what our lactation consultant ended up recommending was to do triple feeding.
00:30:40
And for anybody that isn't familiar with that, it's you have the baby breastfeed and then you provide pumped milk via a bottle and then you pump after that.
00:30:50
So you have milk for the next feed and you're doing that every single time, like 10 to 12 times a day.
00:30:57
And I was upset about it because it was really labor intensive and time intensive.
00:31:02
And I really didn't want to introduce a bottle that early but didn't have a choice.
00:31:07
And I'm really thankful that we did do this because it enabled him to get enough nourishment.
00:31:13
He was like instantly happier weight gain, you know, took off pretty quickly at that point.
00:31:17
And it made sure that my supply really came in well because he had such limited transfer.
00:31:23
I definitely wasn't building a robust supply.
00:31:25
So I don't regret it as much as it was not fun.
00:31:28
It really served us well and it bought us time to explore the idea of tongue tie and whether or not we wanted to pursue a release and get him some more time to really come into his body more.
00:31:40
So again, like chiropractic work, craniosacral work, just helping him unwind some of that tension from birth.
00:31:47
So that was really what the first month postpartum looked like for me.
00:31:51
It was a lot more stress-related defeating and a ton of appointments for him that I really didn't anticipate having to be leaving the house that much when I was still so physically recovering and still in that like very emotionally vulnerable state of early postpartum.
00:32:09
But in hindsight, now that we're on the other side of it and just have a very beautiful breastfeeding experience now that I'm thankful for every single day, I realized that that experience was such an initiation for me because it made me step up as his mother and take ownership of those decisions and trust myself when it was so tempting to just be on Reddit threads at 3 a.m.
00:32:34
every night trying to figure out what the heck to do and trying to get someone else to make these decisions for me.
00:32:40
I see now that that was an important experience for me to have.
00:32:45
Yeah, that's such a stressful thing because it feels so urgent in the moment and it's affecting really everything because that's the only job, right?
00:32:52
The man is born is like feed the baby, get the baby to eat.
00:32:57
So I've been there and it's a lot but it sounds like you came out the other side of it.
00:33:02
So man, I was unprepared for the weight of that, right?
00:33:06
Like when you're the only one that's capable of feeding the baby, I just felt so much pressure and yes.
00:33:12
Yeah, and I remember thinking at that time, like, gosh, I can't wait until we can introduce like solids and that there's not all this pressure on me.
00:33:21
I didn't expect to feel that way and again, it worked itself out, but it was intense.
00:33:26
Yeah, super emotional for sure.
00:33:28
And then also physically painful when they don't have a good latch and everything.
00:33:33
So yeah, all right.
00:33:35
Well, do you have any resources you want to share?
00:33:38
Sure.
00:33:38
So yeah, there were a few things that were really helpful for me during pregnancy and even postpartum.
00:33:44
I'm sure this one gets mentioned a lot because it's just a classic, but I loved Anime's Guide to Childbirth as a book resource for anyone that's trying to conceive or currently pregnant.
00:33:56
And I really loved it for the birth stories in the beginning of it.
00:33:59
It's the same reason why I love this podcast so much.
00:34:02
I think it's so important that we get exposed to both positive and realistic birth stories.
00:34:08
I find that it's either one or the other in other sources, you either get like really dramatized Hollywood versions of birth or this blissful like pain-free birth experience,
00:34:20
which I believe can happen.
00:34:22
And I hope to experience in a future birth, but I think it was really important that I had access to like real birth stories with the ups and downs that happen.
00:34:32
And you know, your podcast and Anime's Guide to Childbirth was great for understanding that and even just understanding physiological birth.
00:34:39
I also used birth fit, which is an exercise programming for different seasons of a woman's life.
00:34:47
So I did their prenatal programming while I was pregnant and then I moved into their postpartum lying in and in basics, which was just like reconnecting to the pelvic floor,
00:34:57
reconnecting to your core.
00:34:59
And I found that to be really helpful in my own physical recovery.
00:35:03
And then the last resource I would mention and I'll make sure that you have for the show notes is just a pregnancy preparation guide that's a free email resource that we use with our clients that just walks through some of the nutritional testing mindset,
00:35:19
even the like physical and spiritual side of things that come with that trying to conceive journey.
00:35:25
Yes, and over all the links.
00:35:27
And then where's the best place for people to connect with you?
00:35:30
So you can find me on Instagram, so it's at KaleyRD.
00:35:34
My name is spelled kind of weird.
00:35:36
It's K-A-E-L-Y and then R-D.
00:35:39
And that's where you'll find me the most.
00:35:41
And then my website is the same name.
00:35:43
It's KaleyRD.com.
00:35:44
All right.
00:35:45
Very cool.
00:35:46
Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today.
00:35:48
Kaley, it was so great to hear.
00:35:50
Thanks so much for having me.
00:35:51
All right.
00:35:52
Now I'm going to chat with Jackie for motif medical all about their new wearable pump.
00:35:57
Hi, Jackie.
00:35:58
Thank you so much for joining me to chat about the motif breast pump line.
00:36:01
Yes.
00:36:02
Thank you for having me.
00:36:03
I'm excited.
00:36:04
We have some exciting things coming.
00:36:06
Awesome.
00:36:06
Well, before we get into all of that, will you tell us just a little bit about you and what you do at motif medical?
00:36:13
Yes.
00:36:13
So I am a registered nurse and board certified lactation consultant.
00:36:18
And I have the pleasure of being the clinical lactation advisor or clinical lactation specialist with motif, which just means I get to play around with all the fun breast pumps and tell them all the things that might make the pumps and the products better for breastfeeding families.
00:36:35
And I absolutely love it.
00:36:36
I also work in private practice.
00:36:38
So I still and very much, you know, boots on the ground helping families in their own homes right after first or anytime in the postpartum period and the prenatal period,
00:36:50
just helping families be more prepared for a breastfeeding journey that and all the things that they might encounter.
00:36:57
Very cool.
00:36:58
Well, I was lucky enough to get to use the Luna breast pump when it was pretty new.
00:37:03
I guess six years ago now, my youngest just turned six.
00:37:07
And I talk about all the time how it was my favorite pump of all the ones I had tried over three kids and everything.
00:37:14
And then you guys came out with the hands free pump a couple of years ago.
00:37:18
And now there's something new on the horizon.
00:37:20
So I want to talk about the new pump that's coming out this year.
00:37:26
Yes, we're very excited.
00:37:27
Just after the first of the year, we are launching the aura glow, which is a new wearable pump.
00:37:35
You might remember the aura as our original wearable pump.
00:37:38
And it's still available, but we've got a new player on deck that I think is going to provide a lot of really sought after features, a lot of great pump quality and something that that moms,
00:37:52
I think, are going to be really excited to use on a pretty regular basis as they're going back to work or just going about their lives where they need to be hands free.
00:38:02
You need to have that wearable pump option.
00:38:03
Very cool.
00:38:04
So I know you guys kind of take a lot of, I don't know, advice is the right word, but you you take feedback.
00:38:09
There we go.
00:38:10
We take feedback from customers and what people are liking about pumps and things like that.
00:38:15
So what are some of the differences with the aura glow that we can expect to see?
00:38:20
Yes, I love this question because this is why I love working with motif that they are so particular about taking feedback from the professional community,
00:38:32
from the families who are using their products, and they're not just looking to pump out products that sell.
00:38:39
Obviously, it's a business.
00:38:41
We need to sell things to stay in business, but the idea is to make products that actually meet needs and make pumping easier for people so that they naturally just want to buy the products,
00:38:53
which I love that idea and I love that we've built the aura glow based on feedback.
00:39:00
So the thing I'm most excited about is the expanded flange sizing.
00:39:05
So you get five flange sizes right in the box.
00:39:07
So you get the 24 millimeter brush shield, but we also include 15 millimeter, 17 millimeter, 19 millimeter, and 21 millimeter inserts.
00:39:17
So that right out of the box, most people are going to be able to find something that allows them to pump efficiently, effectively, and comfortably.
00:39:26
And then if those sizes don't work, the 15 through 24 that come in the box don't work.
00:39:33
We also have even smaller sizes, 11, 12, 13 and 14 millimeter inserts available.
00:39:40
And then a 27 millimeter brush shield available for those that might need a larger size.
00:39:46
So so excited about that.
00:39:48
The other things that I think set this pump apart, it's a powerful wearable.
00:39:53
So the section is 260 to 280 mmHG.
00:39:57
So that's millimeters of mercury.
00:40:00
That's how we measure that section pressure.
00:40:02
And that puts it on par with the section of pumps like Luna.
00:40:07
It's still a wearable, still, you know, still something that we're going to classify as a secondary pump that we would use to complement the Luna, but it's powerful.
00:40:16
And it has two pre-programmed pumping modes, which are just I think something that's going to make life so much easier and take a lot of the guesswork out of,
00:40:27
you know, what settings do I use?
00:40:29
How do I how do I set my pump to get the most out of it?
00:40:33
Yeah, the different sizing is huge.
00:40:35
I know I tried a wearable pump with my last baby and it was, you know, it was very early on in the in the making of these, but it just did not work for me and was not comfortable.
00:40:45
So having those different sizes is amazing.
00:40:48
And do you guys provide some kind of guidance in, you know, the packaging or can people reach out to help find the right size?
00:40:56
We do provide guidance in the packaging that's all been updated to match the most current information we have about fland sizing.
00:41:06
So as I said, motif is huge unlisting to that feedback and lactation consultants have been screaming about fland sizing for a while now and motif definitely has listened by including those smaller sizes and that fland sizing guidance that does fit the most current information that we have about getting the right size.
00:41:26
Amazing.
00:41:27
So you also mentioned the programming modes for pumping.
00:41:30
Can you explain a little bit about those and what's different with the ore glow?
00:41:33
Yes.
00:41:33
So I think this is revolutionary.
00:41:36
I love this idea.
00:41:37
There are two pre-programmed pumping sessions.
00:41:40
There is the cluster feeding mode and the general pumping mode.
00:41:44
And you can still use the pump, you know, just as you normally would use a brass pump, but the cluster feeding mode has these five levels of pumping and then pause pumping and pause to mimic how a baby cluster feeds so that can help increase milk supply.
00:41:59
And without the need to do this like big long power pumping, you know, hour long power pumping session, it's this 30 minute pre-programmed session that your pump will move through all by itself.
00:42:11
And then the general pumping mode is just a way to maximize your pumping efforts a little bit by triggering a couple of letdowns.
00:42:19
So it goes through massage mode and it stays there for two minutes to help trigger that letdown.
00:42:24
Then it goes to expression mode and you get that, you know, longer, more rhythmic kind of mimicking how the baby suckles once your milk has let down.
00:42:35
And then it will go back to the massage mode automatically to trigger that second letdown and then go back to expression.
00:42:42
So it repeats the massage expression.
00:42:44
Massage expression without you even having to think about it.
00:42:48
And that way you can get a little bit more out of the time you're spending pumping.
00:42:53
Yeah, that's amazing.
00:42:54
I don't think I've heard of that before on a pump.
00:42:57
And I'm just like sitting here like picturing a nursing session with baby and like they kind of fall asleep.
00:43:03
And then they're like, oh, wait, I want some more and they wake up and then you have another letdown.
00:43:06
And I could see that being something that you would really benefit from as far as milk supply with a pump that could do that as well.
00:43:12
Yes, exactly.
00:43:13
Just trying to take advantage of all those hormone fluctuations and all the ways that our babies know exactly how to influence our milk supply.
00:43:20
We're just trying to mimic that with the pump setting.
00:43:22
Awesome.
00:43:23
Okay, so then you mentioned that, you know, you do classify it as a secondary pump.
00:43:27
What kind of guidance would you give people that are trying to decide, you know, what pump is right for them, you know, based on whether they're pumping full time or using it occasionally or, you know, lifestyle,
00:43:38
things like that to you, especially in your work in private practice.
00:43:41
I'm sure you see a lot of people wondering what they should get.
00:43:45
Oh, yes, I get this question a lot.
00:43:47
And the truth is when we do anything other than traditional flanges and that high quality double electric pump, like the motif Luna,
00:43:58
anything that doesn't have those traditional flanges in that powerful motor is really considered a secondary pump.
00:44:06
Now does that mean it's not going to work or it's not going to be effective, it's not going to have its place.
00:44:12
Of course not.
00:44:12
And we know a lot of people are using wearable and portable pumps and many of them, you know, are very successful at building and maintaining milk supply.
00:44:21
But for most people, we want to rely on something that's a primary pump like the Luna to build and maintain a milk supply and then use something like a wearable or portable pump,
00:44:31
so a wearable like the aura glow as that secondary option that we're using when we just can't drag out the big pump and the traditional flanges.
00:44:41
So I have four kids.
00:44:43
I could very easily see myself needing a wearable pump to be able to keep up with my other children if I were to have another baby.
00:44:50
And that would be a perfect scenario to use this pump, you know, at those times when you just need to be hands free.
00:44:55
Maybe you're traveling, maybe you're at work, lots of different scenarios.
00:44:59
And what I tell people is, you know, if you're in a situation where you know you can't pull out that primary pump, then this would be a perfect option.
00:45:09
A wearable like the aura glow would be a perfect option to complement for those times when you can't pull out your primary pump.
00:45:17
And I do have lots of patients who kind of incorporate them from the beginning when they first introduce pumping.
00:45:23
We tend to get a better result than if we only use one type of pump and then try to add another pump later.
00:45:31
Sometimes it's about getting your body to be sort of conditioned to respond.
00:45:36
So maybe adding in that wearable, if you know you're going to need it, adding it in when you first start introducing pumping into your journey.
00:45:45
Oh yeah, that's interesting.
00:45:47
Yeah, I could see it being something that, you know, keeps people nursing their baby just because they may not have pumped otherwise.
00:45:55
You know, like you were saying, you get into a situation where you can't pull out that pump.
00:45:59
So you just push off that pumping session, which I know I did with my second baby at work.
00:46:03
And then my milk supply suffered, but maybe if I had something like this, I would have been like, oh, let me just do this real quick while I finished this work or whatever.
00:46:11
And I always tell people block it on your calendar, like don't make exceptions, don't miss a pumping session.
00:46:16
But of course, things come up and it can be hard sometimes.
00:46:20
So I love that there's just more options out there.
00:46:23
Yes, some milk removal is always better than no milk removal.
00:46:27
So it's like, if we can only pump with the wearable, then by golly, let's get that wearable out.
00:46:34
That's exactly what we need to do in that scenario.
00:46:38
So yeah, I love that encouragement that it might make things actually make the breastfeeding journey go a little bit further with the help of the tools that we have now.
00:46:48
Yeah, definitely.
00:46:49
Well, I love, you know, I've loved everything that motif has come out with.
00:46:53
So I'm so excited for this new launch and to hear everyone's feedback from it.
00:46:57
And I really appreciate you taking time to chat with me today about the new or a glow.
00:47:02
Yes, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity.
00:47:05
Thank you so much again to Kaylee for sharing her story with us and to motif medical for sponsoring this episode.
00:47:10
As always, you can find the show notes at thebirthhour.com.
00:47:13
Just search for Kaylee's name in the search bar.
00:47:15
And also to put all the links that we've mentioned into the podcast app where you're listening to this episode.
00:47:21
So that'll include the know your options course, the patreon link as well as motif link.
00:47:26
Thanks so much for listening.
00:47:27
If you enjoyed today's show, head to thebirthhour.com and click become a member to pledge your support.
00:47:33
And as a thank you, you'll get an invitation to join our private Facebook group and access to exclusive episodes.
00:47:38
Your vote of confidence and support means the world to me.
00:47:46
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00:47:56
