Carson Meyer Instagram – Part 4 of 4: Our Birth Story After a couple hours in the tub, the water was no longer serving me and I wanted OUT. I crawled into bed and draped myself over Johnathan’s shoulders. For the next hour my body moved instinctively to make way for Lou. I got onto all fours with my right leg bent up by my right hand. Johnathan placed his hands below her emerging head ready to catch. (I made him watch a million @indiebirth birth videos in pregnancy). Once her head was out, she took her first breath and cleared her lungs with a cry. With the next wave she emerged into her father’s hands and was passed under my legs up to me. She was born at 3:50pm. Although we waited to find out, I had a strong feeling she was a girl my entire pregnancy (I even filled her closet with my childhood dresses). “It’s her!”, we said laughing. I knew all along! Paulie, who had been under the bed, popped up in celebration, doing laps around the room. Just like our labor, the sacred moments following her birth were completely undisturbed. We let the physiological process unfold as we had through pregnancy and labor. The bliss I had been waiting for arrived and we were soaring with oxytocin. Nobody violently “stimulated” her, suctioned her or touched her at all besides the two of us. Nobody “massaged” my uterus, nobody cut her cord or tugged at the placenta. These were things I’ve seen done unnecessarily and without consent far too often and it broke my heart every time. After an hour of cuddling, Johnathan cut the cord. I still had to birth the placenta and I was nervous. This was the final stage of birth that needed to happen safely. My midwife intuited that I was on edge about it and resisting any support in guiding it out. She asked if I wanted to squat in the shower to birth my placenta alone. She placed a bowl between my legs and I spoke to the placenta, thanking it for taking such good care of Lou, for being the source of her nourishment and protection. I told my placenta that its work was done and I guided it out with ease. We fell asleep in each other’s arms just as the sun set over the Blue Ridge Mountains.