Rachel was 36 weeks pregnant when she first reached out to Elizabeth House. In an urgent turn of events, she found herself without housing just two weeks before her due date. Her whole birth plan was threatened.
“I had all these plans. I did a lot of research before. And suddenly I needed a lot of things. Basically, what people have like 9 months to prepare, I literally had a week. Terry (Bright, our Spiritual Director) and I had our one-on-one interview, and she said we're going to move you in right away. I was like, wait, what about the hospital? What about all these other things? Because I have just been on an adrenaline rush for the last two weeks just trying to figure out everything. And Terry said you'll be okay, you'll be safe, and you'll be fine.
“I moved in on a Wednesday. I met with a lot of the residents. We had a very wholesome dinner. We had chicken pot pie. I still remember it. We were all talking about our birth plans and I said I don't know where I'm giving birth. They said go to Huntington. I wanted to see it because I wanted to be as prepared as I could be with this new pivot. So, I looked it up on my phone and they did tours there every first Thursday of the month. Okay. Tomorrow is the first Thursday of the month. Then I had a lovely dinner. In my heart, I felt relieved that I'm here. At least I've landed.
After dinner, I was having Braxton Hicks. And if I don't walk, my back pain just hurts more. So, another resident said I'll show you around. Let's walk around the neighborhood. We walked around this neighborhood. It was lovely. She said I guess now I have a walking buddy. And I said okay, we'll walk tomorrow. So then, I showered, I settled in, it was fine. But I never actually got to sleep. I'm just experiencing pain at this point. I thought I could just sleep it off but I couldn't sleep it off. And then my water broke.
So then at this point, it was 3 or 4 in the morning. And I think it's time to tell Doris, the Resident Assistant on duty. I go downstairs, I knock on the door, and I say hi, so I think my water broke but I'm not in pain. I'm still walking. And she said we're going to go to the hospital!
It's like this whole time I had this idea. I wanted a home birth. I had wanted a doula. I wanted a whole, natural birth, no epidural. I need to have all these things. I was getting so anxious because everything was a shell shock to my body because it's not what I wanted. I think that's why I had a 40-hour labor because the whole time I was anxious and resisting. I knew they were there to help, but also my body was like, no, that's not what I want.
Then Terry had Lydia (a volunteer and former labor and delivery nurse) text me and she asked if she could come be with me. I said, yes, please, I need help!
Lydia was the middle path. She knew there was a distrust there. But she also knew the research. She's been there and she gave me the reasons why they were telling me to do things. So, then it eased my mind. And I just had to let go. I literally had to be like, well, what can I do right now?
It ended up beautifully orchestrated. I received exactly what I needed, not in the way that I had envisioned. I didn't want to be alone in my postpartum, which I haven’t been. I received all the help in a way that I didn't expect. It came from Elizabeth House.”
