Before coming to Santa Barbara, I hadn't had much time to prepare myself mentally or spiritually for giving birth. I had been working full time, taking classes in the evenings, and preparing to move. It was intense; especially because I was 8 months pregnant when we moved here in February. Before moving, we had been discussing whether we should try to move before the baby or after the baby and 100% of 30 to 40 women said BEFORE! YOU NEED TO MOVE BEFORE! Now we see why... :)
After God directed us to Isla Vista Church in our new hometown, the blessings began through meeting Holly, the pastor’s wife. She schooled me on everything I needed to know about giving birth: how I could have the apartment ready for baby and a provision of resources including a connection with two doulas and some baby items. Both doulas were a great blessing to me, as they supported me in prayer and with wisdom, counsel and support. But most importantly, Holly was used by God to build up my faith for this experience. It started with her testimony of one of her births and lending me a book called Supernatural Childbirth. This book really built up my faith to believe God to be present at my childbirth and to trust in Him through the whole thing--even when things were becoming complicated with the doctors. Furthermore, I was able to pray boldly for help during the labor process and for a fast delivery. My husband also made bold declarations of faith for the labor and delivery, which ended up coming true. God is good!
So on March 19, two days after my due date. My mom arrived from out of town, so we took her out to see some of Santa Barbara before we wouldn't have that chance. We ate a hearty Italian pasta dinner and walked around downtown. Little did we know what was about to happen, and in retrospect, it happened so fast we almost had to ask the restaurant if they delivered! Right before my mom arrived on the 19th, I started feeling very mild contractions about every 15 minutes or so. I had felt these every 12 hours since Saturday night, March 16, so I didn't think much of it--just the beginning of birth pangs. I knew something was coming but didn't know when. By the time we get home the contractions become more regular--every 12 minutes. I called Abby, my new friend and doula who would be there to support Matt and I through the labor. She came over and checked me out and said that I have some time and to just take it easy, but call her if they got any closer (like 5 minutes apart). So she went home; it was around 10:30pm. As Matt was timing them, he thought it was weird they seemed to be getting closer and closer so quickly- he was wondering if these were real contractions or not! But sure enough, the contractions continued and by 12:30 am they were about 2 minutes apart. I called Abby again, she came over and checked me out and suggested we head to the hospital. We got there by 1:30 am. And here is when the fun begins!
Matt said, “As we get to the hospital, we drove around to the emergency room, as they told us to go to there first. Upon entering the emergency room, we saw sick people everywhere! Matt thought it was funny that he got to write under reason for visit, “having a baby,” but was thinking, “oh great, what a perfect place to be right before we have this baby-around people sick enough to come to the emergency room in the middle of the night!!” So we huddled in the corner for what seemed like an eternity (an eternity interrupted by Victoria’s contractions every two minutes), while we waited for them to call us up to the delivery center.”
Finally, they called my name and they brought us into one of the checking rooms where you are monitored for about 15 min to evaluate your contractions and check how far along you are. When the nurse checked me, she informed me that I was only dilated to 1 cm, which was not dilated enough for admittance. Interestingly, the nurse put me on my back to be monitored. She told me later I should be more on my side--being on my back was so not what I wanted to do (most painful position at that present time). So it made the monitoring process take longer and also started a conversation between the nurse and I about staying there to wait for the next time I could be evaluated for admittance or just going home until I was further along. If you are not ready to be admitted, you can wait for an hour and they will check you again. I asked what her opinion was of what I should do. Because she thought that I didn’t want to be monitored, she suggested I go home until I was really ready to come back. However, in reality, I had no problem with monitoring, just lying on my back to do it—what a miscommunication! It caused me to make a wrong choice, so I thought, which was to go home and come back when I was further along.
As we were trying to leave the hospital, we got lost inside. The hospital was a maze and coming in through the emergency room didn’t help because we had to go out a different way. While walking out, I would have to pause every two minutes for the contractions. By the time we made it to the car, a lot of time had passed. It had been more than an hour, which was how long I needed before I could be re-evaluated for admission. I tried to get in the car and go home, but I was torn as things quickly got more intense. I saw no point to leaving—it was a 15 minute drive back home and then another 15 minutes back to the hospital. How much laboring did I want to do at home? How do I know when to come back? My contractions were already pretty strong! So here I am, conflicted in heart about my decision to leave. I feared the hospital staff thinking I was crazy for coming back so soon, I feared not being dilated enough for admission. It was difficult, and I started to cry. In my heart, I heard the Lord say “go”. Then I said to Him, “go where Lord?” At that very moment, Matthew said, “we are going inside, come on!” I was so relieved, yet slightly burdened because I didn’t know what was going to happen.
I went back in through the emergency room and they took me back upstairs to the birth center. This time, there were no evaluation rooms ready, so they put me in a labor room to evaluate me. I was also able to get a different nurse as this happened. She helped me get through a contraction, which was comforting, then said to me, “you know how this works, you were just here. If you are not dilated to at least 3, we cannot admit you.” I said, I know, but it has been an hour and I am allowed to be checked again for re-admittance. At that time she asked me about my birth plan. If I was going to get an epidural, they could consider admitting me earlier so that they could administer the drug. However, I told her that my plan was to go natural if possible. She asked me why I wanted to go natural and I told her that it was because the epidural scared me and I would rather less risk with all the complications. She looked me in the eyes and said, “If you want to have a natural birth, then you do not need to take any medication. You can have the birth that you want to have and nothing will stop you.” When she looked at me and said this, I felt that God was speaking to me through her. She said it with such boldness and confidence, it was almost as if she spoke that in faith over my life. At that moment I picked up some faith. Then the nurse turned away for a minute right before she checked me for the dilation level, mentioning again we need to be dilated to at least 3 cm before they admit us. Matthew turns and prays, “WE COMMAND YOU CERVIX TO DILATE RIGHT NOW TO 3 CM in JESUS’ NAME!” in a quiet yet forceful manner. The nurse turns back to me, tells me to lay back and started to check me. She said, “looks like you are almost a 3, ehh, let me help you a little here.” She pushed a little and said, “You are at a 3, I am going to recommend you be admitted” Praise the Lord! It was like music to my ears. I actually was able to stay right there in that room, labor room #3, where Hope would be born 4 hours later.
Now in the labor room, contractions still every two minutes, the nurse that did my original examination came in the room—she was going to be my labor and delivery nurse. We cleared up our miscommunication from earlier and she started the admission process, though Matt’s heart dropped a little bit to see her again. Meanwhile, contractions are still going on, but the nurse wasn’t really supportive of getting me through them, like the nurse who just checked me and helped me to get to 3. Instead she was just focused on making sure that the admission process was done correctly—all the info was done right in the computers, the hep lock was put in my arm and the monitors were connected right. Actually, the wireless monitors for the room were not working properly for some reason. So that was yet another thing that she had to focus on. In Matt’s words: At this point, Matt wanted to go talk to the charge nurse to see if we could switch out our nurse for delivery and he was super nervous about it, not wanting to be one of those “people. Matt said “I timidly walked out into the hallway and talked in a hushed voice to a nurse who looked like she could have been in charge and asked to speak to the charge nurse. She asked him how come, and he explained in the nicest words possible that we would like to request a change of nurse. But then he was informed that the charge nurse just went on a food break and wouldn’t be back for another 30 minutes. 30 minutes! That seemed like an eternity to us at this point, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise.”
Meanwhile time is passing by, and in all honestly, the pain of labor was getting intense. After one contraction I would pray or confess Scripture, after the next, I would contemplate taking something for the pain. I was flip-flopping in my mind. I heard many stories of people changing their minds in the middle and now here I was facing the same feeling. Regardless of what I was thinking, I could feel God’s presence in the room. I started telling Him that I couldn’t do it, that I just wanted to give up and get this over with already. I then started sharing the same thing with my husband. Matt wanted me to know that he was supportive of any decision that I made. At this point, I started asking the nurse about the epidural. The first time I asked her, there was still time to get it. She told me that it is a possibility, but then she asked me why I didn’t want to take it in the first place. I told her the same thing that I told the other nurse, that it was just not appealing to me at all and if people were doing it naturally for so long, then I should be able to as well. At that point she suggested that if I could hold out until I was dilated to 7, I could take some narcotics to get me through the point where I would have to push. She said it wouldn’t harm the baby and would take the edge off. I was so down for that. She then suggested I get into the labor tub to help ease some of my contractions.
Matt says: “At this point, I requested that Abby, our doula, be called in, since Abby had gone home when we were going to leave the hospital earlier. I had no idea what I was doing the whole time and was just riding on grace from the throne room of God, but still not leaving my side for one minute. Abby came in while we were in the tub, where Victoria was actually falling asleep between contractions. The tub was like a gift from God to her in more than one way--she was able to rest some and ended up dilating quite a bit while she was in there! The nurse also heard me praying fervently and came in and asked, “Are you guys praying?” I affirmed that we were and she said with her slight southern drawl, “you know, I’m so encouraged to hear y’all doing that. Where I was from in Tulsa, everybody prayed at every childbirth; this place can be very discouraging.It seems like everyone is an atheist here” Upon getting out of the tub, the nurse checked Victoria and she was at 8cm! The nurse informed us that it was too late to take the narcotics.”
God had blessed me by making me miss all my chances to get pain relief that I didn't really want anyway. I can see that when I was weak, my God was strong. He came through for us, giving us the desires of our heart, which was a natural and fast childbirth.
It was now all or nothing. I entered into the transition phase of active labor. At this point, things were intense and moving so fast. My husband and our doula had been so supportive so far. Especially Matt. He helped me through every contraction from the beginning. At this point, they were getting tough for me to handle. I probably squeezed his hands to the point of crushing them (Matt says he could take it anyday). I also couldn't help but moan; however moaning was not the best thing to do because it wasn't really helping me stay focused through the contraction. It seemed like it was getting too intense for everyone and that nothing could help, but then God came through again through our nurse! Matt says: “And not just in the form of an encouraging word. It was like the Spirit of God came upon her, like it did when Samson slew 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey.” During the next contraction, when I started to moan loudly, the nurse shouted “Victoria! Look at me!” I look right at her big blue eyes and she said “Focus! Breathe! Like this...” And then she made these fast breathing noises that really helped me. I couldn’t help but look at her and breathe like she was telling me to breathe. Actually everyone in the room started breathing like this nurse. It really was like the Spirit of God came upon her in power. She got me through that contraction and as a result, everyone picked up spirit to keep going.
I was dilated to 9 ½ now and the nurses started to prepare for the doctor to come in. Since I was in the hot tub, every half hour was almost another cm. The delivery was going by so fast. My water didn’t even break all the way yet. My body just wanted to push the baby out, but I wasn’t allowed to. The nurses said I had to keep going so that the baby could fit through properly. At this time, I looked at the window and it was starting to get light outside. And at the very same moment, Matt said to me in my ear, “this baby is going to born at dawn.” It was 7am when he said that.
Suddenly, it seemed, seriously only a couple minutes and I was at 10...it was time-I could push Hope out. I did not know what I was doing and pushing was so difficult. The doctor just walked in the room at the right time, wearing what Matt would consider to be a HAZMAT suit, telling me how to push. The doctor was like a military drill sergeant when she instructed me. I was trying to do what she told me, but it was so difficult to physically do what she was telling me to do. After pushing three times, I started to ask God, please let this be the one. One more push went by and no baby. Then God said to me, she is coming on this next one. Matt then said in my ear, “This is the one, she’s coming now.” Sure enough, that push, out came baby Hope Angelina, all 7lb 13oz and 19 ½ inches long with an almost perfect APGAR skin test. Matt tried to later recount what it was like seeing his daughter coming out, but he said rather speechlessly that no words can really describe it-his mind was officially blown away!
God surely delivered this baby! He was there in all the little details of the whole process. This truly blessed my life.
Though I wanted to share this testimony sooner, it has been difficult for me to manage my time since Hope was born. I am glad that I am finishing at this point, because writing it has refreshed my faith that God can help me in the parenting process and for the remainder of the physical healing that my body needs from the delivery. I hope this story blessed you and your faith in God’s love, provision, care and help for all areas of your life.
Matt’s final comments: “God is truly amazing! He wasn’t kidding when He said that He will ‘save’ women through childbearing-this is His promise to be the Deliverer, quite literally in this case. And He is also the provider. If we would have had the baby in Orange County, we would have had to pay at least $2,000 with our insurance down there. However, one month before our baby was due, I just so happened to get a new job at UC Santa Barbara with new health insurance, that gave us a hospital bill of a grand total of $0! Wow! God thinks of everything, even when I was barely able focus on unpacking our apartment, doing my work, trying to learn about childbirth, and being a husband. He really is good!”
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