welcoming aela | a birth story
A year ago today pure sunshine came into the world.
Her name is Aela.
This is her birth story.
On a windy fall evening, I got the call that labor had started. The plan was for me to go to Ali and Starke’s home so that we could all hang out there for a while before heading to the WNC birth center. By the time I pulled up and walked to their front door I saw them laboring through the window…heard her laboring and I knew that maybe I shouldn’t get settled quite yet. Labor was fast and strong and within minutes they had made the decision to go in. We got Ali into the car after quite a few pit stops and I followed them down their mountain and to the birth center.
Immediately we got into a groove as Ali bravely worked through her contractions. Starke was there the whole time, holding her and speaking the most tender words in her ear. Before we knew it the tub was filled and it was time for pushing. The whole room was so tranquil, lit with fairy lights and smelling like lavender and lemon. Very gently Ali pushed her girl into her daddy’s open hands. I will never forget laughing in disbelief that in just a few short hours this baby was earthside!
Following the birth, were some scary minutes that seemed like hours where baby had to be deep suctioned since she came so fast her lungs didn’t get squeezed and Ali’s uterus wasn’t quite catching up to the fact that it was done housing a baby. I saw Ali dig so deep as they worked her uterus and tended her brand new baby. It was a rough road to take when it seemed for a minute that the work had been finished. Melissa and the WNC birth center were incredible, like always. Calm, efficient, and knowledgable. At last I left them snuggled together in the bed, the sweetest little family filled with the most gratitude.
A week later I got to visit them at their home, watched them swing through the same window I had witnessed them laboring, photographed them as they buried their placenta under their wedding tree.
I say it often but I don’t say it enough…this job is the most soul filling. I’m the luckiest.
So happy to have gained some new friends, and for the honor of witnessing the birth of the most lovely little human that the world desperately needed.
