Congratulations to new mama Maren on the birth of her son! She shares his birth story below, and also beautifully states her intention around taking time to slow down post-birth:

I’m trying hard to apply the lessons I learned during pregnancy — to slow down, listen to my body, and be gentle with myself. 

Mamas, doing this is the biggest gift you can give yourself and your baby postpartum. It’s so hard for many of us to slow down — even right after having a baby — but this is the time to do it. Snuggle in close and take each other in. Maren, thanks for sharing your birth experience and insights so far into motherhood!

Love,

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

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Maren + Finn

Hi Bridget,

I hope you’re doing well. I was sorry to miss yoga on Monday evening, but it was for a really good reason: our son, Finnegan was born on Friday, October 19th at 8:45 p.m. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 4 oz and was 20 inches long.

Finnegan has blonde hair, big eyes, and, in our completely unbiased opinion, is adorable! He’s a sweet, snuggly little boy who loves to sleep all day and stay awake at night. After only a week, we already love him way more than we imagined possible in such a short time!

Labor and birth were challenging (as expected!) and amazing. We were surrounded by an incredible team and are so thankful that everything went well for both me and Finn. My husband did an absolutely amazing job supporting me through labor. I don’t know what I would have done without him. Even our doulas suggested that he should consider being a doula himself because he was so good! (He’s planning to stick to environmental education.)

My water broke the night before Finn was born, though I wasn’t positive at the time whether that was actually what had happened. I talked with the midwife on call who told me to go to bed and see what happened.

In the morning I was having contractions every 10-15 minutes so they said I needed to come in for augmentation with Pitocin because I’d already been ruptured for > 12 hours. Thankfully, by the time we got to the hospital 2 hours later I was having strong contractions every 4-5 minutes so we were able to avoid the Pitocin.

Welcome to the world, Baby Finn!

Labor got pretty intense soon after that. I was dilated 2 cm when I got to the hospital and was 4 cm several hours later … and again several hours after that. It was at that point (after about 8 hours of labor) that I wasn’t sure I could do it anymore and really started to consider an epidural. But, my team did a great job of encouraging me and helping me set short-term goals (e.g. let’s try these 3 things, recheck your cervix, and then re-evaluate) and helped me get through it, even though I’ll confess at one moment I was secretly convinced that they were all being really mean to me by not agreeing that I should have an epidural right away.

The doulas and midwives had me try contractions in a couple different positions and checked again, and I was still at four. I’m pretty sure I cried at that point. However, the midwife also had said that I still had a bulging bag of waters and they recommended rupturing it then. We agreed and as they checked me immediately afterward my cervix went from 4 to  8 1/2 — during the check!

Hope came flooding back then. Within an hour I was starting to feel like pushing, and not long after that I was complete. I pushed for almost exactly an hour (which was WAY better than just enduring contractions!) and Finn was born. Apgars were 9 and 9 and we got to hold him right away. We couldn’t have been happier!

Thanks for all your kindness and support during the last few months. I am so grateful for the time I spent at Blooma and *especially* in your classes. During the pushing phase I was so thankful for strong muscles & good hip flexibility from prenatal yoga … not to mention all that great practice on breathing and relaxing through intense sensations, which served me well throughout labor and delivery!

I’m definitely excited to bring Finnegan to BYOB yoga, though I’m learning that even an uncomplicated vaginal delivery requires WAY more time for recovery than I’d anticipated. I’m trying hard to apply the lessons I learned during pregnancy — to slow down, listen to my body, and be gentle with myself. So, it might be a few weeks ’til I’m ready for class. Any advice on when people are typically ready to get back to yoga?

Again, thanks for everything. Hope to see you soon.

Take care,

Maren