Birth Story: My Labor On Zoom by Amanda

On December 23, 2021, I went into labor with my daughter around 9pm. I had been experiencing prodromal labor for a couple weeks but recognized this as “go time,” having had an exhaustingly slow 46-hour labor with my first daughter. I was really excited that this labor felt immediately more productive.

Now, I was at my parents’ house to spend the night because we have Christmas Eve and morning there every year. My brother and his girlfriend were there, and my mom, dad, and daughter, Piper. My dad was on his weekly Zoom call with his siblings, something they started when Covid began as a way to still spend time together. The only thing is, my dad has ten brothers and sisters.

Imagine me, in a cozy, quiet living room—a warm fire in the fireplace and the gentle lights on the Christmas tree the only sources of light. I’m in my groove, humming lowly to myself (okay, it sounds more like a deep cow’s moo), resting my head on a birthing ball as I sway my hips side to side. When suddenly I hear voices yelling, “Go Amanda! OMG This is so exciting! Wait, are you really in labor? Ah, she’s really in labor!”

I look up and my dad is standing there holding his laptop out so all his siblings can see me, and they’re all shouting and cheering. My mom, brother, and his gf appear and start joining in the conversation until literally everyone is discussing me and the baby and birthing and all that while I’m just moving through contractions every 5 minutes with everyone cheering me on. I honestly couldn’t decide how I felt about all this because it was so bizarre and sitcom-like.

Quickly, I’ll mention that I do not have a partner—I used a donor to have my two girls by myself. And, long story short, my doula was not going to make it to my birth. So my mother is holding my herbal heating pads on my back, my brother’s gf is timing my contractions, and my brother is trying to get me to eat some ice cream even though I don’t want it because he Googled that it can make labor progress faster. Not to mention one of my uncle’s started to take an online doula training course while on Zoom so he could shout tips at me—tips that, of course, the other ten siblings had to loudly debate in between clapping for me after I made it through each contraction. Somehow, my 3-year-old daughter remained asleep through all this.

As chaotic, overwhelming, and possibly annoying as this all probably sounds, I swear it’s what made my entire labor only five hours. I was laughing so hard in between contractions at the ridiculousness and unbelievability of it all (and my doula-in-training uncle) that the time was flying by, and I was really managing the rushes pretty easily.

Thank goodness my mom was paying closer attention than me to the timing of my contractions, because she ultimately kicked my butt out the door into the car to head to the birth center—all in the nick of time. About five minutes into the drive, I knew something had changed and, literally as soon as she parked at the birth center, I leaped out of the car to have an almost two-minute long, intensely painful contraction. My daughter was born eight minutes later on Christmas Eve, still inside her sac. (We joke that she arrived in Santa’s sac for Christmas.) We were both happy and healthy.

And that is the story of how my entire crazy family took part in my labor via Zoom. I’m so blessed and grateful to be surrounded by that level of insanity and love.

My name is Amanda. I teach 7th grade Language Arts, but my favorite job is being Momma to two beautiful girls, Piper and Eva. I’m a single parent by choice—I used a donor to have my two babies. We love to hike, paddle board, camp, and go on as many adventures as possible. We also love the Zen Mama community and all the support and insights offered here!