Soraya Moana Levy-Jiddawi made her grand entrance into the world on December 23rd, 2017. Her timing could not have been better; everything worked out perfectly, as if she knew exactly what her mama had been worried about. For weeks or even months before her arrival I worried about the logistics surrounding her birth. We wanted a homebirth and like many parts of the world, out-of-hospital births are under attack in Costa Rica. Currently only Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM) are allowed to practice in Costa Rica and there are only two of them in the whole country (unless of course I manage to get my CNM license transferred over). We were determined to do a homebirth for our second pregnancy as well since we had such a wonderful experience with Abe’s homebirth in D.C. I literally could not imagine doing it any other way. In fact, one of the determining factors of whether or not we would move to Costa Rica was based on whether or not we could find a great homebirth midwife to help welcome our baby into the world. Thankfully we found Mamasol, a solo-practice ran by a very inspirational American Certified Nurse Midwife, Rebecca Turecky.

As my due date approached, I found myself worrying more and more about what we would do with Abe during labor and birth. How he would react to having a new addition to our family. Would we make it to the mountains of Turrialba, where we were planning on giving birth, on time to have the homebirth we planned? Or would we have to deliver at a random hospital somewhere in-between Playa Flamingo in Guanacaste, Nicaragua, and La Fortuna, which is where we had been after becoming full-term and prior to getting to Turrialba. What made me worry even more was that the closest delivery hospital to all of the above places was at least an hour away. Additionally, we had nobody to watch Squiggles or Abe since Sam’s parents had not arrived yet. I’m sure one of our few good friends in Flamingo, where we live, would have offered to watch Abe and Squiggles, but Abe has been very attached to Sam and I ever since I became a stay-home mama, so that would have been a little complicated to say the least. AND until December 8th, a few days after I was full-term, we did not even have a car to drive to the hospital in should I have gone into labor. Every day I would pray for homegirl to wait until we have a car, make it to Turrialba, and her grandparents arrive. We were basically just winging it. 

Hiking in Arenal

I remember being in La Fortuna, a stop we made to break up our 7-hour drive to Turrialba, and making a plan A and B regarding what to do if I went into labor there (I had strong Braxton Hicks contractions one night after a day of hiking to a waterfall in Arenal). Our plan A was to drive to CIMA, a private hospital in San Jose, which was 3-hours away, and plan B was to go to a local hospital about an hour away from La Fortuna that we knew nothing about. We did not have a plan for Abe and Squiggles but I asked Sam to leave me at the hospital and take care of Abe and Squiggles should we find ourselves in that situation… “I’ll be fine”, I assured him. Although he was not comfortable with this, he begrudgingly agreed that that would be the best course of action. Driving to Turrialba also crossed my mind, however, we figured since it was way up in the mountains and we had never been there before, it was not the best idea; despite it also being 3.5 hours away. I was especially worried because Soraya had felt very low in my pelvis even before I was full-term.

Sweet babu Hal

On the Wednesday before Soraya’s birth, Sam’s sweet grandpa Hal, who had been in hospice care for weeks prior, transitioned to the next phase. This was also the day Sam’s parents arrived to Costa Rica, although they were not able to join us in Turrialba until the next morning. We then had a service for sweet Hal that Friday. Thankfully I was not in labor during the service, which meant that we got to participate via Skype.

After the service, our midwife stopped by for a prenatal visit. I remember jokingly saying to her, “ok everything is now in place, I give Soraya permission to come.” She strongly advised that I get a day to myself in the next few days and suggested that she comes up to give me a massage. She encouraged relaxation and “letting go” of any stresses I may still have surrounding our birth because “babies come when the body lets go”. When I expressed concern that I did not feel prepared enough to handle contractions, because I barely had time to mentally prepare myself for labor and birth during Soraya’s pregnancy, she reminded me to picture the waves in the beaches of Guanacaste. “You see each wave coming”, she said, “and so you brace yourself for it and don’t let it knock you down.” “Just tackle the waves”, I thought, “I remember that from last time!”

Abe’s last day as an only child; right after the service and before the last prenatal visit

At that point we had 6 days until Soraya’s due date. Abe came right on time so I thought I still had a week to prepare for the “waves.” Rebecca and I set up a “massage date” for that following Tuesday. I planned to go to the farmers market the next morning then hike to a waterfall we’ve been wanting to go to. Then maybe visit Volcan Irazu’s crater the day after, Guayabo National Park the day after that, then do a solo Netflix n’ chill day followed by a massage on Tuesday. I had plans! Little did I know, Soraya had other, even better plans.

It was such a strange night that night. As if Soraya and Abe communicated what the best plan would be to make labor as stress-free as possible. Abe, who sleeps on a twin size mattress on the floor next to our bed, woke up randomly at around 12:30AM (Saturday) and wanted to come in our bed, which he rarely does. I brought him in bed with us. Then he woke up again at around 2AM because his leg was “itchy.” He did indeed have a random benign looking rash on his leg (which was gone by the time he woke up). I applied some hydrocortisone cream, which helped the itchiness and he went back to sleep. As you may already know, toddlers are terrible at bed sharing. I found myself pretty much hanging off the bed. I therefore ended up moving down to his mattress to get some sleep.

Abe making sure Soraya has all ten of her toes

At around 3:30AM I woke up with back pain and some cramps. I knew exactly what that meant; that labor was imminent. I was in labor for 12 hours with Abe so I thought I still had plenty of time. I planned the whole day out. I remember thinking, “great, I have at least 3.5 hours until Abe wakes up, that gives me a head start. He’ll wake up, eat breakfast, then go to a park with his grandparents, and hopefully by the time they come back for his lunch time, 8 – 9 hours later, Soraya will either be here or be close. If she’s not here by then, I’ll be in the birth pool downstairs and therefore everything will be more gentle and calm. Abe will have lunch and his dad will put him down for a nap as I continue to labor.” I also thought, “c’mon, I had plans”, and “out of all the days it had to be the night that I barely slept.” But then I reminded myself that she was going to arrive when she arrives and everything will work out the way it’s supposed to work out.

A sneak-peak of our night view- it’s impossible to capture how amazing it is on camera; not unless you are great at photography, which I’m not.

I thought about whether or not I should give Rebecca and our doula, Lara, a headsup or give it time. Ten minutes later, my cramps got a lot stronger and my mucus plug came out. Since they had informed me that they had two other women also expecting around our due date, I figured I should give them a headsup but make it clear that they did not need to come yet since it was just the beginning. Ten minutes after that, I found myself squatting on the balcony outside of our cabin because the contractions had started and they did not start lightly. I had gone outside because I did not want to wake anyone up. I also thought the stars and the lights in the mountains and the valley, which made our cabin feel like it was surrounded by never ending tea light candles and Christmas lights, would help me relax a little.

The view from our cabin situated in a large farm in the mountains of Turrialba is spectacular, but it did not help slow down the contractions. I then decided to go into the shower to slow them down. “Surely hot water therapy will work”, I thought, but it didn’t. In fact the contractions got even stronger. By then Sam woke up, timed the contractions, kept our birth team posted, and even though I was still saying, “no they don’t have to come yet”, because I wanted them as rested as possible, the team headed up. Before I knew it, they were there. And thank God they were because by the time they made it, Sam had moved Abe’s mattress to the living room (thank God Abe was sleeping in our bed) and I was attached to it. Rebecca was wrong, it was nothing like the waves in Guanacaste. It felt more like tsunamis. One on top of another with zero breaks.

Right after she was born; during her first feed.

 At 6:23 AM, right after sunrise, after going through the first  stage of labor in under 3 hours, Soraya was born. The birth could not have been more beautiful. I remember looking out into the valley from our cabin in the clouds and admiring how gorgeous the mountains and the clouds were when my body gave me a few heavenly minutes to rest while it transitioned to the next stage of labor. It suddenly rained very briefly as my body pushed her out. She was born in the amniotic sac, which many cultures consider to be good luck, and indeed she is our little good luck miracle. Abe somehow slept through it all. He woke up at around 7:30AM, which is later than his usual wake-up time but it allowed the birth team to finish everything they needed to do. Abe woke up as a big brother and walked into the living room to meet his new baby sister.

Our good luck charm. Our sweet Soraya Moana

Everything worked out perfectly… well besides the fact that we did not have enough time to set up the birth pool. Although I doubt I would have agreed to move from where I was to go down the stairs to the pool even if it was ready on time. In fact, when the birth team proposed that I walk down the stairs to the birth pool once it was ready, I wondered to myself, “how in the world do women manage to leave their homes during labor, get in their cars, head to the hospital, check in, and go to unfamiliar rooms to continue to labor?!” I also thought, “those poor women I encouraged to wait until the active phase of labor to head to the hospital, how in the world did they do it?”.  Anyway, to be honest, I was perfectly okay with not doing a waterbirth. Soraya and I probably would’ve been cold as hell afterwards since its quite cold up in the mountains at dawn. I was  interested in doing a waterbirth because we did not get to with Abe so I figured this was my last chance to gain a better perspective of what a water-birth is like, so that I can have a better input for my future clients. 

A part of our birth team; super grateful for them

Our little good luck charm has been doing great and big brother Abe and big sister Squiggles have been adjusting well to her presence. We are so thankful that everything worked out and Soraya could not have had better timing for her arrival. Additionally we are so thankful for our birth team, as well as our old and new village that made our pregnancy, labor, and birth, especially in a foreign country, manageable. Cheers to 2017!

 

In love