Hear me share Flora Quinn’s birth story on the No Higher Calling podcast:

Out of all my babies, Flora has the wildest birth story! Nothing went according to our plans, but as we reflect, we can see God orchestrating every detail, keeping both Flora and I safe and healthy.

You can read my other baby’s birth stories here (Eden) (Knox) (Ivy) (Willow). Quick synopsis, my first two were medicated hospital births. Ivy was a homebirth, and it changed our world! It was the best, most beautiful experience. You could say I became addicted to natural, no-intervention childbirth. I started reading books, researching, learning about the female body- I couldn’t get enough. For the first time in my life (and 3 babies in!), I felt educated and informed. A year after Ivy’s birth, we had our miscarriage. We were devastated, but God brought beauty from ashes. Just a few months later, He gifted us with a new life, our Willow. I knew immediately that I wanted another homebirth. Ivy’s birth was fast- 3 hours of labor. Willow’s was even faster- 1 hour! Long story short, we have learned that my body does all the “early labor” in the weeks leading up to birth. It’s not at all uncommon for me to sit at 6-8cm dilated in the weeks leading up to baby’s arrival! Then, when it is go-time, it’s go-time! Like I’m pushing out a head go-time! That makes life quite interesting because we all have to be on immediate standby. Life needs to be ready to halt at a moment’s notice and switch into “let’s have a baby” mode.

Because of this, we were prepared for a fast delivery with Flora. My amazing midwife, Ashley, lives about an hour from us. She prepped Simeon and I both in the event that she didn’t make it in time for the delivery. This was our 5th baby and 3rd homebirth, we felt pretty confident that we would be ok.

And now to share my dream of what I hoped her birth would look like- Being our surprise Christmas present from God, I dreamed of having baby by the Christmas tree. Twinkling lights, surrounded by my husband and our children, soft music in the background- it was going to be magical and perfect. We waited to find out the gender, so I told Simeon to catch baby, pass baby up to me, and after a quick snuggle, I was going to do the big reveal for all the siblings crowded around.

That is not how things went down.

My due date was December 26th. I know that’s more of a guess date than an eviction notice, but I still had my hopes up that baby would come early, or at least “on time.” The week came and went. New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day; this little one decided it was going to be a 2024 baby. The evening of New Year’s Day I was 40+6. Simeon and I played a new game he got for Christmas. (GAME) I think he was trying to cheer me up or distract me from the reality that I was pregnant another year. (fun fact: I have been pregnant a portion of every year from 2016-2024!!) I had uncomfortable cramping that evening but had determined I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

10:30pm- We went to bed.

12:00am- I woke up with very uncomfortable contractions. I tossed and turned for a while but could tell they were getting more painful.

12:30am- I got up and started getting my birth things together. I woke Simeon up and told him I thought I was in the early stages of labor.

1:00am- I’m in labor, no doubting it now! Contractions were strong and every few minutes. We called our midwife, she gave us the eta of 2am. Simeon got the family room ready with all my birth supplies, turned on the Christmas tree lights, and my favorite hymn cd. I labored in there for a short while, but my legs were shaky, and I wanted to be in a different position. We moved out to the living room, and I leaned over the back of our couch.

1:30am- While laboring on the couch, my water broke. Contractions were more intense, and I was pushing. Simeon woke up our oldest 3 children and brought them out. They were so sweet checking to see if I needed anything. Then they were off coloring at our kitchen table while Sim and I were there beside them in the living room.

2:00am- My midwife and her assistant arrived. They could tell right away that I was pushing, and as we had chatted throughout the entire pregnancy, they began to prepare things for baby to arrive at any moment. I was so hot leaning on our fabric couch that we had to move to a different spot. I was shaky and quite tired, so they suggested moving to our bedroom so I could lie down. Nothing was comfortable. Every position hurt. I’d get really hot, and we’d move to our shower. Simeon would spray me with cold water to cool me down, then I’d start shivering, and he’d spray hot water. Back to the bed. Repeat. I began to realize that this was taking longer than we expected. By this time, it’s probably around 3:30am. My midwife thought that there might be a piece of cervix delaying baby. We attempted different positions to help that, but nothing.

4:00am- My midwife was concerned at the length of time I had been fully dilated and actively pushing with no progress on baby’s descent. She asked if she could do a vaginal exam. I agreed. When she felt for baby’s head, instead of feeling the crown of baby’s head, she felt a nose and eyes. Definitely not what she was supposed to be feeling! Baby was brow presentation. This only occurs in 1 out of every 4,000 births. She attempted to manually rotate baby, but it did not work.

5:00am- We tried different positions, deep squats while pushing, acupuncture, none of these were helping baby budge. The midwife noticed that with every contraction, baby’s heart rate was declining. Then, we began the conversation I never thought I’d be having. She suggested a hospital transfer. My heart broke. I was so tired and weak. I could not believe after so much effort that baby was not here. I was scared. On top of all of that, we had logistical things to consider. Who was going to watch our kids at a moment’s notice? How long would we be at the hospital? My world felt like it was spinning. I felt discouraged and defeated, but I knew I needed help getting baby out. Simeon and both agreed that we needed to transfer.

5:30am- Simeon called our Pastor and his wife. Within minutes, they were heading to our house to watch our children. God is so good!

6:00am- Simeon helped me get into our van. The hospital was 20 minutes away. (interesting side note: the hospital is in Parramatta- the city God called us to plant a church in) My midwife drove behind us. I was turned around backward in the passenger seat squeezing the back of the chair through each painful contraction. Those 20 minutes felt like an eternity! When we finally made it to the hospital, we didn’t know where to go. We pulled up to the main entrance, but it was quite the walk to get inside. My midwife ran in and asked for a wheelchair, but no one came. With shaky, weak legs, I climbed out of the car and started walking (more like shuffling) toward the door. I couldn’t wait! I needed this baby out. I had to walk past many people sitting outside on benches. Contractions were intense and happening every 2-3 minutes. I was leaning on my midwife as she helped me walk, but I had to stop for a contraction. I must have appeared desperate, because an older gentleman sitting on a bench offered me his walker! We finally made it to the elevator and rode up to the maternity ward. When the doors opened, a nurse was waiting outside with a wheelchair. I climbed in it on my knees facing her. She looked confused and said, “Oh this isn’t for you. I’m supposed to pick up a mom downstairs.” Well, too bad! I wasn’t leaving the wheelchair until they put me in a room. She obliged.

6:45am- Booking in at the hospital took forever! Well, not really, but that’s what it felt like at the time. I was so thankful to have my midwife with me. While the hospital staff could not have been kinder and more helpful, my midwife knew my desires for birth, and although everything felt like it was going sideways, she was my greatest advocate for as natural of an experience as possible. As they were offering things, I was able to lean on her medical knowledge and trust her suggestions of “yes, I’d do that”, or “no, you and baby are safe to decline.” Because this was completely new territory for me (hospital transfer because of a complication), it brought me such peace and security to be able to lean on her judgment calls. At this point, Simeon took a less active role in helping me cope with labor. He had been either by my side or running to get things for me every moment from the beginning until now. I am so thankful for his support, love, and attentiveness to doing all he could to make my desires for this birth happen. But at this point, the medical staff started taking over, and he was more of a moral support. He stood by me, held my hand, and we did our best to quickly process all that was happening.

This is where everything starts to get blurry for me as far as a timeline goes. I remember the details quite well, but not the time stamps of everything. I’ll just share the details and pick back up with times at baby’s arrival.

There were so many people in the room! Apparently, I was the talk of the ward. No one could believe that a mama x5 was trying to push out a brow presentation. We had several doctors, midwives, and a few student midwives present. The attending doctor attempted a manual rotation, but he was unsuccessful as well. He talked us through our options, the best of which was to have an instrumental birth. They were going to try to vacuum baby first, and if that didn’t work, they would try using forceps. I was terrified! I didn’t know very much about those methods of delivery, but the images conjuring in my head were of torturous births in the early 1900s. Not a lovely picture, and probably not reality, but still scary! The doctor suggested that I get an epidural in case they needed to use the forceps. It went against all that I wanted, but God was quickly teaching me that this birth would be one of humble surrender. I was so exhausted at this point, I had to get relief. Simeon and I decided the epidural was the route that this birth was requiring.

Once the epidural took effect, I noticed my body relaxing a bit. The doctors were preparing the instruments for delivery when I got several strong contractions and had the urge to push. My midwife encouraged me to bear down and put every effort into pushing. After just a few pushes, they noticed baby was descending! The attending doctor rushed over and helped coach me through the final pushes. To the amazement of everyone in the room, my brow presentation baby had crowned unassisted! Unheard-of!

8:55am- Simeon got in position to catch baby. Push! Head was out face up looking right at Daddy! Wait for a contraction. Push!! Baby was out! My midwife took her from Simeon and placed her on my chest. Oh my goodness! After all that work, and the high highs and low lows, I finally had my baby in my arms!

We quickly began to notice that she wasn’t doing very well. Flora had swallowed a lot of meconium and needed suction and oxygen. I only had her for a few seconds before they had to take her away, but it was long enough to peek between her legs and see that we had- another girl! The next few minutes are some of the scariest I’ve ever faced. Simeon and I waited, watched, and prayed for our baby girl to be ok. Her oxygen levels began to rise, slowly at first, then climbing quickly. She went from purple and limp to pink and wriggling. Within 15 minutes, she was back on my chest, completely fine and healthy! Praise the Lord for His unending goodness.

She did have quite a bit of bruising on her head and a wound on her forehead from my pubic bone. But she was perfect! Beautiful and perfect!

We were both assessed by several different midwives and doctors, and everything checked out wonderfully! My midwife pulled some strings, and we were allowed to go home just 6 hours after Flora’s birth. This was such a gift from the Lord. After all we’d been through, the complete deviation from what our expectations were, it was so good to be heading back to our own space with siblings who were anxious to meet their little sibling.

Although this was not the birth I’d dreamed of, the more we reflect on each detail, the more we see God did answer our prayer- that we might come to know Him, the giver of life, in a new and deeper way through this birth. God answered in beautiful, miraculous ways. Not the ways I had hoped for, but as He proves to me time and again, His ways are beyond mine, and they are always best. At the end of the day, we held the most lovely baby girl in our arms, and everything else faded away.

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,”

Flora Quinn Brazzell

January 2, 2024 8:55am

8lbs 9oz / 19 1/2 inches