Bon Cherry

My birth story…

1. My waters broke at 00:15, 23 January 2022.
2. We drove to the hospital with the song “Joy Comes in the Morning,” by Baylor Wilson randomly playing on the radio. This song was prophetic, I felt God’s presence in the car with us. This was the moment I had been longing for.
3. I arrived at the hospital to meet a midwife named Freedom whom I got to share my Passion for Jesus. Together we worshipped with the song “Goodness of God” playing and prayed together. Again, God was with us and His hand was on me.
4. Freedom went off duty and I was introduced to Doreen, another passionate woman of God who prayed with me through the contractions.
5. 9hrs later, the contractions weren’t progressing. I was 3cm dilated for too long and there was a 12 hr window period that they wanted the baby to be delivered within.
6. My gynecologist, Dr. Hartman, recommended that I be induced. They hooked up the drip, and I was no longer mobile.
7. They fitted a catheter which was more painful than the contractions and so I asked for the catheter to be removed.
8. The pain of the contractions rapidly intensified.
9. It was too late to request an epidural.
10. The Aircon didn’t work and sweat dripped from my body.
11. Throughout this time Dyl was sitting in the car, waiting for me to reach 8cm dilation before he was allowed in the room. This is due to ridiculous covid protocols.
12. I begged them to let Dyl in. He came to save the day by rubbing my lower back in small circles as I “worked.” Intensely focussed, I laboured through each contraction coming at me in 1-2 minute intervals.
13. I breathed deep. In for 4, out for 6.
14. “I laboured.”
15. After almost 2 hrs of being on Pictocin to induce contractions I was “bearing down”.
16. My hero 🦸🏻 doctor arrived and started to guide my breathing.
17. I listened intently. I was silent but in my head there was a war going on.
18. He told me to push. I felt myself defecating. 🥺
19. I pushed with every fibre of my being. With utter desperation, I screamed silently in my head “COME OUT”!!
20. Her head came. Ring of fire 🔥 …Then the shoulders.
21. Relief.
    Childbirth is grueling but glorious. It’s not pain- it’s LABOUR. It’s hard, focussed anticipation for one of the greatest gifts one can ever receive. It’s a supernatural moment. A “breaking the river banks” to make way for torrents of love.
22. Anna Hope Cherry, my child of HOPE was handed to me to start feeding.