Laboring with the Dolphins and Beautiful Natural Water Birth

After swimming with the dolphins for the past 2 months, little Naiya decided to make her way into the world on August 7, 2011 at 8:17pm.  Ben (videographer) and I woke up early…well if you consider 8:30 early…(no signs of labor yet) and decided to go down to the bay to see if there were dolphins.  If there were dolphins we were going to text James and Kaden to come meet us.  When we got down there we saw lots of dolphin action.  I could not get cell service so I borrowed someone’s phone to call but only got voicemail.  I left a message and headed into the water where I was welcomed by a small pod of dolphins.  They literally swam to me and in a way escorted me out to lots more dolphins, 50 or more.  Ben was still on shore, waiting for the camera, we forgot to put it in the housing before leaving and it has to be sealed for 20 or so minutes before submerging it into the water.

There were so many dolphins, at times I felt if I moved an arm or a foot that I would bump into one.  It was like many pods had come together.  I recognized some specific dolphins as they have different markings or one in specific has a lot of growths on its mouth.  It is amazing that each dolphin swim seems to be more and more magical.  How can it be I often ask myself?  Just a few minutes later I started having contractions in the water.  Wow, really, I was going into labor in the water with the dolphins!  Maybe that is why there were so many dolphins today?

Ben met me out there 30 minutes later and we were able to get some great footage!  We stayed out there for about 2 magical hours.  I felt so embraced and comforted by the dolphins.  A connection that seems unexplainable.  My contractions continued throughout the day.  I got out of the water and drank some fresh coconut water and headed up the hill.  The contractions were starting to get more intense and I thought it would be a good idea to take a nap as today was definitely the day.  James checked me when I got back to the house and said I was 3-4 centimeters.  I hung out, napping in between contractions.  James called the midwives Mala and April to let them know I was definitely in labor, contractions about 5 minutes apart.  This was about 2 pm.  Around 5:30 I decided to go down to the bay for the sunset.

We met the midwives there and labor started to intensify rapidly.  After the sunset around 7pm I still thought I had a few hours, that is until we got in the car.  Our house is about 3 miles up a windy road and we pulled over every minute for an intense contraction.  By the time we arrived home maybe 10 minutes I went straight to the bath and my baby girl was born in the warm water at 8:17pm.

August 18, 2011. Tags: labor with dolphins, natural birth, water birth. dolphin experience hawaii.