00:07
Hi friends, welcome to the Pain Free Birth podcast. I'm your host, Karen Welton, a certified doula childbirth educator and mother of three. In this space, we'll hear positive, supernatural, and yes, even pain free birth stories from women just like you. We'll explore the deeply spiritual side of childbirth and how God designed women's bodies brilliantly for birth. Let's get started.
00:34
Welcome friends to the Pain Free Birth podcast. Today I am interviewing Elizabeth Parsons. You may know of her as Purely Parsons on Instagram. She has an amazing account filled with motherhood, twin life, homesteading, natural remedies. She's a nurse practitioner, is that right? I'm a registered nurse. A registered nurse. And so her knowledge of health is just so holistic and beautiful. I love.
01:02
following her. She has some incredible like natural remedies and, and things on her. Check it out. You'll just you'll get sucked in for hours, I promise you. But today Elizabeth is here. She's going to share this her twin birth story, which was in fact a surprise twin birth story. I shared it. I reshared it on my account two years ago, I think or three years ago, because they're almost three. But welcome to the podcast, Elizabeth. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me.
01:32
Yeah, so tell us a little bit, just give us a little backstory about your family and how in the world you find yourself giving birth to surprise twins at home. How do many people do that? How does that happen? I'm sure you get lots of weird looks when you tell them that story. Yeah, it's an odd one, but so yes, I'm Elizabeth. I am a mama to five and we are actually expecting our sixth child early next year.
02:01
And I am, like you said, I'm a registered nurse, but I left the hospital in 2020 to come home and be with my kids. And we homeschool and we homestead. We have some acreage and we've got cows and chickens and we're growing that. And so that's been super fun. We actually just relocated from Texas and got a little over 70 acres out in the Appalachian mountains. So it's been really...
02:29
fun doing that, but my passion is just, I talk about a lot of different things over on my page, but my, my passion at its core is just like empowering parents to, you know, trust themselves and trust their guts and kind of question the status quo a little bit. And that goes with a lot of different things. So that can go with birth. It can go with any like healthcare decisions, schooling. So I talk about a lot of different things. My faith is also interwoven in there as well.
02:58
And so yeah, that's kind of me in a nutshell. I am married and we've been married for, it'll be 15 years coming up in March. So that's crazy. I don't think that I would have ever thought that this was going to be my life, but I couldn't have planned it better. We're very, very thankful. As far as like, how did I find myself birthing surprise twins? I just, so I got pregnant in 2020 and that was like the whole.
03:25
you know, coronavirus pandemic, and I just did not want to mess with the hospital. It was my fourth pregnancy. And at that point, I had had all my pregnancies, all my births in a hospital. And I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. So I had also your first home birth. Yeah. I had wanted to do a home birth, but insurance would never cover it. I even tried to do a birth center.
03:49
And so all of my births up until that point were unmedicated, but they were in a hospital setting. And so I've had both experiences and I just, I knew that I did not want the hospital experience again. And so I told my husband when we got pregnant, I was like, I am not having this baby in a hospital, especially with the climate that was happening, you know, back then. And so I'm very, very thankful that it all worked out for me to have a home birth.
04:17
Wow. What was his reaction? He's, he's super supportive. I think it was kind of a journey for both of us. Like our first daughter, we, we both like home birth just scared us, you know, for whatever reason, it's just, we were still on our kind of journey. And I was coming from like a very clinical mindset of regarding, you know, just being trained as a registered nurse. And, but I think once you do the research and you remove the fear and you actually
04:46
know the statistics. It's very and now having been through it, I'm so, so excited to do it again to get the privilege to do it again and have it just be one. Just one baby that you know is just one baby. Yes. Yeah, because what a shocker that must have been. And it probably would have really made you question, wait, can we really do a home birth if you found out you were having twins in your pregnancy? Oh, totally. It was totally the Lord. Like, it was
05:16
If we would have found out that we were having twins at any point, you know, they, twins just come with more interventions just by nature. And my midwife, I'm not, I think she probably would have felt more comfortable doing it at a birth center. And so I just, I don't know how it would have ended up. And I'm very, very thankful that we didn't have to deal with a lot of that. And my twins were 40 weeks and they were, you know, the size of full term babies.
05:43
seven, eight and seven, 12. So they were not small. Are you kidding me? Yeah, and usually twins are coming, they're inducing in a clinical setting, they're gonna be inducing for twins three, four weeks earlier than that. And they would have missed all of that development. And I just think it's a picture of like, if you just leave birth alone, even when it's twins, like, I'm not downplaying that medical intervention is needed at times in birth, but I think as a blanket statement,
06:13
We over medicalize birth in the United States and we see it as this disease that needs to be intervened upon or a condition that needs to be intervened upon when really, if you just leave it alone, most of the time it's fine. Yeah, 100%. Couldn't agree with you more. That's my, that's my spell box. No argument. I don't think my listeners would have disagreed with you on that one. It is interesting though, because about 50-50, I have about half my listeners
06:43
planning home birth or and had the other half hospital. So I actually love that I have that mix because I always say birth where you feel the most safe. Yeah. But if it is a hospital, you need to know what you're walking into because there are lots of interventions that are lined up for you at the door, before you even get there. So it's important to be empowered and equipped. But so tell us about your pregnancy. How did you not know you were pregnant with twins, especially
07:13
Like full-size term, seven pound twins. Well, so I'm not a small person. I'm tall and I'm broad. And so the way that I was carrying was not any different than any of my other pregnancies. I did decline the anatomy scan for this pregnancy. It was the first time I had ever done that. But I just, again, did not want to mess with going into the hospital, having to lug my kids to the hospital. Or I guess I couldn't have even brought them.
07:41
Cause you had three other kids at the time and they would stay home. Yeah. So I, I did not do the anatomy scan, but everything was kind of just the same as my other pregnancies. I never, I don't remember feeling more, more kicks. The midwife never like felt to, she never heard to on her Doppler. And it was just, it was seemingly, you know, the same as all of my other pregnancies.
08:09
until the end. Like, I would say like the last four weeks, I started like, getting bigger because that's like the babies really start packing on the measuring ahead. Yeah, so I always measure ahead like with the baby. So it wasn't out of the normal for you.
08:25
It wasn't out of the normal. Like right now I'm measuring the fundal height. I I've measured like four weeks ahead at some points. And so it's just not baby though. Yeah. There's just one. Wow. Okay. We've checked. Um, you checked this time. Good. Yeah. So, and you know, usually that's right along with number of weeks of your pregnancy. That's how your fundal height is. Well, mine's always been ahead and that, that was kind of the case. I was always just kind of like two ish weeks ahead, that whole pregnancy. And then.
08:54
Towards the end, I started measuring more ahead and at 40 weeks, I was measuring 43. And just the other things were just like so exhausted and I was having some pretty intense edema, like swelling of my ankles. And that had never happened to me with other pregnancies, but like my blood pressure was always fine. And then just, I guess the other major thing would be like my hips.
09:22
just felt like they were so painful. Like it felt like my hips were just going to break and like looking back, it's like, well, duh, like that's because you're carrying 40 week twins. That's 14, 15 pounds a baby plus placenta. Yeah, plus placenta and fluid. Yeah, that's a lot. And my placenta, my placenta was like three pounds. So, you know, until the end, it really wasn't any different. And we had even had my midwife like,
09:49
make sure that she was like, you know, palpating and checking. And so towards the end, my husband was like, like, let's just, you know, we can just go get it checked out. Like, what's what's it gonna hurt? And so did you wonder like, am I having twins once you got toward the end? I don't know if it was like, it's hard to really remember. I think that my husband maybe thought so. And that's kind of why we had my midwife like
10:18
check for heart tones and palpate and stuff. And then we did get an ultrasound at, it was like the day before I went into labor. And we went and she, we were like, you would see two if there was two. And she was like, oh yeah. And there's just one and he's head down and he's got a lot of hair.
10:40
But there's not two. And so we were like, OK. And how do you miss a whole seven pound baby? I don't we were literally just talking about this. It's like, how do you miss a baby? How do you miss a whole baby? But truly, it was just like, truly, God had to like, hit that baby in the back of your womb somewhere. Yeah, because if you think about it, like if I would have known, if I would have found out the day before.
11:09
I went into labor, like all of that mental roadblock I would have had like, what? I'm having twins now? Like I have to birth twins? Like I have one day to prepare for this. Like it would have been so stressful and just so, yeah. And it would have been a lot to wrap my head around. And so I think it truly was the mercy of the Lord and like, you know, hiding that other baby. I don't know which one was hiding and which one she didn't see, but he said he had a lot of hair and.
11:36
Do you have like a guess based on their personalities? Well, Silas is our more reserved twin and she said that the baby that she saw had a lot of hair, which is Gideon. So I'm thinking that Gideon was the one that was in position head down, but who knows? That's one question I'll have to ask when I get to heaven. Which one was hiding? Yeah, who is the tinker? Which one? Wow.
12:04
So you got an ultrasound. They said there's one baby in there. And then you went into labor the next day. What happened that day? So the next day I had a 40 week midwife appointment scheduled and they came by around 10 in the morning and I don't get cervical checks usually until like I'm in labor or sometimes just at the end. Cause we all know cervical checks can change so much and they can not be a
12:33
they're not a really great sign of whether or not you're close, but I just wanted to know. And so she checked me and I was three centimeters and I was having some contractions. I remember when they got there, I was on the birth ball and just kind of like, she could just kind of tell, you know, she's a midwife, she's been doing this for 40 years. And they weren't anything I had to like breathe through or I couldn't talk through, but I was having some consistent contractions. And so when they left that appointment, they didn't go far. They were like,
13:02
Yeah, they had another mom to see that was like an hour and a half away, but they called me and they were like, we're not going to go. We're going to just kind of go have some lunch and hang out around here. So you let us know, you know, if anything's happening. And yeah, like an hour later, I called her or I texted her and I was like, yeah, I'm still having some pretty consistent contractions. And she was like, okay, time them and let me know. They were like three minutes apart and pretty good, pretty good length. And she was like, okay, well, we'll head back over.
13:32
And so by the time they got back, I just feel like there's such a, you know, when you're going into labor as a mom, even this was my fourth pregnancy, I've gone into labor before, like you always just doubt yourself. And I don't know if that's like a woman's instinct to like not want to inconvenience others, like I don't know, I just didn't wanna be, you know, I just didn't wanna have a false alarm. But she got there and she checked me and I was four centimeters, so I had, you know, advanced since the morning.
14:00
So I was like, okay, like this, this is probably it. And so it was just the next few hours were just like very hands off. They were letting me do what I wanted to do. I was walking up and down our, we had a super long driveway and I was just walking and sun on my belly and they were feeding me food and like they, you know making sure I was drinking enough water. And it was just like, it was so good. Like it was just so different compared to
14:29
once you get admitted to the hospital and labor, it's like all these processes that have to happen. And it was, I just felt free. So around 530, she checked me again and I was seven centimeters. And so we were like, okay, like this is gonna happen. We're about to go into transition. Like based off of my other labors, like transition comes pretty quick for me. And so I was excited and we started filling up the birth pool.
14:56
And it just kind of, I got in and it was such a relief because I had been having back labor up until that point, which I think is just like, it's an anatomy thing for me. I don't know, like I've had back labor with every single one of my pregnancies. Yes, and it was such a relief to get into the pool, but I just kind of kept laboring and kept doing my thing. And she was checking the heart tones. And I think it was around 10.30, she checked me again. And I hadn't.
15:25
I hadn't advanced at all. And so that was like three hours. And I think that she could probably tell I was a little bit discouraged because you're just doing all this work and you want it not to be in vain. You want literally your labor not to be in vain. And so I think, yeah, I think she could tell that I was getting a little discouraged, but she told me to lay down.
15:53
She was like, why don't you lay down, try and like take a nap and just rest. And I looked at her like she was crazy. I was like, what do you mean? Like you want me to lay down right now? Like, why would I do that? It's like, we're about to have baby. Like, and, but I, I'm so thankful that she told me to do that because I truly think that that's what my body needed. I needed to just lay down and rest and have that reprieve. And I actually got to get like a pretty good nap and around 12th.
16:22
Yes, it is. Sometimes we like push ourselves in labor or we get pitocin if we're in a hospital setting and labor stalled like that. And we look at it like it's an emergency or a bad thing or there's something wrong with your body like, it can be very and I can understand it can be very discouraging. And I think so often sometimes the body just needs to rest, or the uterus needs to rest like your uterus is doing a lot of work. It's carrying twins, it's working like
16:50
hard in contracting and especially in a long labor, like sometimes if we haven't slept well, if we've been up at night, if there's stress or anxiety or like whatever's going on, sometimes like resting can give you everything you need for your body to just like click back into gear and like start contracting again regularly. So like what a great midwife to recognize that that's all you needed was just a little nap. Go lay down, honey. Yeah, and as a mom who has, I've-
17:19
I got induced with my first pregnancy due to length. She was almost 42 weeks and I was just a first time mom and I wasn't as knowledgeable, but I got induced with her and so I know pitocin contractions and I know the break that you don't get. And it just makes me feel for moms that have to go through that and not get that rest because that's clearly what my body needed.
17:43
Yeah, it's just like any other muscle group in the body. If you were overworking your muscles in a workout, you need you need to rest those muscles so they can actually regain that energetic strength before you go right to the next set. But we look at birth as if it's like broken. And the uterus isn't like a bag of muscles just like any other muscle group. Like it's just physiology. Like, sometimes the body needs rest, or maybe it needs to eat something and get some energy and fuel. Yes.
18:11
Like sometimes our needs are actually quite simple in labor, but we tend to overcomplicate it. Yes. The fact that we're still giving laboring women ice chips just infuriates me. Like this is a marathon. Can we please fuel our moms? Like crazy. I feel like that is one of the most like inhumane and barbaric hospital practices that is still happening today. I mean, there's a lot of them I could go on a rant about, but that to me is like, but just purely like almost it's abusive. That's all it is. It's pretty bad.
18:40
So, but you're home this time, you're in freedom, in your groove, taking a rest. What happens when you wake up from this glorious nap? So I woke up around midnight and I had three back-to-back intense contractions, like the most intense I'd had up until that point. And looking back on it, I think it was the babies moving and switching around.
19:08
Cause like I had said in the ultrasound, they said the baby was head down with a lot of hair, which was Gideon, but he came out second. So I think, I mean, I don't know, but I think that they switched and I think that's what those three contractions were. Then just the baby's movements actually stimulate most of our contractions. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense. Yeah. And so I woke my midwives up and I was like, Hey, if this keeps going, this is going to happen pretty soon.
19:37
And so they got up and they got me on a birth stool, which was interesting. I've, I'd never labored on a birth stool before. Like it. I didn't enjoy it at that. It was, it wasn't like a relief for me because I was having back labor for the majority of it and like pushing is never a relief for me, not that I was pushing at this point, but I don't know, it was just okay. Like I wasn't like, Oh, this is amazing. It was kind of just a little bit uncomfortable. So I wasn't on it for too long, but I was on it long enough.
20:07
to open my hips up and allow my bag of waters. I remember this sensation. It was the craziest thing. It felt like somebody was inside of my body, blowing up a balloon, and it was like coming out. I don't know what it looked like, but I imagine it looked wild. I was like, what is that? What is that? I could feel it. And I didn't think like, just look down, because it didn't feel like a head, but it just felt weird. I had never experienced that sensation before.
20:38
And my bag of waters was literally like coming out of me. The thing that I was, yeah, like it was like like a balloon. Yeah, like a balloon. And I was so freaked out that it was going to explode. Could you feel it? Like you reached out and touch it. No, I didn't. And I wish I would have because I wish somebody would have got a picture too. Like, what did that look like? But what's happening? And she was like, it's your bag of waters. It's OK. And I was like, it's going to like split.
21:07
She had tarps down. It was like totally not a big deal. But my bag of water- But it probably felt like a really giant, but like the sensation probably felt like it was much bigger than it might've actually been. Probably, probably. So didn't break at that point? Yeah. So it broke and then things really sped up. So we heated the water. We put some fresh hot water in the birth tub and I got back in and this was around like 1 AM and over the next like 20 minutes, I just-
21:37
I felt like I was switching positions with every single contraction, just trying to get comfortable and trying to find the best position. And this was one of those moments in my home birth. And I still get like emotional talking about it because it was so different than my hospital births. And it was just so peaceful. And I felt like for the first time in any of my birth experiences, I was being trusted and I was in charge. And instead of them rushing me from the...
22:06
from the tub to the bed to get on my back, to doing what they wanted me to do. My midwife was just like allowing me the space to do what I felt like I needed for my baby and my body. She was reading my birth affirmations over me, like I had them all up on the wall and she was like reciting scripture over me and my husband was there rubbing my back and giving me water and it was just like so peaceful. It was, it was.
22:36
such a contrast to what I had experienced up until that point.
23:04
So, if I had one word to describe that like phase of transition, because that was like transition for me, it would just be like calm, which is so different than anything I'd ever experienced before. And then I got the urge to push. And that urge is something that by your fourth baby, you don't
23:32
Mistake. And so I told her, I was like, I, I'm going to start pushing. And she was like, okay, like she didn't need to check me. She didn't need to like me to get in a certain position. I don't even remember what position I started pushing. And I think I was on my knees, but she was just like, okay, just whatever you feel like, you know, you need to do. And so I did, I started pushing and I think I got Silas out in about six minutes. I've always been a very efficient.
23:59
pusher I feel for moms who push for hours because I've never had to do that. And I don't know if it has to do with the fact that, you know, I don't get epidurals because obviously that numbs everything down there and you can't do it as effectively, but I do know moms who have gone unmedicated, who've had long pushing phases, so, but for me, he came out in a few pushes.
24:22
And six minutes is fast, like no matter how you cut it, whatever kind of birth you have, that's awesome. Yeah. That's only like a few contractions probably. Yeah, it was just a couple contractions and he was out. And I remember her saying, you just birthed a breech baby boy. Like you're amazing. And so he came out first. Did she say he was breech when he started to come out? I don't think she said it. I don't know.
24:46
I was like delirious. I don't remember. Yeah. I don't remember if she said it while he was coming out or if she didn't cause maybe she thought that that would freak me out. But she, I'm sure she saw that it was a button, not a head. And what position were you in when you pushed him out? I was in like kind of like on my knees sitting up in the birth tub. So I was in the water on my knees and I grabbed him up and she said he was breached and she was like, you did an amazing job. Like you're awesome. And so.
25:15
That just like relief, you know, there's just like, Did you catch him yourself or did she catch him? No, I caught, I pulled him up. So she was like a totally hands off breach delivery. She just supported you. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah, and he was bottom first. So I know that there's, you know, Frank breach versus footling breach. There's a little bit of a difference there. So I'm not sure if he was coming feet first, if she would have maybe intervened a little bit more cause those can be a little bit trickier, but yeah, it just, and it.
25:43
as far as like feeling wise, it felt the same as pushing out a normal head down baby to me. That also explains a little bit why you might have stalled for those three hours because a butt doesn't dilate the cervix as effectively as a hard head. So that can be very common in a breech birth to just have those points where there's not much going on with dilation because it's a soft squishy butt. Yeah exactly and that's what she had told me afterwards. She was like well now we know why you were not you know progressing as fast. I was like oh yeah that's...
26:12
That makes sense. And they were both breech. But so there's just that relief, you know, you have your baby and all is well. And I just like rested back on the birth tub and was just in that euphoric, like kind of delirium of post-birth. Like there's nothing I just I can't wait. I'm like getting so excited for this baby. Just I cannot wait to experience that again, where you just get to like sit back and just.
26:39
your baby's so like soft and new and like you're meeting that person that you just grew for nine and a half months. And that's like the moment. And so I was just, it's like an imprint in your body. Every woman that has experienced it when they talk about it, they get that same reaction. Like, Oh, I can't wait. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. So that last
27:09
I'd have very few pictures and like a very terrible video that my husband had took. We don't have very much from it at all. And it's still like to this day, like, I'm like, why did we not like make sure to set the camera up and like actually video it, but this next baby will get all the footage. So I, the very little that I do have though, looking at it, it's like, I can see in that picture. I'm like, oh yeah, there's
27:37
That's not just a placenta belly. Like you can see Silas on my chest and my belly is still like, it looks like I'm nine months pregnant, which if, you know, any of your listeners are not familiar after you push a baby out, like there's still a belly there. It probably looks like a, you know, maybe six ish month pregnant belly, but it's very squishy and it's not like firm and no, this belly was still like there was another baby in there. And I think at this point, I was still having contractions that I was having
28:07
vocalized through very intense contractions, which you have contractions after baby to get the placenta to come out, but they're not usually as intense. And so I think at this point, my midwife was like, these are not just like normal, you know, placenta contractions. And I heard her on the video say, are you, are you having another contraction? Like kind of like trying to get a feel for like how I was feeling. And so I had contractions for another.
28:37
five or six minutes. And then, no, it wasn't even that long because they were born six minutes apart. So I don't know how long I had those maybe two or three rounds of contractions. And then I got the urge to push again and he just kind of fell out. It was just like, it was very easy. Cause at that point everything was, you know, stretched out and ready to go. And he came out and I heard her say.
29:04
we have a surprise twin and he's Breach and it's a boy and like I just don't think that any experience in life can prepare you for a moment like that. I don't truly comprehend what you must have been thinking at that moment like at what point did you realize this isn't my placenta this is a baby was it not until the baby actually came out? I mean he was like she like put him on my chest and I was just like
29:30
I had two babies and I was just like, I like what my husband wasn't, he wasn't in the tub with me. He was like standing behind the tub and I would just like looked up at him, just like shocked. Like what do you even do? Like what, how do you even process that? Like your brain is doing back cartwheels trying to figure this out. Like it wasn't like you thought that whole time you were just pushing out a placenta and these were just strong contractions. Yes. But I mean, I think it was probably pretty obvious to anybody that hadn't just pushed a baby out. Like I was delirious. Like I was in that.
29:58
you know, euphoria, like I wasn't in my right mind. Right? Yeah. Right. Right. Your brain isn't even thinking logically, or you're in a totally different hormonal and physiological states. That makes sense. Yeah. And then you must did you get like, you must have been shocked. Like she you birth a baby, she says that you just birthed a surprise twin baby breach and put them on your chest. And you're like, wait,
30:27
Pause. Excuse me. Someone explain what just happened. It was, it really was one of those moments that like, obviously not many people experience something like that in life. And I truly just feel like it was something that I, even to this day, I still don't really remember it super vividly because I was just so, I think I was literally in shock, like literally in shock. I mean, I would be, I don't know.
30:56
You'd be crazy not to. Yeah. And so the midwives were but they handled it. There was so there was a midwife and then she had like, you know, they always have like a backup midwife. And then there was a midwife in training. So there was three midwives there. And they were they were all they were kind of like bustling about like trying to like get it all written down and make sure that baby is okay. And with a nervous or freaking out at all? No, I mean, they were like,
31:21
I think the proper level of like, you know, like, yeah, like you need a, you need a, some level of like urgency and like, you know, but it wasn't, it wasn't, it was not hectic at all. It was still like, I would still describe it as peaceful, which is crazy. And this was at like 1 30 in the morning. So none of our kids were awake and it was just me and my husband and those three midwives. That was it. And so, yeah. So we waited for the.
31:50
the cords to stop pulsing and she was able to cut the cords and then I was able to like hand one of the babies to my husband and I have a picture of us just like him holding one and me holding the other in the tub just like looking up at each other like, what just happened? And they got me out of the tub and into the bed to deliver the placenta. And it was just like one of those moments that I don't even know how to describe because
32:19
It's just still, I can't believe it happened. You know, like it's wild to me. And so I ended up birthing the placenta, which was like I said, three pounds. And so I lost. So Silas was seven, eight, Gideon was seven, 12, and the placenta was three pounds and then all of that fluid. So I had lost like a good 20 pounds in the matter of like 30 minutes. Oh, probably more. Yeah, probably. I mean, and so.
32:49
Understandably so I started getting a little bit cyanotic and pale. And so they had to give me some oxygen. I ended up having a little bit of retained placenta. And so my midwife had to like manually go in, which was very painful, but she was like, if we don't get it out, like your body's just going to keep trying to flush it thinking that, you know, there's still something in here. And so she worked on me for about an hour.
33:16
In the bed, they were like giving me herbs and my husband, you know, was with the babies and the babies were so fine. Like they were so fine. It was just, I had that little, that little moment where I just needed a little bit extra support because of all of the fluid and weight and everything that I had lost. And probably the shock of it all too. And shock. I do, I do think, I do think I was in shock. And so after I got some oxygen and she got the placenta out, I was feeling okay. I...
33:46
nursed, I've got babies to the breast, and they got me up to the bathroom and I got a little bit woozy on the toilet. And so I don't want to say I passed out, but I definitely remember feeling like I was going to pass out. And so they got me down on the floor. And the next thing I remember was eating a plate of lasagna, completely naked on my bathroom floor, in front of my whole birth team. Birth just humbles you in ways that you will never.
34:15
Be humble. What a mental picture, right? To remember. But that's what you needed, huh? Yeah, no, and I felt great after that. I think I just needed some calories and blood sugar boost. Yeah, I felt great after that. And we got back into bed and just tried to wrap our minds around what had just happened and got to rest a little bit. And they ended up leaving like early hours of the morning. And it was really fun to like bring our kids in the next morning.
34:45
And I was sitting on the bed and I had, I think I was holding Gideon. I don't remember, but I was holding one of them and the other one was in our little side crib. And so they come in and go straight to me, you know, and I was like, go look in the crib and there was like another baby and at this point our, our kids were like six and four and two. So they, they were so much younger.
35:09
but my oldest daughter, she's almost 10 now and she still remembers it. I asked her this morning, I was like, do you remember when you came in the next morning? And she was like, yeah, and there was a baby in the other crib. And so it's just so special. And I'm so thankful for the way it worked out. I realized that I am very lucky, but also like, you know, there's intentional things that I do in my pregnancies and in birth and decisions that I make.
35:37
that set me up to be successful. And so, you know, it's not just luck and, but also like just so, so grateful for the Lord's hand over it all. So, yeah. And I can only imagine how chaotic it would have been had you been in a hospital setting, even if they knew they were twins, but if it was a surprise and then you have retained placenta and they're trying to work on you, like it would have been pure chaos.
36:05
Well, and so stressful, like they were in breach. Yeah, they would have probably just honestly, I'll shoot you right into the OR and done necessary in the moment they saw the butt. I don't know what they would have done because they weren't breach, you know, the day before it happened during labor. And so I'm not really sure how hospitals handle that. But most OBs are not trained in breach birth, even Frank breach, which is a variation of normal, like it's, and it's, you know, it's not like it's not like it's not a safe way to birth a baby.
36:35
But they're just not trained on it. And so there was again, fear there and they don't know how to handle it. So yeah, it would have gone so much differently in a hospital for sure. There would have been a lot more chaos and a lot more fear and not at all the peaceful birth that you ended up getting. Yeah. So praise God. Like what it's, that's not, it's like a miracle that it, that all of those things like fit into place the way they did.
37:00
in order for that all to unfold the way it did. Like it's just so incredible. And I think it's just a testimony to what our bodies are really capable of when we don't mess with the natural process. This is actually, even it's like miraculous and like profound and mind blowing to hear the story. And at the same time, it's also the most natural normal thing our bodies are designed to do. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And...
37:29
you know, it could have gone so differently if I had known. And that's not everyone's preference. Like, obviously, like most people, and like if I was gonna birth twins again, I would like to know that there's two in there, but I would still want to be an informed mother. And I don't know if I would have, you know, I don't know what I would have done. I can say with a lot of assurance that I probably would have not had them in a hospital or I would have fought to not have them in a hospital at all costs.
37:59
During COVID, especially. Yeah. Right, because then you're really, that's a hard, and that's hard to be a high, what they would call high risk twins in a hospital where they have all the protocols, the masks, the testing, can your husband be there or not? Like, they're gonna manage that birth and they're gonna manage the baby. They're gonna try to turn or whisk you away to the OR, like if they even have a provider on staff that does breach or has any skill in that. Like so many.
38:28
So many stressful unknowns, like I have no doubt, like to your testimony, like this was like, God almost set, it was a God set up, like a divine thing. And what a beautiful, incredible story that it turned out to be. Yeah, it is, it is. I'm thankful for it. Well, where do you even go from there? Is the question. What do you even say next after that? Let's just say we'll just end right there. Done.
38:58
What are you planning for this next birth and how are you preparing for this baby? So this baby, we are planning to have another home birth and I'm very excited about that. And it is just one, we got an ultrasound around like 18 weeks. I didn't do like the full anatomy scan, but we got, it was like an anatomy scan light. Like she was able to like look at all the organs very briefly.
39:27
verify that there was just one. That's what you're most interested in, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And do you have twins in your family or history? Not that I, I didn't know. I think that there's some like distant twins on my side and, but we didn't, we didn't know about any of that. And my twins are fraternal and very much so in every sense of the word different. They are not the same at all. They don't look the same. They don't act the same. They have.
39:56
completely different personalities. So that's been fun. But for this baby, the plan is just to birth at home and I'm really excited to get to experience it again. I have a midwife that is very in tune with everything that, she's very aligned with everything that I believe in. And yeah, so important. What's one thing you're praying for, for this birth? I think just...
40:22
Like, how do you pray? How do you, like, what do you even, when you're coming from, like, what I just experienced to now this. But I think overall we just, we pray for just health, you know? We don't care about anything else, just that baby is healthy. And so I think that's, that would be like the overarching prayer and that there's not an ice storm when it happens. Because we live, we live in the mountains now and our driveway is like...
40:52
this, like it is a very steep incline. So I'm like, my midwife was like, I'll get out and walk up the hill if I have to. Get her some snow shoes as a gift. I'm sure it would be the first time midwives have had to trek through a blizzard or a thunderstorm to birth. I'm sure. Yeah, they are incredible. We love midwives. So where, Elizabeth, where can my listeners find you if they want to
41:22
Sure. I'm on Instagram at Purely Parsons and we also have a website purelyparsons.com where I share various amount of resources over there. I talk about things that I can't necessarily always talk about on Instagram. And we also have a small shop there where we sell a lot of like wellness, natural wellness products. So, but mainly on Instagram at Purely Parsons. Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your incredible story with us. And I hope it gives women
41:52
inspiration and confidence to know that even when the plan completely changes, like God is with you and is planning the whole thing sometimes and he knows like those things that might be surprises to us can turn into beautiful, redemptive, incredible stories and blessings. So absolutely. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for having me.
42:20
We'll see you next week.
42:24
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Pain Free Birth podcast. If you were encouraged, it would mean so much if you left us a five-star review and shared this with your community. I'd love to connect with you on Instagram at PainFreeBirth. To learn more about the Pain Free Birth e-course, free resources, private coaching, and upcoming events, find out more at painfreebirth.com. See you next week.
