AI Summary
5 min readAmala Ekpunobi had a baby. In this solo episode, she walks through the full birth story of her daughter, Morrison Sue, born at 11:55 PM on July 31st — a "midnight buzzer beater" — weighing six pounds, fifteen ounces. The episode is a candid, detailed account of how a planned unmedicated natural birth turned into an induction, an epidural, and a fast delivery, and why she thinks it is important to share positive birth experiences alongside the difficult ones.
The Third Trimester Curveballs
The final stretch of the pregnancy was not smooth. Around the third trimester, Ekpunobi received a diagnosis of polyhydramnios — too much amniotic fluid around the baby. This led to increased monitoring and a second anatomy scan, which revealed that her daughter had an unusual neck position the doctor called "stargazing." The combination of these findings prompted conversations about possible chromosomal, muscular, or neurological issues. "So of course we were a little freaked out," she says, and it led to twice-weekly hospital visits for non-stress tests and ultrasounds to track the baby's movement and heart rate. Her due date was August 7th, but she ended up delivering on July 31st.
The Induction and the Pain That Changed the Plan
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:08) **Baby Announcement and Introduction** - Amala announces she gave birth to a baby girl and will share the full birth story.
- 2 (02:18) **Third Trimester "Curveball" Diagnosis: Polyhydramnios** - Amala describes the unexpected diagnosis of too much amniotic fluid that changed her pregnancy plan.
- 3 (03:34) **Trusting Intuition: The Day of the Birth** - Amala describes how her intuition told her the birth was imminent, prompting her to pack the car before a routine hospital appointment.
- 4 (05:18) **Induction and the Failure of the "Natural" Plan** - Amala details how the induction began with medication (Cytotec and Pitocin), completely diverging from her planned unmedicated, natural labor.
- 5 (06:43) **The Demoralizing Cervical Check** - Amala recounts a key moment where a cervical check revealed she had regressed from 4 centimeters to 2 centimeters of dilation.
- 6 (08:44) **Smooth Sailing After the Epidural** - Amala explains how the epidural made the rest of the labor process smooth and manageable.
- 7 (10:59) **The Rapid Pushing Stage** - Amala describes the surprisingly fast and effective pushing phase that followed the cervical stall.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
The baby is here! I wanted to share this amazing news with you all as well as my birth story. Let's talk about it!
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