[Birth Stories] How Birth Took Her To Her Edge When She Least Expected It

A former Labor and Delivery Nurse and childbirth educator, Vanessa Janek thought she knew what to expect from birth. Going into it, she was a bit leery of transition… but nothing could really prepare her for the exhaustion, fear, and overwhelm she felt when contractions went away, just after she got to ten centimeters. She shares with Adriana how she was able to get past those feelings to push her baby out just in the nick of time, despite being taken to her edge.

What we talked about:

• Why did she stop being a Labor and Delivery Nurse?
• Classes that helped preparing her mind
• Exercise, acupuncture, Spinning Babies and “Beyoncé booty shaking”
• Overdue pressure and stress
• Prodromal or active labor?
• Let contractions do their thing
• Relaxing instead of vocalizing
• Throwing up, shaking and sobbing, feeling scared, tired and overwhelmed
• Special witness: a tree frog!
• Where did the contractions go?!
• It felt like eternity… but also like a split second
• Using pure, brute will
• How did having a baby transform her?
• “I can’t do it, but I do it anyway.”

Image description: Vanessa leans over the edge of the birth pool as late transition hits hard, with her partner John supporting her, and midwife-in-training Lisa Gendron observing [Taken by Footprints Doula Services]

Related resources*:

• Expectful and Calm meditation apps
• Gentlebirth app
• Spinning Babies website
• Birthing from Within website
• Birth Without Fear blog
• Evidence on: Inducing for Due Dates, Evidence Based Birth
• The birth of Isla Rose, Vanessa’s birth story in her own words
• Mindful Birthing: Training the Mind, Body, and Heart for Childbirth and Beyond, by Nancy Bardacke
• Birthing from Within, by Pam England
• Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, by Ina May Gaskin
• Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: A Doctor’s Guide to Natural Childbirth and Gentle Early Parenting Choices, by Sarah Buckley
• The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, by Diane Wiessinger, Diana West, and Teresa Pitman
• Sweet Sleep: Nighttime and Naptime Strategies for the Breastfeeding Family, by Diane Wiessinger, Diana West, Linda Smith, and Teresa Pitman
• Why Not Home? film

Image description: John, Vanessa, and baby cuddle together in the immediate postpartum [Taken by Footprints Doula Services]

Related Birthful episodes:

• How To Sleep Better While Pregnant
• The Problem With Due Dates
• Helping Your Mammalian Body (And Baby!) Have An Easier And More Connected Birth
• Transformation Through The Holistic Stages Of Birth (Part One)
• Transformation Through The Holistic Stages Of Birth (Part Two)
• Rethinking The Pushing Stage
• The Value Of Postpartum Stories
• The Power In Writing Your Story

Image description: Vanessa’s newborn, laying on purple and green sheets, gets a once-over [Taken by Footprints Doula Services]

Image description: Vanessa Janek, a white-presenting woman with brown hair, is wearing an orange sweater and is reclined casually on a couch with a crocheted demonstration breast in her hand, looking friendly [Taken by Sara Zinn Photography]

About Vanessa Janek

Vanessa is a Registered Nurse, International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant, Nurse Practitioner in-training, and mother of two amazing kiddos, who have encouraged her to grow in ways she is only beginning to understand (as it turns out, birth was just the beginning)! Before becoming an IBCLC, she spent years teaching childbirth classes, then supporting families as a full-spectrum doula and homebirth assistant. Today, her work focuses primarily on fostering emotional safety, connection, and co-regulation in postpartum and infant care; however, she will always feel passionately about humanizing birth. In her spare time you can find her reading, knitting, digging for worms in the compost bin, petting her cats, and avoiding the question of what to make for dinner. She lives with her family in coastal Connecticut.