Jess Wilson-Gastl recently gave birth, and she shared a photo of her baby daughter a few days ago. "One week of overwhelming joy with our little love finally in our arms—our baby girl, Philippa Aurora Gastl," she posted on her Instagram account.
The next day, she posted more details about how it was like before she gave birth. "A quick birth story, because its something I want to remember forever. Reading about positive birth stories was also a way that I helped prepare myself mentally for what used to be one of my biggest fears," she started, explaining that she hopes her post can alleviate other's fears and anxieties on giving birth.
Jess was carrying Philippa for 41 weeks—the average is about 40 weeks. "At this point I was googling if it’s possible to be pregnant forever, ways to start labor, what is the average birth week.. the whole shebang."
She continued her story, saying that by the night before, Sunday, she started feeling light contractions. "I wasn’t sure if it was the real thing, just felt like light period cramps. I decided to walk outside to try to get things going. I had dinner and went to bed, pretty uneventful although I can’t really remember if I slept or not that night. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. with stronger cramps so I got up ,and went to the bathroom to start timing my contractions. I tried to focus and concentrate on my breath work as the contractions became stronger, repeating my positive birth affirmations as they were coming at three-minutes interval. By 5:00 a.m., the pain was starting to become more intense. I woke Moritz (her husband) up and said it was time to head to the hospital."
They checked in the hospital at 5:30 a.m. and spent the early morning monitoring. Her water broke by 9am and had her epidural to which she eventually dilated at 12 noon. "At 12:50, the room quickly filled up with doctors, a ton of nurses, blue sterile pads everywhere, and was told it was time to have this baby. Seven minutes later, Philippa was born—September 25, 2023 12:57p.m."