I thought I would post some pictures and share my birth
story with Charlie since some of you have expressed interest and I haven’t been
able to catch up with you yet.
I like to think of my birth experience as “beautifully
uneventful.” Meaning, I had a contraction, and then another one and then ouch! another
one, until I pushed a little baby boy out and into the world. I suppose the interesting part is that it was
all done at home.
Our decision to have a home birth was surprisingly an easy
one to make. Not to say that I didn’t ever doubt our decision or wonder if we
were doing the right thing, which if you know me, you’d expect that. But when
it was time to schedule that first appointment, I knew I wanted to do things
differently than I did with my first pregnancy.
So we interviewed a midwife and I tried out a different
doctor. Then we spent a lot of time talking and praying about it and ultimately
decided that a home birth had a better chance of giving us the experience we wanted. Not just
during the labor and delivery, but through my entire pregnancy.
I'd also like to say that I am not anti-hospitals
or anti-drugs or anything silly like that. I just wanted to try a different approach this time around.
My main concern (and something I feel very passionately about) is
that women are empowered and supported to have the birth experience that they
want and that the mother’s wishes are respected, whether she delivers at home
or in the hospital.
Charlie was born nine days after his due date which was so
wearisome. I thought for sure he’d come early or on his due date since he was
my second and I’d done this before. Wrong!
I had a chiropractic
adjustment on December 27th at noon. I really think that helped
launch me into labor. The next day was a Saturday and I woke up with
contractions. I had them all that day, but they were about 15 minutes apart. We
went for a walk, I climbed our stairs two-by-two, and spent a lot of time on my
yoga ball, the contractions were consistent, but just nothing to write home
call the midwife about.
Around dinner time, both Phil and I thought that this was
the beginning of the end. We made arrangements for Evie to be picked up around
6:30 that evening by one of our good friends. This was the first time Evie
stayed overnight without me. That was really hard letting her go. Tears were shed. Evie was fine,
of course. Ready for an adventure! J
Once Evie left, something in me switched and I felt like it
was business time… time to birth a baby! My midwife arrived around 8ish. She
checked me and I was only at a two. Her advice was that while the sun is down
we don’t do anything to start/activate labor. So she said we should go to bed
around 10:00 pm, and if I awoke in a few hours in active labor, then we’d have
a baby. But if I slept through the night, I’d be rested and we’d start trying
to restart labor in the morning. I think we made it into bed around 11:00. My
midwife, Debbie, stayed in our guest room. My contractions were getting closer
together and stronger and they didn’t let up once we got into bed, they
intensified.
Poor Phil kept dozing off, and I would occasionally kick him
and say “put pressure on my back” or “wake up… this hurts!” J I labored in bed like
that for a few hours before I got up and went into the bathroom to continue laboring.
At that point, I had woken up Debbie with my moaning and she came downstairs.
She and Phil started setting up the tub so I could labor in water. Debbie told
me as long as I was dilated to a 6 or 7 then I could get in the tub and I was
at a 6 ½ . When I got into the water I said “Oh! Praise God for this water!” I
don’t remember saying that, but Debbie thought it was noteworthy so wrote it in
my birthing records. J
It felt wonderful to labor in the water. Debbie and the birthing assistant,
Jessica, were diligent to keep the temperature right at 100 degrees. Debbie
also checked the baby’s heartbeat frequently with a Doppler, maybe two or three
times an hour.
After an hour or two in the tub, I was starting to get too
hot and wanted to get out. So, I labored on my bed for a while, at which point
my water broke. Don’t worry! We had a plastic covering over our mattress… no
harm done! J
At that point, I was ready to get back into the tub. Debbie checked me and told
me that I was completely dilated and effaced and that I could start pushing
whenever I got the urge. I couldn’t
believe that I had gotten there… I thought it would all be downhill from there.
And I suppose it was, since I only had 45 minutes until sweet Charlie made his
entrance, but boy did it hurt! As many women have testified that they had an
overwhelming urge to push, I never felt that sensation. And so I started “pushing”
and was just twiddling my thumbs waiting for my baby to come out. But my “pushes”
were not strong enough. I asked Debbie a few times, “Do you see the head?” and
sadly she didn’t. Not even close.
The funny thing about pushing is that it’s self-inflicted
pain. If you don’t push, you don’t hurt. But if you don’t push, your baby is
stuck inside you and that just won’t do. So, Debbie gave me some pointers on
how I can be a more efficient pusher (who knew?). Poor Phil. I remember
grabbing onto his shirt, clenching my fists, and grunting right into his face,
trying to push this man-child out of me. Time passed and I was feeling
desperate. I remember crying out, “I need to get this baby out of me!” Debbie
replied, “It’s all you, Emily. Push your baby out.” And something snapped in me,
and I pushed and pushed and desperately pushed that head out, which was
followed by my baby boy with just one more push. It was 6:33 am on Sunday,
December 29th.
I felt so much relief in that moment. It was over. And baby
was healthy. And it was beautiful.
An interesting thing about midwives is that they don’t clamp
the umbilical cord until it stops pulsing so the baby can still get the blood
and other goodies from the placenta. So, for the first hour of Charlie’s life,
anywhere he went, he was followed by a white Kitchen Aid bowl that held my
placenta. It was a little awkward trying to nurse him, “Phil, can you move the
bowl closer to me? I need to switch sides.”
After Phil cut the cord, baby was weighed and measured and I
was stitched back up. Debbie and Jessica cleaned out the tub, sterilized
everything, and really did a great job of making our house feel like it didn’t just
double as a delivery room. It was so wonderful
to just hop (well, it was more like slowly and carefully climb) into my own bed
in my own clothes.
One of my favorite things about working with a midwife is the
type of care that you receive. Debbie came back one day after the birth, three
days, one week, and then three weeks after Charlie was born. It was so nice for
her to come to me. Also, the last month or so of my prenatal visits, Debbie came
to my house to do them. The first day after Charlie was born, Debbie gave me
the Rho-gam shot and tested Charlie for several different diseases, the same
test that is administered in the hospital. Everything came back normal. She also weighed Charlie during each
visit and was able to assist me with any nursing issues I was having.
I am so grateful for this experience and the wonderful memories that were made. I think its safe to say that we would choose a home
birth again in the future!
This is a picture of the tub that I labored in and that Charlie was born in. It was set up in our bedroom, though.
Here's that sweet little guy, fresh out of the womb.
Here's Debbie weighing Charlie. He weighed 9 lbs. 5 oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long.
Measuring his head. Fourteen inches.
Measuring his chest.
Jessica, me, Charlie and Debbie pose for a group shot!
Our first picture as a family of four.