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Note: This story was written by a friend
who also used to be a Bradley instructor.
Given all of my experiences as a Bradley Method
educator by that time & having gone through labor once
without sensation killers, when I became pregnant with Max
it was an extremely quick & easy decision to have him
in our home. I chose to have him with the wonderful midwife
practice of Countryside Birthing Place (Gina Tregillis &,
at the time, LuAnne Uriel.) My pregnancy, as with Isabell,
was very easy & beautiful - although I did experience
morning sickness with Max that lasted much of the 1st trimester.
It eventually passed (although I've never since been able
to eat a cinnamon roll) & we were very excited to welcome
a new baby boy into our home.
In the very early morning hours of February
16 (a Wednesday), Isabell strangely woke up & woke us up,
too. She had been sleeping in our bed again for about two
weeks prior and when she awoke at 2am, I got up to go to the
bathroom. When I did, my water broke. I came back to bed,
told Henry, and then said to Isabell, "are you ready
to have our baby today?" She nodded gently, smiled, and
then went back to sleep. :) Henry called the midwife just
to let her know & I got up to do a few yoga postures to
help my back which had been aching just enough over the last
few weeks to make it hard to get to sleep. After about 15
minutes, everyone went back to sleep. We all got up again
normally at about 7am. I started puttering about the house
- folding laundry, getting somewhat dressed, etc. We called
Henry's sister, Nicole, who was to watch Isabell during the
labor stage and she came to take her. Henry called the midwives
again who arrived about 7:30-8. We ate a lovely french toast
breakfast (supplied by a favorite local restaurant - who were
all excited to know that they were feeding a laboring woman.)
Afterwards, the midwife checked me to find that I was 100%
effaced & 4 cm dilated. They were soon setting up the
labor tub in our front room.
As the morning, and my contractions, progressed, Henry &
I went for walks outside, told stories to the midwives &
changed positions all over the house. At one point, I got
a phone call from some city worker who needed to make an appointment
to come inspect some part of our house & my mom found
great humor in my explaining that I couldn't do that right
then because I was in labor! :) There was just an immense
amount of peace & humor in our home as we labored. We
moved around a lot & probably around 11:30, as I moved
from our living room down the hall to the bathroom, I notice
water all over the floor & casually mentioned it to midwife
as I went past. Turns out, the tub was leaking - but at the
time, I gave it no more thought & no one mentioned anything
about it to me again. :) I was checked again at about noon
& was 6cm. I had thought I was farther along & when
checked, LuAnne realized that Max was so low he was actually
pushing my cervix backwards. She had me lay on my side for
about an hour and a few times, during a contraction, would
pull my cervix forward to meet Max's head. It worked reasonably
well & at about 1pm, I went into our home jacuzzi tub
(others in the room where still dealing with the draining,
clean up, & re-set up of the birth tub - but, again, I
was paying no attention.) So, Henry, LuAnne, & I all
got into our hot tub.
In coming near the end of this tale, I must first point out
that as an instructor, I really try to hammer home the point
that movement is key in the progression of labor. So, as we
were in the tub, I was trying to move & change positions
as much as possible - but in the tub that can be both challenging,
& because you can get so comfortable when not having a
contraction, you just don't think about it. Anyhow, we labored
along with some very strong contractions for awhile and when
I was checked I was 8cm. It was probably about there that
I went into transition, which is the hardest (and shortest)
part of labor. When next checked (which to me seemed like
an eternity later - but hadn't actually been more than a half
hour), I was 9cm. I have a saying in my classes, "the
difference between 8 and 10 is a lap around the bed",
so when I heard "9", some unspeaking thing in my
head just clicked & I made all manner of instant decisions
that I spoke to no one about. In my mind, I had not been moving
enough and the tub was suddenly hindering me. So, without
a word to anyone, I climbed out & lay with my chest against
my pool deck to do pelvic rocks. In retrospect, I can totally
understand why everyone thought I had lost my mind. But, to
me, that was what I needed to do. I did that & moaned
through those last few contractions when suddenly I heard
the words, "if you want a waterbirth, you need to get
here." They were spoken by my other midwife, Gina, standing
in the far corner of the pool deck - where they had re-set
up the official birth tub. Again, without speaking to a soul,
I pulled myself up onto my hands & knees, crawled across
the pool deck, & climbed in the tub. Now, that part I
have been told. I have no actual memory of getting across
the deck - I remember the words she spoke & then I remember
being in the tub. Apparently, though, in the meantime, a debate
occurred between LuAnne, Henry & Gina as to why I couldn't
just come back into the tub I'd been laboring in - but it
didn't matter because I was already on my way.
Once there, my urge to push came in full force
&, within five minutes, Max's head had emerged. LuAnne
encouraged me to reach down & when I did, I grabbed his
little arms & pulled him the rest of the way out of me
& onto my chest. It was amazing. That day, the sun was
shining brightly, the air was perfect & cool - and Max
arrived at 3:45pm.
Max was what they call a "slow starter" - which
means that he had a hard time at first figuring out how to
breathe. This was probably because of the way he moved so
fast through the birth canal. At any rate, he was given a
bit of oxygen to get him going & whithin ten minutes -
he was all pinked up & beautiful. This event, though,
just furthered my conviction about having a homebirth. I knew
that in a real emergency, the paramedics would have me at
the nearest hospital in five minutes. But I also know that
had the birth I did experience happened in a hospital, my
baby would've been admitted to the NICU as a precaution -
which he did not need. I have seen students & friends
struggle with NICU policy & I am so grateful that we were
able to avoid it.
Isabelle arrived back home to meet her new brother just after
he was born. My mom had called Nicole to bring her back earlier,
hoping that she would be able to see him emerge - but he came
out so quickly that she missed it. She was still pretty stunned
& adorable, though, looking at him. And soon, my mom was
calling far flung family and all around us people were busy
- checking for blood loss, making drinks, ordering dinner,
and our home was filled with family who all just wanted to
peak at baby Max. We ordered pizza for everyone for dinner
& I got cleaned up with no tears or complications. We,
family & midwives included, all sat in our living room
that night to eat - with Max snuggled in close to my breast.
By around 7pm, everyone had left & our little family was
left to itself - to go on about our night having spent the
day doing the most holy of work.
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