More Babies Prefer Home Birth

Many rural Swazi women are still not satisfied with the treatment they receive in hospitals while giving birth, which explains why a lot of them still prefer giving birth at home, a new research conducted in the northern Hhohho region suggests. The study was presented at the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) triennial congress held in Durban recently and it drew the attention of participants who were eager to know why Swazi women living in rural areas still prefer giving birth at home. The research was conducted by University of Swaziland (UNISWA) faculty of health sciences lecturer S’phiwe Thwala. The research paper has been published in leading journals of international acclaim. Key findings show that rural Swazi women are still fond of traditional antidotes, and that when pregnant, the practice of using traditional herbs alongside western style medicine is common amongst pregnant women. “Rural Swazi women utilise biomedical maternity services whilst still strongly adhering to traditional practices and beliefs during labour,” it was established.

Born July 6th 2011 7:56AM At home.

7lbs 8oz and 20inches


Birth Story
7-5-11
BEFORE
I had a midwife appointment, we had been having trouble finding my cervix at previous appointments, but this time we actually found it! My cervix was hiding all the way to the left and was 2 centimeters dilated! I was so happy! My midwife swept my membranes at my request, and manually stretched it for a bit. I was getting kind of crampy in my hips, so I massaged them while this happened. Later on I took some homeopathic labor encouraging wonderfulness (cimicifuga and caullaphyllum) that my midwife brought. I expressed to her my fears of going over 42 weeks and how stressed out it was making me. I really wanted a home birth and was getting worried that the clock was ticking. At this point I was exactly 41 weeks pregnant, but to me it meant only 7 days left to go into labor…tick tock…tick tock… My midwife made me feel TONS better just by talking with me about how she highly doubted I would go past that, confirming that I was dilated, and talking to me about what a hospit! al birth would look like if I went past 42 weeks. I was so soothed by that.
Earth Mom showed up at the end of the appointment, got to hear the heartbeat, and grabbed my belly and said: “I am here now Sage, you can come out now!”We went to the mall to do some walking and buying dresses. At this point I only wore dresses and boxer briefs because I was worried that waistbands of pants would stop Sage from moving down.
That night I started feeling kind of crampy right inside my hips, but I figured it was just because my cervix was played with so much. I drank a cuppa Raspberry Leaf Tea, took two Evening Primrose Oil capsules (vegetarian), expressed some colostrum, and dozed to some Nova documentary about extreme cave diving. 
7-6-11
DURING
3AM 
I woke up and my crampy feeling in my hips was still there. There was a definite start and end to them, and lying down was no help at all. I woke my mom up. I told her I wasn’t sure, but that I was having to breathe through them a little bit. She came downstairs and brewed a pot of coffee and I walked around a bit. I timed them with my cell phone and we watched the clock. They were only about 20-30 seconds long, but they were happening every 2 minutes. I called my midwife. She kept me on the phone through two contractions so she could time them and listen to how I was handling them. She said that this was definitely labor, it wasn’t going to go away, but she was worried that I would get too worn out. She suggested I brew some “sleepy time” tea and try to get some rest. I brewed the tea, my mom and I turned on the tele to some show about a guy who was really into wolves or something. The tea didn’t help, I couldn’t sleep, and I started to really have to pause and ! breathe through what we now knew were contractions. 
Then I vomited. The contractions got stronger. I vomited some more.
We called the midwife back (my mom had to call her as I was throwing up and saying “gross”). She called back in a little bit and talked to me through two more contractions. After hearing my heavy panting she said she was packing her bags and would be over in about an hour. This was around 4:30? 5:30?
After throwing up I felt a bit sweaty and gross, so I decided I should shower. While getting undressed to shower I had my bloody show, to which I responded “gross” and threw up a couple more times. My mom sat on the toilet while I showered. The hot water felt good during contractions, but I was feeling everything right inside my hips. The shower head didn’t reach that far unfortunately. But I managed to shampoo/condition my hair and wash my body between contractions. During contractions I would sway back and forth with my hips, but toward the end of the shower I was mashing my face up against the shower wall and kind of humming. The contractions didn’t hurt. They were definitely a curious sensation, and I was so excited about them that I was really calm the entire time. At the point that I started moaning I asked my mom to call my Pillows (grandma). She hardly had time to say “labor. Bring doughnuts,” because my contractions were getting heavier and closer togeth! er. I knew from Ina May that moaning meant heavier labor. I made sure to keep my lips loose and my voice low. After getting out of the shower things really sped up. We went downstairs and I asked my mom to hold my hips through each contraction.
At around 6? My Pillows showed up. Somehow my yoga ball ended up back in my room and I got on my hands and knees, threw my upper body on top of the ball, and rocked front to back. That felt really good. I asked my Pillows to put my hair up because it was in my face. We made small talk between contractions. I felt really good.
About 6:30? my midwife showed up and saw me deeply moaning and swaying. She got a little worried and said that a bath might help me out. (I later found out that she was panicked and frantically set up her supplies while I was in the tub) I squatted in the tub, but it didn’t feel right. I tried to lay back in the tub but that felt horrible. I shot up while I was lying down and scrambled to get to where I was sitting on my feet. (we think this is when my water might have broken, we have no idea). Again, it didn’t hurt it just felt not right. Being upright helped. I said I was done and we went downstairs. My midwife checked me and I was 6cm dilated and fully effaced. This was around 7?
I labored standing upright with my hands on the back of a couch while my mom grabbed my hips and my Pillows blew in my face to remind me to breath. This was SUPER helpful; I was remembering to keep my voice low, but not really to breathe deeply. My Pillows said at this point I was “purring.”I was still pretty calm and enjoying myself. My biggest complaint was that I couldn’t find a comfortable resting position for in between contractions. We put my yoga ball on my bed so I could stand up and sway front to back easier. This felt fantastic! 
Then I had to poop. I sat down on the toilet, went a little, but sitting down felt wrong. Wipe, flush, back to work.
Around 7:30-7:45-ish I felt a bit pushy. I looked over at my midwife and said “I’m feeling a bit pushy..”I had another contraction and said “I’m going to go ahead and push.”She calmly asked me if I could pant through my push feelings so she could check me again. Fully dilated and ready to go.
I reached down and could feel the head. I also pooped a little, to which I responded “gross.”
(Apparently my midwife had been frantically texting/calling her assistant at this time)
So with just me, my mom, my Pillows (3 generations) and my midwife, I started pushing. I continued standing upright, I was feeling a little tight at the top of my perineum, so my midwife put a warm washcloth there, and rubbed me with olive oil. My legs started to get a bit shaky between contractions. I climbed onto the bed and layed down on my left side, holding my right knee all the way up by my ear. I felt myself opening up and was ecstatic! In between two pushed I asked my Pillows if she would grab my hand mirror out of the drawers in my bathroom. I wanted to see. I needed to see this.
I looked in the mirror and saw the head and smiled. My midwife was holding the top of my perineum and quickly sloshing me in olive oil. I pushed again and looked down and the head doubled in size! I pushed again and WOOSH Sage was born! All of him, all at once! Head and shoulder knees and toes! I pulled him to my chest and cooed “Oh hello!”This happened at 7:56AM. 5 hours of labor, that was it. Ten minutes of pushing, that was it. My mom had to act as the birthing assistant because the one I chose was not there yet.
AFTER:
Immediately after Sage came out, so did a waterfall of blood. I started shaking and was freezing cold. My mom kept throwing blankets in the dryer and tossing them on top of me. I could not stop shaking, but I also did not let go of Sage, who had pooped right after he was born. We waited until the cord stopped pumping blood, and my midwife started handing me the scissors. I had really wanted to cut the cord, but I was too shaky. I asked Pillows to do it, who was thrilled. I discovered Sage has a penis. The warm placenta came out easily, but with more blood. According to my midwife, about 750cc’s of blood was lost. She gave me a shot of Pitocin to help stop the bleeding. Sage latched on and started eating! I didn’t even have to direct him to the boob; he squirmed there on his own and dove right in! I was so relieved!
After a little bit my midwife explained that I had a tear on the left side. She said it wasn’t too bad, but I could use a stitch. I asked if it was necessary and she said not really, I would just take longer to heal. I said I didn’t want the stitch. Then it was time for me to pee. Pillows held Sage while I slowly inched to the side of the bed and tried to become upright. I fainted. I was still really shaky, my pulse was high, and my blood pressure was low. I got set up with an IV of fluids and some oxygen. After a while with the fluids and air, we tried again. Instead of trying to walk, I slid onto the floor. An enormous clot oozed out of me, to which I responded “gross.”My midwife said it was about 220cc’s. I was quickly approaching the borderline of needing to be transferred to a hospital because of blood loss and Sage had a really low temperature and slow breathing. I asked if we could just wait a bit and see if things got better or worse, and my midwife gave he! r OK. I asked for Sage back. We hung out naked for quite a while and he ate again, which lifted my spirits a lot. I drank some coconut water for energy and electrolytes. We kept checking vitals and both of ours were increasing.
At 9AM the birthing assistant showed up. She looked at me and said “wow! You look really calm for being in labor!”I smiled and pulled the blankets back to show her Sage. She was shocked, but helped with taking vitals and cleaning up.
I started feeling much better, so my mom got to hold Sage while I tried to pee again. I got numbed up so it wouldn’t sting and successfully peed! My midwife stayed until about 4 PM to make sure our vitals were all in the clear. I felt great, Sage was happy and healthy, and I felt proud!

{If you’d like to share your own home birth story, please use the form at right to submit it.}

Anthony Falconer, college president, claimed politicians had a “moral imperative” to make the case for national reform. Official figures show another rise in birth rates, with 723,165 babies born in England and Wales last year – 22 per cent more than a decade ago. Dr Falconer said the current maternity system was “not acceptable nor sustainable” and argued that women should no longer think of hospital as the default option when giving birth. “Roughly a third of women need doctors, roughly a third need midwives, roughly a third might need both,” he said.

One mother chose home birth because it was cheaper than going to a hospital. Another gave birth at home because she has multiple sclerosis and feared unnecessary medical intervention. And some choose home births after cesarean sections with their first babies.

Whatever their motivation, all are among a striking trend: Home births increased 20 percent from 2004 to 2008, accounting for 28,357 of 4.2 million U.S. births, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in May.

White women led the drive, with 1 in 98 having babies at home in 2008, compared to 1 in 357 black women and 1 in 500 Hispanic women.

The Birth of Myles Kade Johnson - My first birth!

February 9th, 2011 3:50am

7lbs 2oz and 21in





On Tuesday, February 8th, I woke up and was feeling a little “off” and kind of crampy, not a big deal or something out of the ordinary when your 41-43 weeks pregnant! Around 11am went to the bathroom and discovered I had lost part of my mucous plug. I texted my midwife to let her know but did not think much about it since you can lose it multiple times and it really had no indication of when labor will start. A little after lunch my crampy feeling started getting more intense and figured it was my body preparing to start up labor. I went outside at 4pm and fed the horses grains so I was up for about 45min walking around in and out of stalls and riding on the bumpy ground in the Gator going from barn to barn. I went inside and started doing some laundry and realized were pretty regular and started wondering if my “crampin” was easy contractions. They did not feel like the contractions I had been feeling for weeks with prodromal labor so I just brushed them off all day.



Around 6pm I decide to time them even though I did not think they were contractions, I did noy want them to be contractions and them get too close before I relized it. I sat on my birthing ball and rocked my hips during my “cramps” and it relieved some of the preasure I was feeling. Between 6pm and 6:30pm I had 7 “cramps” putting them at 5-6min apart and lasting about 40 seconds. I decided they were really contractions but that since they were so easy that nothing was happening anytime soon or that like they had in the past several weeks that they would stop.

Mark came in from work and we decided to go to the Chuckwagon to eat dinner. We shared Jalapeno & Rib Meat Potato “Nachos” for an apitizer and I had a Chicken, Onion & Pepers Quesadilla. I had contractions all through the meal and they stayed pretty consistant and seamed to get a bit stronger in intensity.



We got home a little after 9pm and jumped in the bed and tried to encourage my contractions (if ya know what I mean)… of course having to stop every few min for contractions!! After we were done I went to the bathroom and lost more of my mucos plug and had some bloody show. It was around 10 and I decided to start timing my contractions again, 4min apart!! I was trying not to get too excited because for weeks I had contractions (some as close as 4min apart) and these were not as bad as those so surley it couldnt be labor, right? I also figured if it was labor it was just starting and this being my first child it would be a while before my labor was in full swing and he was born. We went to bed to try and get some sleep and I was guessing that everything would cool down a little bit. I was having trouble falling alseep so a little after 11pm I decided to get into the bath tub and try to relax to help me go to sleep, I listened to a few of my hypnobabies tracks and started fe! eling tired so I went back to bed hoping to get some sleep because at this point I knew I was in the begining stages of labor and needed to rest up.



That did not happen! At midnight I started feeling my contractions MUCH stronger and quiet often so I woke Mark up and told him he needed to wake up because I was in labor for real and I was not going to be up all by myself! For some reason it was irritating me seeing him asleep peacefully while I was having contractions. It took a good 15min for him to get up and he was a bit annoyed! My contractions were 3min apart at this point so we pulled out the birth pool to get it blown up, I totaly forgot we did not have a wall plug for the air pump so Mark had to take the birth pool outside to his car and plug it into the lighter plug in the freezing cold to blow it up. While he was blowing up the pool most likely was the most stressfull part of my labor because all I wanted to do was get into the water. I was going back and forth from laying in the bed, being on my hands and knees leaning over my birthing ball, snugling my pillow on the floor, and walking from room to room. He st! arted filling up the pool around 1:30am and I texted one of my midwifes because I couldnt talk through my contractions and they were right at 2min apart from begining of one to the begining of the next. They both live about an hour away so I knew it would be a little while before they got there but I had no worried because I thought I was still at the beginning stages of labor because the pain was not that bad at all. I decided to wait until they got there and we saw how things were going to text any family members and let them know he was coming.



I got into the tub and it was instant relief on my back, the water felt so good! Our hot water from the house ran out and we started boiling more on the stove. I wanted to be completely submerged in the water so we kept adding more. During contractions I got on my knees and leaned over into the water, in between them I leaned my back against the birth pool and stuck my legs straight out. I was talking with Mark and laughing in between contractions.



My midwifes, Aimee & Desiree, got there at 3:10am and I was in the pool and decided to get out to let them check me, I was going to ask not to be told how far dilated I was. The minute I got out I felt like I had to go poop so I sat on the toilet and tried to use the bathroom but nothing was happening, got on my hands and knees and tried, squated and tried but no poop! My midwifes told me it was the baby I was feeling so I stopped trying to poop and layed on the couch for Dessire to check me. My contracting were so strong and often that before she could check anything I had to roll off the couch and get on my hands and knees because my contractions were coming so strong. I kept telling them, “I seriously have to shit so bad” and they said no that it was babys head making it feel like I needed to. I continued to go through contractions on the floor hugging my pillow and leaning forward onto Marks chest. I was pushing in different positions (trying to go poop) for about 10min.! 



They then told me if I wanted to have a water birth Id better get back into the tub so I started crawling back into the kitchen and on my way back to the tub my water broke and there was a huge decrease in pressure. I got back into the tub and got on my knees leaning against the edge of the pool holding onto Mark and biting his hand with every contraction. I kept telling (im not sure who) that I wanted pictures and videos, my exact words were “Im not having a water birth and not having video proof”. But things were moving too fast for anyone to worry about getting video or pictures! When I felt his head starting to crown I said something about was this seriously it, I couldn’t believe he was about to come out! I told Mark to hurry and grab my phone to text my Mom and Dad because they would be mad if I had him before calling, I promised my Mom I would not wait to call until after he was born, oops! He sent a text that said, “Kade is on his way, dont call please” because I kne! w she would be calling and we were a little far into labor to be talking on the phone. My body then took over and started pushing itself and after 5min of being in the birth pool his head emerged, I was so excited for the pause in between birthing the head and the body that I always heard people talk about but my midwifes said to keep pushing because he had opened his eyes and was looking like he was about to take a breath and they did not want him to breath the water in. I gave two pushes and his body was out. I started pushing at 3:35am and he was born at 3:50am.



I think my mind went blank for a second out of shock that he was here because I was in my own little world and it took me a second to capture my thoughts, they told me to reach down and bring him up out of the water. I pulled my little boy from the water and snuggled him to my chest and was speechless. It took him seconds to cry but his eyes were open and looking at me, it was a wonderful quiet moment where I connected with my son. I sat back but could not sit down because his cord was too short to keep him out of the water unless I was squating. Mark came behind me and had his arms around us and I was in pure heaven. My first words were “That’s it? Im ready to have another one”. I had to get out of the water after a few minutes since I could not keep him out of the water and did not want him to be cold. We layed on the couch and he latched on wonderfully and nursed for a good 30min before I got on the birthing stool to deliver my placenta. After it was delivered we wrapped ! it up in a chux pad and laid back down on the couch and he continued to nurse for at least another 45min while I got checked out. I had a tiny tear but nothing bad thank goodness! After about an hour Mark cut the cord and they did newborn vital checks and Mark held him for the first time while I used the bathroom and used a sitz bath in peri bottle to help with the slight stinging and swelling.



My labor and birth with Kade is by far the most amazing thing ive ever experienced. I can not believe how easy and natural it was. My body knew what it was doing and I believed in the ability I have as a woman to give birth. I feel very lucky to have felt what I thought was the “easy part” beginning of labor when I was in my last two hours and what ive always heard to be the most painful part. My birth was very minimal pain and Kade had such a beautiful passage into the world.

{If you’d like to share your own home birth story, please use the form at right to submit it.}