More Babies Prefer Home Birth

by Lennon

On Sunday morning (early hours), January 25, 2004, I was in my normal routine of waking up every 2-3 hours to pee.  During one of these trips to the bathroom, I felt what I described at the time as gas pains, as it felt like the sensations were coming from my intestines, not my uterus.  They weren’t that bad, just uncomfortable, and while I was able to sleep, I couldn’t sleep very deeply or comfortably.  I actually woke up at 7 am and was going to just stay up because I was getting so uncomfortable in bed, but I was so exhausted that I decided to try to sleep a little more, got an extra two hours of sleep, waking at 9 am (looking back I was so glad I did this, as I wasn’t going to sleep at all the following night!!).

I should mention that Friday, January 23, had been my last day at work and I was 36 1/2 weeks pregnant.  On Saturday I had been really irritated about how dirty the house was, but I forced myself not to clean and to enjoy a day or two of doing nothing as I was fully prepared to spend the next 4 weeks cleaning and scrubbing the house in preparation for my baby’s arrival.  Little did I know that he would be here weeks before planned!

Anyway, on Sunday we decided to go to Michael’s to buy the supplies for a belly cast (which we never got a chance to make!!) and we also stopped at Wal-Mart next door for some extra supplies.  While in the store, every time I felt a “gas pain”, I had to stand still and relax, and yet the thought that these “gas pains” were contractions was so far from my head still!!  By the time we got home, I was feeling more and more uncomfortable, and at dinner couldn’t stand to eat more than two bites of food.  I called my mom and when she heard what I was feeling, she *knew* it was labor but I still wouldn’t believe it.  I kept telling my self I had 3+ weeks left, at least!!  Walter called his parents in Peru and happened to mention to his mom what I was feeling.  She too said that she bet I was in labor.  She said that if it was just gas pains, chewing some anise seeds would help.  I had thought of this too, and I had some anise in the cupboard, but the mere thought of having to  move and go to the kitchen was too overwhelming (how obvious was it that I was in labor??).  I called my mom again and during our phone call I had to stop talking every time I had a “gas pain”.  At this point I realized that yes, I probably was in labor!!!  This was around 6 p.m. Sunday. 

Walter asked if I wanted him to take Jr. (his 14 year old son) to our friend’s house, and I said yes, as he kept knocking on our door, bothering my concentration, and I couldn’t be naked and comfortable in the house with him there.  He also picked us up some Indian food, as I felt hungry suddenly and that was all I wanted to eat!  By this point I was in deep labor and every time I had a contraction, I had to completely stop what I was doing and relax and go within.

I only ended up eating a few bites of food.  The contractions were quite frequent ( we never timed them) and I was having intense back pain by now.  I had suspected that my baby might be posterior, and now I felt pretty certain about it!  I finally decided to settle in on the toilet where I felt very comfortable.  The next 12 hours are all mixed up in my head and I’m not sure of the order of things, but I ended up throwing up 3 times, and must have taken 5 or 6 hot baths in the tub to relieve some of the back pain.  I wasn’t able to sleep at all although Walter kept insisting that I should.  As soon as I would lay down, a contraction would come on and I had to jump into hands and knees position to deal with it!  I would estimate the contractions at this point about every 3-5 minutes.  I continued to drink LOTS of water, but food didn’t appeal to me at all.  Walter tried to catch an hour of sleep here and there during the night.  At one point he took some sheets and laid them down in the bathroom and curled up on the floor (our bathroom is small), as I wanted him close to me and I didn’t want to move from the toilet.  At some point in the night, I decided to check myself, as the curiosity was killing me, and I would say I was around 5-6 cm dilated, with a very thin cervix.  Later on, probably around 6 or 7 am on Monday, 1/26/04, I decided to check myself again and I felt something interesting.  I could feel the bag of waters (they hadn’t broken yet) and what I realized very soon was an anterior cervical lip and it wasn’t even all that big.  Sometime later, probably around 10 am, my mucous plug came out as one whole blob.  This was exciting to see!!  After this, I started having bloody show.  I knew it had to be soon…but when???  I was ready at this point for labor to be over and to have my baby in my arms and to take a nap!!  I checked myself again a little later…cervical lip still there, but totally dilated otherwise.  I knew that this was all that was left, once the lip was gone, my baby would be here soon.  I got out Heart and Hands to read about what I could do for a cervical lip.  The procedure for pushing the lip over the presenting part was described and sounded simple enough but cautioned that if done incorrectly, cervical swelling or tearing could result.  Well, I decided halfheartedly to try it out.  I sat on the toilet, and tried it, but I didn’t use to much effort, as I was a little worried about making my cervix swollen as I knew this would just make my labor longer.  I decided to see if the lip would resolve itself though more contractions. 

The contractions were getting more and more intense and frequent and I started to verbalize outloud that I could not take another day of this (I was worried I would still be labor on Tuesday with another sleepless night!).  I was SSOO tired and my back labor was SSOO intense!!  I talked to my mom at some point, probably around 1 pm and she insisted that we call a midwife/friend that I know in Salem, to ask her what she thought I could do.  Walter called and left a message for her.  When she called back, she gave me some position ideas to try and turn my baby to an anterior position, and she said it sounded like I was doing great and that the fact that the waters weren’t broken yet meant that there was a higher chance of the baby getting into a better position.  I tried the position changes, but it didn’t feel as if he had turned yet. 

My mom called again around this time and I was just so tired that I told her that I wanted to go to the hospital for an epidural just so that I could get some sleep!!  I had no fear for the baby, as I knew intuitively that he was fine, I just wanted a break!  She told Walter that maybe we should set a time limit and go the hospital after a certain time.  Walter was hesitant because he knew how badly I wanted a home birth and how disappointed I would have been. 

About an hour later I called the midwife again to see what she thought I could do about the lip.  I don’t really remember what she said, but I told her I was going to try to manually resolve it again.  She told me that if I felt like I wanted her there with me at any point, to call her and she would come by.

After I hung up the phone, I decided to stop complaining and get real.  If I was truly considering transferring then I should try everything I could at home first.  I was going to resolve this cervical lip, even if it means that my cervix tears a little!!!  So I squatted over a chux pad, with the book describing the procedure in front of me, and just did it!  I reached in my yoni, pushed the lip up over the presenting part (at this point it was just the bag of water), and when the next contraction came, I pushed like mad to move the presenting part over the lip and keep it that way.  POP!!! My water bag broke (very clear fluid) ! and my cervical lip was gone too!!! YEAH!!!!  Almost immediately my contractions seemed to be one on top of the other!!  There wasn’t even a full minute in between them.  It was around 4 p.m. by now.  Around 5 pm I told Walter to call the midwife and to tell her to please come!!  I felt the need for her to be there for some reason.  I was experiencing intense, overwhelming pushing contraction by now,and the only way they were bearable was if I pushed with them and vocalized these deep moaning sounds that just arose within me.  Walter kept telling me not to moan, and to focus my energy on the pushing, but I couldn’t help it at the time.  I pushed and pushed!!  When I checked to see if I could feel the baby, I couldn’t tell what part I was feeling.  It definitely didn’t feel like the butt, but it didn’t really feel like a head either.  Oh well, I thought, I am at the point of no return…no point in analyzing it!  My body was pushing my baby out and I was doing all I could do to help it along.

In spite of the overwhelming pushing contractions, an hour later, i was still pushing, although my baby was definitely descending.  Finally I could feel him right on my perineum and I suddenly realized how close to holding my baby I was!!!  A few more pushs and I could feel hair!!!  So, it must be the head!!  (I wished I had a mirror, but this was something I hadn’t got around to buying yet!!).  His head was partly crowning when the midwife arrived.  She offered me the use of her birthing stool which I gratefully accepted, as my legs and ankles were SO shaky from squatting most of the day that I kept falling over as my ankles would give out!!  The birthing stool was perfect!  My legs could rest but I was still upright.  His head took a full 5-10 minutes to fully crown.  At the time, I wanted it to go quick, but I am now grateful for my body taking it’s time as my muscles and skin were able to stretch slowly and I didn’t tear at all!  The midwife asked if I wanted her to provide perineal support and I said yes.  My own hands were naturally drawn to the top of my yoni, supporting my upper labial tissues and clitoris.  The midwife kept calmly telling me how perfect my body was stretching, which was great to hear.  Finally his head was out!  And I will never forget the feeling of his body rotating inside of me before I pushed his body out.  Amazing!!!!!!  After his head was born, the midwife got out of the way and told Walter to come and catch his baby (he was behind me giving me counter-pressure on my lower back as I had asked him (more like TOLD him!!) to.  As soon as he was there, I pushed my baby into the world in one more push.  He was covered in vernix and according to Walter, before his body was out he had already opened his eyes.  He breathed within seconds of his birth.  The cord was wrapped around his neck once but this didn’t make any difference.  I just unwound it when he was born.  His hands and feet didn’t pink up right away, as the rest of his body had, but with some massaging they were just fine.

The placenta came about 5 minutes after my darling boy.  It was whole and healthy.  The midwife stayed long enough to make sure I had some juice and food and to do the dishes and clean up the bathroom.  It was all so perfect.  Later, she said that she felt so honored to have been invited to our birth, and she felt almost as if it were too intimate to have her there.  She said that when she saw the cord around his neck, she had to check her instincts to check his heart tones and make sure all was well.  She said being present for his birth reminded her of the sacredness of birth and that our bodies know how to do this so perfectly!  She asked us if we wanted her to do anything else for us, and I asked her to weigh him if she had her scale with her.  6lb, 6oz.  Not bad for being nearly a month early!

And that is my amazing son’s entry into the world.  We were going to do a full lotus birth, but after about 36 hours we decided to cut the cord as it had become very brittle and we were worried it would pull on his naval as his cord wasn’t very long.  We did save the cord and have it in a jar that I plan on giving to him when he is older.  Next time, I would really like to allow the cord to naturally fall off, but I feel like we at least were able to give him a full day and a half with his placenta…

Anyway, that is my son’s birth story.  I love being a mom, and can’t wait to do it again!!!!!

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