More Babies Prefer Home Birth

Of all the births of my six children, Paul’s proceeded in the most unexpected way.  Except for his oldest brother, whose birth was induced at 40 weeks for convenience, all the previous pregnancies lasted until 42 weeks.  But at 40 weeks pregnant with Paul, at 2 pm as I was finishing up the final homeschooling assignments of our oldest daughter, I felt a pop, along with some wetness.  I had never begun labor in the middle of the day, nor had it ever started with the rupture of membranes.

I rushed to the toilet and confirmed that the bag of water had ruptured with clean fluid.  As I typically do, I’d been having contractions for weeks already, so it was nice to have this forewarning of labor to begin.  My midwife lives over an hour away, and my previous labor had only been 3 hours long.  I immediately gave her the heads up call and waited for my husband to come home and contractions to begin.

My sister lived around the corner at this time, so she came to keep me company while waiting, and to help distract the kids.  My midwife arrived with her assistant, and then left to grab some dinner.  Contractions began roughly two hours after rupture.

Shortly, the kids made their way over to my sister’s house, where her husband and my father waited.  I’ve found the children to be too distracting, actually causing my labors to stall, so we’ve actually never had our children witness a birth of a sibling, though they are welcomed immediately after.

The contractions with this labor were probably some of the most uncomfortable I have experienced.  With each contraction, I felt a small gush of fluid.  I was greatly relieved once Paul’s head settled in and prevented more water from leaking.

I typically enjoy my labors.  How many other times do I get to have women over in my home to pamper me?  How many times do we sit and converse on one of my favorite topics, birth?  Us ladies were having a wonderful time chatting and laughing between contractions.  Not long before this labor, I’d read Ina May Gaskin’s latest book and remembered her comment that laughing relieves the pain of labor, by keeping your jaw and other muscles nice and relaxed.  During one contraction, I commented that this is categorically untrue!  While your other muscles may relax, your belly muscles get all tense, and boy does that hurt!  But it was an enjoyable labor, anyway.

All too soon, I felt a need to move upstairs to my tiny bedroom with adjoining bath.  It wasn’t so much a nesting instinct, though many women discover an impulse to crawl into a safe, cozy corner of their home.  But, this was the end of January in Wisconsin, and due to the inadequate venting in our house, our bedroom ends up being the warmest room in the house.  For the baby’s sake, up I went.

I paced what I could of our overstuffed, overcrowded with 3 other adults in addition to my husband and myself.  During pains, I’d lean the wall and Brian would provide counterpressure.  I stopped to use the bathroom, and realized if I got stuck in there, my midwife could barely reach me.  I casually mentioned we should have removed the door from the bathroom.  Next thing I knew, my husband had the door down.

Then I went to squat next to the bed awhile.  I had a sewing table across from the bed.  “Boy, we should have moved that to another room…”  And out it went.  As the evening progressed, my husband independently decided to bring the kids home and put them to bed.  He picked up the phone to call my dad to bring the kids.

“Now?” my midwife responds.  I only grunt.  Yep, it’s time.  Quickly, my midwife asks to check dilation.  I’d had a significant problem with a cervical lip in a previous birth with another midwife.  It ended up in a transport as the lip was stuck and couldn’t be resolved.

Lying on my back in the bed was killer.  She checked and sure enough found a lip, suggesting I stay on my side.  Nope, this baby’s coming out.  I couldn’t push in that position, and with help, rolled out of the bed onto the floor.  In one push, while leaning over the bed, I birthed my youngest son.  Downstairs, we could hear the kids coming in.  By the time they made it up the stairs, I was settled back sitting on the floor with a brand new brother on my chest.  After inspecting him, when they ran off to put jammies on, I delivered the placenta.

Birth time was only 5 hours after my water broke, another quick 3 hours or so of contractions.  After previous sons weighed in at 10 lbs. 14 oz., 23 inches long, and 9 lbs. 12 oz., 20 inches long, Paul weighed a tiny 8 lbs 2 oz, and measured only 19 inches.  Ironically, his name is Paul Joseph, which means Small, May God Increase.

{If you would like to submit your home birth story, use the form provided at right!}