Birth Stories

April 2, 2003....My water broke at 11:00 am, I hadn't had any contractions yet, but I knew he would be born today. I called my husband first, then my midwife, my doula, and my best friend. Within minutes my contractions were 2 minutes apart and very intense. My husband arrived in 20 minutes with our midwife only moments behind him.

I had just gotten out of the shower when she arrived. As I was kneeling on the floor comfortably leaning on my husband, she gently and quietly listened to our baby's heartbeat, reassuring us that everything was normal. Our doula arrived & began filling our tub. We knew this baby wasn't going to take long. Before I knew it I wanted to get in the birthtub, but more than anything I didn't want my husband to leave my side! With the help of our midwife & doula he didn't have to!

12 noon I was in the tub, very thankful for the relief the water gave me. I began to feel a bit overwhelmed with the intensity of my labor... this made me realized that I was going to push soon... that's how everyone feels just before their babies are born. Next thing I know I'm pushing, I glance at the clock... 12:20, then 12:30, I could feel my baby's head emerging from my body, it was amazing to be the one to touch him first! My husband was the 2nd.

12:48pm My 3rd child was born! What joy! My other two were born prematurely in the hospital, this was my 1st full term pregnancy & he was born safely & comfortably at home surrounded by his family! My children rushed inside (a friend picked them up at school) just as he began to cry, their faces alive with wonder & amazement at this new person, their new brother! No one takes him away from us... he's held by me, then my husband, my children, my friend, and our midwife.

I'm helped into bed with my new baby. Food is prepared as my husband & I cuddle in our bed together absorbing this miraculous moment in our lives, thankful for the gift of this child and for the blessing of being able to have our baby at home!

“This is the story of Joyce’s 3rd baby. During her first pregnancy she developed pneumonia which landed her in the ICU where she gave birth at 34 weeks. Her second child was born at 35 weeks by cesarean when she went to the hospital with preterm labor. This was her first planned homebirth, first full-term baby, and first VBAC.”

Tuesday November 15, 2005 we went to our Midwife appointment. Everything looked great and she was finally able to strip my membranes and stretch me to 2cm. I went home thinking we still had a few days, since I'd had so many false starts I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Tuesday night, I cleaned the house and got things ready for the next day. Around midnight, I began to feel really crampy and had to go to the bathroom a lot. I finally got to bed at 1am. I was up every hour going to the bathroom, but only having very mild contractions. By 5:30am when I went to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, I couldn’t get up. Nathan, my husband, helped me into the bathroom and the contractions started about 10 minutes later.

They were VERY strong from the beginning. They were comingevery 2-3 min (I wasn’t timing them that is just what I assumed). Nathan got a warm bath started for me since we really weren’t sure if this was it or not. When I got in the tub (6am) the contractions got worse and I begged Nathan to call Christina, our Midwife, and tell her to come right away. I knew then that it was the real thing and that I was in Labor! I got out of the tub about 6:30am and could not get comfortable. The contractions kept getting stronger and more intense. It felt like I was never going to get a break. Christina arrived at 7am. She was very helpful and supportive. I asked her to check me at 7:40am; she told me I was a full 7cm and 100%. I was very happy to hear that! Around 8am I started to feel a little pushy, so Christina said if I felt I needed to push, then let my body push. So about every other contraction I pushed. By 8:30am I was pushing with every contraction. At 9:10am my water broke as I was pushing, she checked me again and confirmed that I was 10cm and he was right there. I pushed his head out at 9:18am and the rest of his body was out at 9:19am! I managed to push out a 7 pound 15 oz, 20 ½ inches long baby with only minor tears and no stitches. It was the most wonderful experience I have every had giving birth! I would defiantly recommend home birth to everyone!

Nathan called around 6:15 am to tell me Joyce was having contractions every few minutes. Being awoken from sleep, I asked him to repeat, “how far apart”? That’s when I heard Joyce’s next contraction start, having heard active labor before, I knew it was time for me to go. I told Nathan I was on my way. I arrived around 7am to find Joyce working well with very intense contractions only a few minutes apart. Both her boys, ages 2 & 4, were home and there was some debate as to where they were going, but one thing was for sure, Nathan couldn’t take them anywhere. Joyce needed him by her side and that’s where he stayed. The boys came in and out of the bedroom, the youngest laughing louder the louder mommy’s vocalizations were. Joyce’s vocalizations reminded me of my last birth, hearing the intensity in her voice of a quick labor.

Joyce pushed for about an hour, this being her first full term baby, he was considerably larger than her other two. Joyce changed positions several times before settling on her knees leaning over the birth ball. As Jacob began crowing, Joyce’s 2 year old joined me and pointed to his little brother’s emerging head, telling me there’s “baby Jacob”.

Within moments ‘baby Jacob’ was born into his mother’s arms. It is always amazing to see the relief-joy-excitement-love on a new mothers face as she holds her baby for the first time. And I guess this one was especially poignant since it was the first time Joyce had the opportunity to hold one of her baby’s fresh from the womb and still attached. I wish you could’ve seen the look on her face when she smelled her sweet baby and said ‘he smells so good’! For me, this makes all I do worth it. It is unfathomable to me how she would’ve been refused this beautiful experience to have it replaced with an operating room and major surgery. Thank you Joyce, for sharing your experience.

It took a while for me to get pregnant with my second son; 6 long months and one early miscarriage. So when I became pregnant I was ecstatic. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to have a homebirth. My first son’s birth was a wonderful hospital birth experience but I knew that it would have been better at home. When I met with my midwife I knew right away that she was the midwife I wanted at the birth. She had an air of peace and kindness and I really felt at ease around her.

Pregnancy was a lot different this time around, my body seemed to rebel against it. I had a few bouts of pre-term labor and a kidney stone around 26 weeks. My midwife was wonderful and helped me through. She gave me a whole list of things to do to help me stay pregnant until my due date. We scheduled my prenatal visits close together so she could keep an eye on me. I was determined to stay pregnant until at least 37 weeks so my son could be born at home.

My due date came and went, and I felt really overdue because I was sure I would have given birth by then. My midwife helped me to stay positive and enjoy the rest of my pregnancy. On my due date I had some bloody show in the morning and knew that labor was coming soon. I went to bed on the night of my due date with no signs of labor. I woke up around 3:00 am with a few mild contractions. Then again at 5:00 am with contractions which were a bit stronger. I wanted to rest for as long as possible so I went back to sleep. I had a dream that my house was flooding and I was standing in the living room watching the water rise up higher and higher. When the water level reached my face I began to panic and woke up with a very intense contraction. I knew I was done sleeping.

I sat on the couch for about an hour breathing through contractions. They were about five minutes apart and fairly strong but I was handling them well. I wanted to let my husband and son sleep. Around 7:00 am I had two very intense contractions back to back and started to get nervous so I called for my husband to get up. I asked him to fill the pool, and he said “Are you sure?” I had so many pre-term labor episodes and he didn’t want to get excited if this was not the real thing. I had another contraction before I could answer and I was squatting down on the floor, so he ran to fill the pool up.

It was about 8:00 am now and I called my midwife and told her I thought I was in labor, I’m not sure why I said that because I KNEW I was in labor, and I knew it was going fast. She said she was on her way to the chiropractor but to call her back when I needed her. I called her back about fifteen minutes later to ask her to come over right after the chiropractor. Then the contractions started coming faster and stronger so I told my husband to ask her to come NOW.

The contractions were coming about two to three minutes apart and the tub was finally full so I got in. I was hoping the water would slow my labor down, but it didn’t slow it down too much. At some point my older son woke up and my mom came to get him. My sister also arrived. I had a little bit to eat. I lost all concept of time. I just knew I needed to stay in the tub until my midwife came because my husband wasn’t much of a baby catcher.

My midwife arrived and her apprentice followed shortly after. I got out of the tub and walked around then ended up back in the tub. I was having such an intense electricity-like pain in my sacrum and it was scaring me. Contractions would start then peak immediately and I was having a hard time staying on top of them. I had no idea what I wanted. I asked to be checked and my midwife said “you’re working really hard, are you sure you want to be checked?” and I said “no”. I felt nauseous so I went into the bathroom. In the bathroom I felt really scared and thought “I must be coming into transition”. I’m a labor Doula and could not shut my mind off; I was analyzing myself through labor. It was annoying. So I came out and asked to be checked. I was 6 centimeters and I remember being so happy that I was more than half way through.

I got back into the tub. My husband was applying counter pressure to my sacrum because the pain was still intense. The contractions weren’t bothering me so much; it was the shooting feeling in my lower back that was hurting. At some point I was on the bed, alternating positions to make sure my son was not posterior. Then I gave up and figured I’d just deal with the back pain because I needed to be back in that tub ASAP! Shortly after I got back in I felt myself pushing at the peak of each contraction. I asked if it was okay and my midwife said it was. She checked me and found I had a small lip of cervix, she asked if I wanted her to hold it back, I said “no” then a few seconds later said “yes”. I had no idea what I wanted, but I did know that I wanted the baby out really soon because I was getting tired. So she held back the lip during the next contraction or two and I did not feel a thing.

I started pushing around 12:30 pm. I was still in the tub. I alternated between hands and knees and sitting. I kept reaching in to feel his head and could tell I was making real progress. It was so exciting! I’d push, and then reach in and see where he was. It became sort of a game, then he crowned and the game was over. Crowning was intense. I felt like he was not fitting and I was scared. I remember saying “this isn’t working, he isn’t fitting; I don’t want to do this anymore”, like I could just call the labor off or reschedule it! I was trying to hold his head in so he would come out slow. Then, for reasons I cannot understand, I decided I needed to get out the tub immediately. So I jumped up and said “I need to get out”. Everyone helped me out and I was making my way to the bed when another contraction started. I stopped, grabbed the end of the bed, and squatted. I heard everyone cheering “Look at his head” and I announced “he’s out, his head is out”, followed by “HELP”. The midwife helped ease him out.

He slid right out onto the towel in front of me, and I dropped back and rested. He was born at 1:11 pm, my entire labor was about 6 hours long.

My son was covered in vernix, there was so much of it and he was so tiny. I sat there in shock and awe until my midwife said “pick him up”, for some reason I didn’t even think of that. I picked him up and hugged him and kissed him, he needed some stimulation to cry. My midwife asked if we had a name and I said “Evan Reese”. The placenta followed shortly after and I told my midwife it was ok to cut the cord now. After the cord was cut, Evan became a little dusky but pinked up immediately with minimal oxygen. We all got up onto the bed and checked him out, he was adorable. Even though he was born a day after 40 weeks, he was tiny – weighing in at 6lbs 4 ozs. I loved him right away.

Giving birth at home with a homebirth midwife was such a wonderful experience. It doesn’t even compare to my hospital birth. It was great to be able to just hop into bed and rest with Evan after the birth. Everyone took care of the cleanup for us. They took such great care of us. There was no hurry to to do anything. It was so peaceful and loving, just how a birth should be.

Evan was born with a severe heart defect. Congenital Heart Defects are the most common form of birth defects. It's important for parents to know the signs of a heart problem in order to get their baby the appropriate medical care. Unfortunately, heart defects can be missed, even on the best ultrasound during pregnancy and even by the doctors. Please click this link to to see a video montage of Evan's story of his diagnosis, surgery, & recovery. Evan's Amazing Story