Born at Home!

My water broke on Saturday afternoon which was a relief because I was certainly ready to give birth. I had decided to have the baby at home, a decision that my husband did not support at first. There were no midwives in the area and even if there were, they probably wouldn't have attended a home birth because of liability. So I was ready to have the baby on my own if I had to but luckily my husband came around and was very supportive, rubbing my back and rubbibg me with olive oil. I had an easy night with contractions getting stronger near the morning. I repeated affirmations over and over to myself that I had the strength to go through with it and it helped tremendously. By 8 A.M. the contractions were so strong that nothing seemed to help. My husband had a full night of sleep with our oldest son in the family bed and woke up to me moaning through contractions. Our oldest son didn't get frightened or upset to see his mother crying and screaming. He seemed to accept the explanation that Mommy's baby was going to come out soon. At 9:30 I was sitting on the toilet crying through the hardest contractions which were causing my bowels to move. My husband was playing some James Taylor music, getting some breakfast for our son and stopping everything to come and put pressure on my lower back everytime he heard me screaming. I decided that I wanted to go back to the livingroom but I couldn't walk so I crawled. I was about half way down the hallway when I felt the urge to push. I had never felt the urge to push before and it amused me to think that this feeling was called an urge. It felt to me like the giant hand of god was squeezing me and pushing my hips lower to the floor. My husband was getting excited, he ran for our birthing kit and the olive oil and he informed me that the head was indeed coming. This birth was different than my first son's which was a hospital birth. This time I could feel everything, the baby's head and shoulders emerging and then the hips. I felt very lucky to have my husband there. I wasn't concerned about the baby falling, I had complete faith in the wonderful man who was taking care of us. My son kept telling me what his Daddy was doing. "Daddy's wiping your poo." Not a very glamorous picture but I was happy that he was able to see his brother born and that he should see the real thing instead of the hollywood version. Theo was born crying, we didn't have to ressucitate him, he peed right away. We cut the cord without clamping it. He didn't seem interested in nursing so my husband and our son took him into a hot bath to clean him off. I opted to stay where I was and deliver the placenta. I didn't manage to deliver it until that evening at 11:00. There was a bit of worry about retaining the placenta for that long but Theo managed to nurse vigorously enough to bring on more contractions. We had friends visit us that day who wrote letters verifying my pregnancy and the birth of our son which is required by the health department in order to register the home birth. It was the most amazing experience of my life, nothing like my medicated hospital birth where I was forced to deliver on my back and then told that I had to stay in bed until I was discharged. I had at one point decided to go for a walk with my new born son and was chased by two nurses who informed me that I wasn't allowed to walk because it was hospital policy. I remember my first son's birth as 7 hours of agonizing pain brought on by sweeping my membranes which was done without my knowledge or consent. The birth of our second son was peaceful in comparison. There was a point near the end when I would have gratefully accepted any type of medication to releive the pain but the hour and a half of painful labor that I endured was made much easier by the freedom to move around and the quiet of familiar surroundings. I will never have a baby in the hospital again, in my opinion, it isn't necessary for a healthy woman to do so. It is three days after the birth and I have been on top of the world ever since and I have almost stopped bleeding. I had no tears in my perenium and I'm feeling almost back to normal. I urge any woman who is healthy to have their children at home.

TheVoaks@coastalnet.com