Ethan's Birth

So after shocking most of the people I know by having a "crazy home birth," I've decided to share my experience, and the reason I made the decision to have my baby at home. When I was pregnant with Tyler, I planned on a natural, drug-free birth (I guess I'm a little crazy to begin with). I took the classes. I did the relaxation. I planned. I was prepared. Unfortunately, things don't always go the way that you plan. My water broke at home, I went to the hospital, and had about 7 hours of perfect labor until everything went wrong. I got an infection (probably from being in the hospital and having nurses check me all too often) and a fever of 103 that wouldn't break. My pulse was racing, and my blood pressure plummeted. Tyler became distressed and passed meconium (that yucky black tar baby poop) in utero. That's when the doctor decided that this baby had to come right now! So I ended up having an emergency c-section, the one thing that I hadn't planned for. Tyler had to be whisked away to the NICU because he had contracted the infection that I had, where he stayed for the next 8 days. Needless to say, it was not the birth that I had hoped to have.

It took three years for me to get up the guts to get pregnant again. At about 12 weeks, I was woken up at 5:00 am in excruciating pain. I rushed to the ER thinking that I must be having a miscarriage, but it turned out to be an ovarian torsion. My left ovary had twisted, cutting off the blood supply, and basically died inside of me. I was rushed to the OR, and it was removed. The doctor tried to remove it laproscopically, but it was too enlarged, so I had to be cut open again! Luckily, babies are pretty resiliant little creatures, and can handle surgeries just fine. But recovery was just like having another c-section. After that, both Nathan and I decided that we could NOT go back to the hospital. Since every time we do go to the hospital, I end up having surgery. That's when we started thinking about a home birth.

Luckily, Nate's older sister's mother-in-law (did you follow that?) is a midwife. Not just any midwife, but a really amazing midwife! She's been practicing for 30 years and has delivered nearly 3000 babies. So after talking with her, and some fasting and prayer, we decided that we needed to have our baby at home. So onto the actual labor/delivery story.....

I was in early labor all day Saturday. Lots of contractions, but not really uncomfortable yet. Over the course of those 20 hours, I dilated from a 2 to a 4. We went to bed that night, and real labor started at 7:00 am. When my midwife checked me, she discovered that my pubic bone was flat (instead of curved), so I would have to labor mostly in a reclining/laying flat position so that the baby's head could pass under the bone. I spent two hours in the recliner, and another two hours in the bath tub with water poured on my belly with every contraction. The next thirty minutes were spent on the bed, on my side with one leg elevated (weird position I know, but apparently it helps transitional labor go by quickly) with Nathan by my side. When it was time to push, Valerie (the midwife) said, "This can take 30 minutes or 3 hours, but we're going to have this baby no matter what." Well, I wasn't about to have it take 3 hours, so I made sure to make every push count, and 30 minutes later, little Ethan was here.

I honestly believe that had I gone to the hospital, I would have ended up with another c-section. Nobody would have been there to coach me and put me in the positions I needed to be in for my labor to progress. And when you don't progress with a VBAC, there's nothing they can do besides another cesarean. I'm not going to lie and say that a natural birth was easy, in fact, there were a few times that I had to remind myself that "This is better than a c-section" but in the long run, it was easier. No stitches or staples, no 7-inch wound in my abdomen, and no long weeks of recovery. In fact, Ethan's birth and Tyler's birth could not have been more opposite.

For anyone who has considered ever doing a home birth, I highly recommend it. It was wonderful being able to stay at home, where you are most relaxed, and sleep in your own bed at night! Not to mention, not having to be hooked up to monitors, or have nurses check on you every couple of hours. It was the best birth experience that I could have hoped for. I still look at Ethan and can't believe how perfectly everything went. It seems too good to be true!