You know how you hear stories of women who give birth without a doctor or a midwife around and you think “OMG I could never do that”? You totally could. You know how I know you could? Because I did it! Mine was at home on purpose but not unassisted on purpose. 


I guess I should start from the beginning. 


I woke up at 4:30 the morning on October 6th, 2005, not to a contraction, but to a burning, stinging feeling in my cervix. Having given birth twice, I knew what I was feeling and where I was feeling it. I had been 1 cm dilated and 75% effaced at my 39 week appointment, and looking back, I assume this was my cervix effacing the rest of the way. 


About 15 minutes later, I had my first contraction. It lasted only about 30 seconds, but it was difficult to breathe or talk through. I stood up, and had another contraction, also 30 seconds long, and also difficult to breathe through. I decided to see if my positioning made any difference. I laid down, and had another contraction, 30 seconds long, about 5 minutes later. I stood up again and had another 30 second contraction 2 minutes later. I thought this was odd, and called my midwife. She told me that my uterus might just be irritated from the evening primrose oil capsules I had inserted the night before, or that it might be the start of labor. She told me to call her if things changed. 


I endured a few more contractions by myself, laying on the couch to try to spread the contractions out. I woke R (my ex) and asked him to provide moral support about 5:20 am. This should have been a big clue that something had changed: that I was requiring moral support, but we both ignored it. I was shocked at how incredibly painful my contractions were becoming. They had also quickly progressed to 2 minutes apart, peaking after a minute. R called my midwife again to tell her of the change, and I had some significant bloody show. I had NO idea what was going on, but the contractions were just monstrous. Having been through labor twice, I was not feeling terribly confident or competent at this point. 


Ah, don’t you love the self doubt that comes with transition… 


Transition?! What???!!!! 


We were already planning a homebirth, but my midwife had not yet brought over her aquadoula birthing pool for us to set up. I had asked R to fill the bathtub after he’d gotten off the phone with the midwife around 5:45, as I thought it might provide some pain relief and a degree of relaxation. That’s one of the benefits of laboring in water. About 6 am, I called my mom to tell her we were having a baby today. I felt another contraction coming, and got off the phone.


During that contraction, my body started to push! I considered momentarily that I must be misinterpreting the urge to push, I didn’t even know if the baby had dropped! What happens if you push before the baby’s head is engaged? My mind was swirling with thoughts, what I knew was happening battling with a ton of “what if” scenarios. 


By the time that contraction was over, I decided I’d better get off the living room couch if I didn’t want to have the baby right there on the floor! 


Time to go with Plan B! 


I ran out of the living room tearing my pajamas off as I waddled swiftly down the hallway yelling “She’s coming! She’s coming!”, and got into the bathtub. It had about 6 inches of water in it. I prayed very quickly that God would preserve me from tearing badly, and that he would keep both the baby and me safe. 


I had no sooner gotten in the water when I had the most amazing contraction. It was like none Id had before or have had since. I have a very dim memory of bearing down, but honest to God, the child was self-propelled. She pushed herself into the world, and I just sorta held onto R’s hand and the bar above the soap dish while I felt like my body was ripping in half. My bag of waters exploded with that one long pushing contraction, and her head was out! 


R supported her head in the water while I waited for the next contraction to push her body out. I didn’t want to push without that sensation, since I was already afraid of tearing. The second contraction hit and Smallish Girl came out with the force of a torpedo. R said if he hadn’t been there to catch, she might have hit her head on the other side of the tub with the sheer velocity of her exit. 


Her cord was nice and long, probably about 3 feet. It was looped loosely around her head and body, so I held her while R unraveled her. She was alert, and looking around at the well lit bathroom, but wasn’t yelling or anything. We weren’t even sure if she was breathing at that point, she may have still been breathing through the umbilical cord, and she did seem a bit shocked to be perched on my knee. *blink blink* 


R called the midwife and asked what he ought to know about delivering the placenta. From across the bathroom, I could hear her yell into the phone “WHAT?!” Right on cue, Smallish Girl let out a nice strong wail, and my midwife told him to get some chux pads from the birth kit and help me out of the tub. She said to wait for the placenta and to not cut the cord till she arrived. 


My older two daughters woke up when Smallish Girl began to cry and they were able to see me with the baby in low light in the bathtub just moments after her arrival. They were so excited. Oldest Sister said she heard me laboring, but was too scared to get out of bed. 


My midwife arrived and delivered the placenta, and we weighed Smallish Girl. She was 9 pounds even, and 20 1/2 inches long. Perfectly healthy. I had very high blood pressure, so it was a blessing that my labor had gone so quickly. A few hours after her birth, my blood pressure returned to normal. 


My ex, R, is a very calm and levelheaded person. I always knew that if we were faced with a precipitous birth situation, that he would perform well under pressure and be a great source of strength and focus for me. He was just exactly those things! He told me later that I made it all look easy, not sure how that’s possible since I was barely contained for that last half hour or so! He has also said that it’s his favorite memory. 


When you’re faced with a situation like I was, you do what you need to do to give birth safely. Instinct takes over. Also, when a birth is moving that fast, there is actually little time for things to go wrong. It was a fascinating journey. I can say looking back that while being in the throes of a 1 hr 15 minute birth is terrifying, and is not something I would want to repeat, it does provide for some fun storytelling!

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