My Birth Story

Why a Home Birth?

I am not the person who thinks birth is a beautiful thing, that pregnancy is the best shape, or that medicine is weakness.  How I wound up having my baby in my living room with a midwife amazes me!  Here is how Jason and I came to that decision and my personal experience.

All my life I had just assumed that I would have my babies with an epidural, a doctor, and of course in the hospital.  Home birth?  No way... that is for the crazy people.

Well, turns out I am crazy.

The first step was when I decided I wanted to attempt a natural birth.   I think of myself as pretty tough, and figured if my grandma, mom, and aunt could do it then I could too.  I told the doctor at our first prenatal visit that I wanted to have a natural birth, and she laughed and said "yeah, we will see."

It was after that visit that Jason and I started thinking outside the box.  I felt that I couldn't succeed without a completely supportive team around me.  If I had nurses or doctors encouraging an epidural I knew I would eventually accept.  So we started researching other options.

Memphis doesn't have birthing centers, which was  my first choice, so it left us with two options: homebirth with a Midwife or hospital birth with a doctor.  I would have liked hospital with Midwife, but that wasn't an option.  We found a Christian midwife in the area, Lynda Hoskins, and set up an appointment to meet with her.

We went loaded with questions and spent over an hour going through each one.  We were so pleased that she actually LISTENED to our concerns and took the time to address every one.  She had over 300 births under her belt and we had a sense she knew what she was doing.  By the end of that visit we decided to try the home birth route. 

Lynda did all of our prenatal visits- and much to my surprise she had all the medical gadgets!  We heard the heart beat each time, did all of the standard tests (but I got to drink a root beer for my glucose test!) and got the 20 week ultra sound done at a clinic.  I don't feel like I missed out on anything as far as prenatal visits go.  She spent close to an hour with us each and every time we saw her- answering any new questions, informing us about our right to decide on various medical procedures performed on newborns (ex: Vitamin K shot) and so on.  Such a breath of fresh air and exactly what we were hoping to find!  Best decision ever! 

OK, so now that you understand why on earth I had my baby in my house, I will share the actual "birth story."

Water Birth at home

I was 9 days past my due date... 9 very long, large, hot days.  I tried every labor inducing trick in the book (besides castor oil) and felt like I would be the first person to stay pregnant forever. 

Well, thank God, on Saturday morning July 6th around 8:00 I felt the first glorious contraction while I was playing Candy Crush in bed. I had heard that sometimes they fade away, so I didn't wake Jason and just kept playing my game.  After a while I started timing them and sure enough, they were almost exactly 10 minutes apart.  I got up and walked around to see if they would stop and no sir, they kept coming.  I woke Jason up at 9:00 and told him I was having regular contractions.  He was thrilled!  They started coming closer together and quickly became 2 minutes apart.  He called Lynda and she asked if we had called our doula, Emily Hendrickson,  yet.  I didn't want anyone to come, but around 11:00 I finally gave the ok for them to start heading over.  I was sure it would be a long labor and didn't want them sitting around.

Lynda came, along with her assistant and apprentice Kimberly, around 12:30, I think, and I was 4cm.  She said "you're going to have a baby today!"  but I didn't really believe her.  She suggested the pool, but I wanted to stay in bed.  I got in the pool a while later and she was right, it felt awesome.  I kept breathing through contractions, which were hard but not that bad, and a few hours later I was at 8cm.  Heck yeah!  This wasn't so bad after all!

WRONG!!!!!

After that the contractions slowed down for a while, but then the dreaded transition stage started and holy smokes... it was insane.  I lost track of time.  The contractions scared me and I was losing control of the pain.  If you ask Jason to show you the face I was making as I tried to "relax and breath" through the contractions, you will be in for a treat. I tried my best to manipulate him by begging him to "help meeee" thinking maybe he would intervene and whisk me off to the land of epidurals.   Didn't work.  At one point I needed an oxygen mask because I had worked myself up so much that my hands were numb.  That was scary.  But Lynda never lost her cool.

Before I knew it, it was time to push.  Talk about pain.  I pushed for 20 minutes, the LONGEST 20 minutes of my life, and then all at once the most amazing moment of all time- our son was born. Our TEN POUND son with a 14 1/2 inch head.  Youch.  I didn't need an episiotomy and didn't even tear enough for a stitch. What a blessing.  I ended up getting a few stitches later though, due to a small trickle of blood that wouldn't stop. 

Jason got to "catch" him and I got to lift him out of the water onto my chest.  He cried right away and had a full head of black hair.  He was perfect!  It was over!  I felt like a million bucks!

After everything was taken care of, I got up out of the pool and walked across the house to my bedroom.  The rest is history. 

The experience after Titus Jason was born at 7:08pm was so peaceful and joyful.  Jason got to weigh him and we were never separated from him.  Our parents came to meet him that evening and it was just awesome to be at home.  I had an amazing "high" for about 3 days following the birth.  It was an awesome experience and I will do it again next time!

(This picture was taken by my sister a few hours after we had him)

If anyone is considering an alternate method to the hospital/doctor route- I highly recommend Lynda Hoskins!  (You can check her out at www.chosenbirths.com) She is completely professional and knows what she is doing.  She is accessible to answer questions during pregnancy and after the baby is here.  Most importantly, she loves the Lord and trusts his original plan for birth. I also recommend Emily Hendrickson as a doula.  Such a sweet spirit and very helpful at home or at the hospital. Even though it was the hardest thing I have ever done, I wouldn't change a thing.