Peace is every step.
The shinning red sun is in my heart.
Each flower smiles with me.
How green, how fresh all that grows.
How cool the wind blows.
Peace is every step.
It turns the endless path to joy.   -Thich Nhat Hanh

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BRIANNA CORINNE 
8 lb. 8 oz  20 1/2 inches length

My labor began around 4:00 p.m. on February 24, but it wasn’t until 
around 6:45 that the contractions were strong enough to require my
attention. They came every 6 minutes and were 30 - 60 seconds in length. During the stronger contractions, I did pelvic rocks. I spent some time writing about my two older daughters births and how those births reflect each girl’s personality. I wondered about this baby’s personality. The biggest difference between this labor and my previous experiences in labor was between the contractions I could interact with the people present, as opposed to disassociation from people and my surroundings. At 9:43 p.m. I was nearly completely dilated with only a tiny rim of cervix left to open. I was surprised because the labor had not really gotten hard. There were some tiring and tough contractions but most were not too severe.

I moved around frequently during the labor. I sat on the toilet, reclined in my bed, walked, or squatted depending on what seemed to be most comfortable. After the last dilation check, I felt a desire to find a birthing position. I got off my bed and asked Darin, who was the perfect birthing partner, to bring me a stool to sit upon.  Right away, I knew it was not the right position for me to assume. Then I had a contraction and felt a strong pushing sensation. Not a desire or an urge to push but rather something pushing on its own. With Darin’s help I stood up. Darin supported me during the next contraction and I felt the pushing again. "It’s pushing, it’s pushing. I’m not doing it. It’s doing by itself", I exclaimed. Then a huge scooping, squeezing feeling overcame the lower half of my body. I felt my waters break as the baby moved through my birth canal. My baby pushed on my perineum and then the head was born. 

Darin had to shift his position to hold me up and help catch the baby. My body kept on pushing while Jane and Darin helped me birth.  The baby was handed to me immediately and then I laid down on the bed with the baby on my chest. I checked to see that the baby was indeed the girl we expected and thought how astonishing it was that she was here already. It was 9:50 p.m.

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Jackson’s Birth
told by his father

Congratulations on your child! 

Our first child was born in a hospital, with no intervention and no complications (ie: "natural child birth"). The baby was healthy and Christy was able to walk less than an hour after delivery. It seemed like a positive experience, and for the most part it was. We got to do what we wanted to do, but we had to insist - and sometimes fight - to have this baby on our terms. The nurses kept trying to strap a fetal monitor to my wife, which made it much more difficult for her to labor in comfortable positions (not that transitional labor could really be described as "comfortable"). Then we were stuck in the hospital for 2 1/2 days. The baby was fine, mom was fine, and I was not as terrified of holding my first child as I thought I'd be... but we couldn't go home. They would not let us take the baby home until after a mandatory observation period and signed release by a pediatrician. So for 2 1/2 days, the nurses came in every 4 hours, woke the baby, slapped a cold stethoscope to her chest, stuck a thermometer in her ear, and handed the (now screaming) child back to us weary parents. For 2 1/2 days I slept on The Universe's Most Uncomfortable Chair, while my wife was confined to a squeaky gurney. The smell of the hospital, the noise, the constant intrusion on quiet bonding time with our child... it really got on my nerves. I remember thinking that all I wanted to do was take my family home and start our new lives together.

When it became apparent we were going to have a second child, my wife brought up the idea of having the baby at home. I was not immediately keen on the idea. My mind flooded with a hundred negative "what-if?" scenarios, and I got spooked. But then I remembered that childbirth is a rather natural experience anyway. We humans have been doing it for thousands of years, before hospitals and pitocin and fetal monitors and episiotomies... why can't we do that way now? There is much you can do before labor to determine your risk factors and mitigate many of those "what-if's" I had floating around in my head.

After meeting Jane, I was totally convinced that home birth was the right thing. We were definitely "on the same wavelength" about this.

When the time finally came, Christy's water broke early in the morning. Jane arrived a few hours later, when early labor progressed to the "can no longer be ignored" stage. My wife and I sat, rocked, rested, bounced, bobbed and slow-danced through every contraction together. We were comfortable in our own home, surrounded only by people we trusted. There was no hospital smell, no beeping machines, and no glaring artificial lights.

Jane is a very gentle, mild mannered person... but she can and will be firm and commanding when necessary. There were times when it seemed like things were going to get out of hand, and Jane took control of the situation and brought us all back down to earth. There was no doubt in my mind that she knew what she was doing every step of the way, and that she had the utmost confidence in her ability to see us through this safely. That confidence was reassuring.

The position my wife's body chose for delivery was an odd one that would not have been possible in a hospital bed. Delivery was uncomplicated and relatively quick.

And when it was over, we were at home, in our own comfortable bed. It was quiet (as quiet as it can be with a newborn and a toddler), and we didn't have to eat any hospital food, or sign three dozen pages of paperwork, or get briskly ordered to the billing office so I could write a check to pay for my new baby. Best of all, I didn't have nurses trying to poke, prod, perturb or otherwise molest our newborn every 2-4 hours.

I hope this helps. Again, congratulations and good luck!
-Jon

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ISABELLA CATHERINE'S BIRTH 
5 lb 14 oz.

I gave birth to my daughter, Isabella at home on June 22, 2008.  This was my first pregnancy and originally I planned to have my daughter in the hospital.  I began seeing an OB soon after learning I was pregnant and since I was already interested in natural childbirth, I talked to her about a drug free labor.  Around that time I heard about the documentary,  The Business of Being Born and after watching it on Net Flicks, I knew I had a lot more research ahead of me.  As I dug deeper, much to my surprise, I discovered  there was an amazing experience to be had in natural child birth.  My husband and I considered the many different birthing options,
including hiring a doula for a hospital birth, going to a birthing center, as well as having a midwife to give birth at home. 

Around the 6th month of my pregnancy, we met and interviewed our future midwife, Jane Hitch.  The meeting lasted a couple of hours, while she patiently answered all our questions.  After a couple days of deliberation, we decided the best choice for us was a home birth.  I notified my OB of our decision and immediately transferred my
care to Jane.  The next few months were wonderful as I experienced the difference between the personal care of my midwife versus the care I had received in the OB office.  Both professionals offered excellent care; however Jane provided the opportunity to build a relationship with the person who would help me give birth to my child.  Our prenatal appointments often lasted 1-2 hours, and were held in the comfort and security of my own home.

Fear does not have to be a part of the beautiful process of childbirth.  My labor and delivery experience was amazing and after going through the entire process, I wouldn’t change a thing.  I came away from my first childbirth experience with a new sense of
strength and a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. 

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ANDREW PHILIP  "Drew"
December 9th,  7:13 p.m.
7 lbs. 2 oz.,  20 ¼ inches long

Drew wasn’t due until December 15th, but I really wanted him to arrive early so that his birthday wouldn’t get too mixed up with Christmas. On Saturday, December 6th, my prenatal appointment for 39 weeks included a stretch and sweep of my cervix and membranes, which I requested…maybe within 24 hours I would go into labor because of 
it. Well, the first weekend in December came and went - I only had an hour and a half of mild contractions every 10 minutes which died out when I fell asleep Saturday night. However, Monday I was so weepy, I really didn’t want the baby to come any later than Tuesday, but I did have an inkling it could be soon as I’ve heard of other women becoming extra moody just before going into labor.

That night, I woke up to use the restroom - every hour and a half - as I had been doing for some weeks. As I climbed out of bed, I felt some liquid dripping down my leg. I said to myself: I know there’s a lot of pressure on my bladder, but I didn’t feel myself pee…I hope it’s not my water breaking! I’d better find that nitrizine paper Jane gave me…oh, well, I’ll check it next time. So, I changed my underwear and went back to sleep - I wasn’t having any contractions.  I woke again at 3:00 a.m. to use the restroom again and decided to look for the test strip of paper. I wasn’t leaking then or having contractions, so I just tore a little piece of the strip and pressed it on the wet underwear which I had taken off earlier and left on the bathroom floor. It turned purple immediately! DARN IT! I really didn’t want to start labor this way.  Ugh, I guess I have to call Jane. I checked my prenatal information folder from Jane, my midwife, to see if I had to call her…yes, I did, so I did. She told me to get some rest since I still wasn’t having contractions and to call her when I awoke. I knew my clock was ticking - I was disappointed - my labor last time was so long that I wasn’t sure if I’d give birth within the safe time frame of my water breaking this time in order to not have to be transported for birth. I so much wanted to have a homebirth again. [It was so weird…all the ladies in 
my childbirth class who’d had their babies already had all started their labors with their water breaking in the middle of the night!]

I woke up and called Jane. Still, I was not having any contractions that I could feel, though I was aware of my uterus contracting. She called the back up obstetrician to consult about my water breaking and his on-call schedule…he said, "Y’all go and have a wonderful home birth." I had until 6 a.m. Wednesday to be in active labor before he wanted me to go in to the hospital.

Paul, my husband, and I spent the morning letting our labor support team (my mom and our friend Ulli, who were to take care of our 3 ½ year old son, Aaron, at our home during labor) and his office know about the impending labor, and kept ourselves busy with things around the house. The day was sunny and quite warm for a December day, approximately 75 degrees or more. What a great day to be in labor - at home - great for walking, etc. 

Jane came over around 1 p.m. while Paul and I were eating pizza for lunch. I still was not having "labor" contractions, but was having regular painless contractions roughly every four minutes which were about a minute long - I had to really stop and think about it, putting my hand on my tummy, and trying to time them as best I could. At 3:00 p.m. Jane and I decided to check my cervix for any progress and get a base line. She confirmed a "hind" leak of amniotic fluid - my forewaters were still intact. My cervix which was at 3 cm dilation. After the check, I started feeling mild contractions - finally Paul and I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood and every fifteen minutes I took drops of black cohosh and blue cohosh to stimulate the labor contractions. At that point, contractions were every 3 minutes for 75 seconds, but were mild enough to walk and talk through with no strong defining starts or stops. Paul and I returned home after the 45 minute walk and spent some "honeymoon" time in our bedroom while listening to the soundtrack from Bolero. It was a sweet romantic time for us. 

Contractions were picking up, so we decided to try to walk again. This time, I only wanted to walk from our driveway to the neighbor’s driveway so that we wouldn’t be far from home. At each contraction, I leaned against Paul’s chest and moaned as he supported me. We walked briskly this time - the contractions were every minute and a 
half or two minutes for 80 - 90 seconds with definite beginnings and endings. When the sun had started to set and we went inside.

I spent a few contractions on the bean bag chair while Paul got himself something to drink and made me a protein shake. I drank the shake and spent a couple more contractions side lying on the bed. While I was on the bed my forewaters broke, Jane checked me again, I was at five centimeters - that was at 6:30 p.m.

Ohhh! Things were really picking up. The contractions really got strong. I couldn’t stay on the bed. As soon as I got up, a big one came. I leaned on Paul and groaned…I really needed him and he was such a wonderful birth partner! I managed to walk the width of the bed and another strong contraction came.  Paul knelt on pillows on the floor, holding me with one arm and bracing himself using the wall with the other arm, while I leaned over him hanging on his neck swaying in deep squats and moaning as the intensity increased. At that point, I told Jane, "This has got to be transition!"  I told Paul between contractions that I understood why women in the hospital would ask for drugs at this point…but I knew I was so close and that I could do it as I had done before in my first homebirth with Aaron. A contraction or two later, Jane asked me if I felt like pushing. I said no. Then Jane suggested that Paul and I get in the shower as water can be soothing. Even though I’m not much of a water person, I decided to do it as I knew a change in position or such can move things along, plus I had friends who bore testimony to the wonders of water during their labors.

We got in the shower, I was shivering - cold?? - I knew that was part of transition.. I asked to have the space heater on.  Paul knelt in the bathtub as he had in our bedroom.  I continued to lean on Paul and sway into a low squat while moaning through the contractions - I positioned myself so that the stream of warm water hit directly on my lower back. Then, I got too hot so we called to Jane to turn off the space heater - Paul said he’d do it, but I couldn’t stand for him to leave me nor did I want him to touch it while he was wet. Then, I felt there was a little more delay between contractions than what I had been experiencing. I had learned that sometimes there is a break between transition and pushing.  Could I be starting the pushing stage? I experienced a contraction that had more pressure in my pelvis…is this a pushing urge? I thought to tell Paul, but didn’t as I wasn’t completely sure of the feeling because I didn’t have the pushing urge with my first child. I felt another contraction like that and since I knew it was the beginning of the pushing stage, but couldn’t articulate it during the contraction, I decided to change the tone of my moaning as to alert my midwife and her assistant. She immediately recognized the change and came rushing to the bathroom. I pushed the lever on the tub so that it would start filling up and asked Paul to move behind me so that I could kneel in the tub. Another contraction came - I felt the urge to push and did. Jane asked me if I was pushing…I managed to say "the baby’s coming" during a contraction. Jane asked if I wanted to stay in the tub or go to the bed. Not wanting a tub birth, I practically flew out of the tub and ran to our bedroom and climbed onto our high king size bed. I had envisioned being in the semi-sitting position for pushing, but when the time came I remained on my hands and knees as I had climbed unto the bed. Jane saw the baby’s head at that time and marveled how I managed to move to the bed and so quickly at that! Paul stood beside Jane behind me and dashed to and fro watching the baby’s birth and checking on me. He was so excited.

One pushing contraction - I felt the "Indian sunburn" burning sensation as the baby crowned and then I felt the baby’s head emerge - I reached through my legs and touched his head and face - I looked down through my legs at him. Jane and Paul said "come on, keep pushing"…Paul had placed his hands under the baby’s armpits…I pushed once more and Paul guided Drew from my womb. I was looking in the mirror of our vanity chest which stood along the wall next to our bed…I could see the baby and feel him come out…I saw his scrotum…that confirmed it…he is Drew! [7:13 p.m.] Paul hadn’t even checked the sex of the baby, but handed him to me through my legs, then assisted me in turning over as I lay Drew on my chest. I held him and attempted to start him nursing as Jane placed a warm blanket over us. Aaron and Mom were in the bedroom greeting Drew just seconds after the birth. What a sweet baby! Aaron was happy his baby brother "came out."

What a beautiful birth! What a beautiful baby boy - so alert with lots of brown wavy hair, big slate blue eyes, a cleft chin, a sweet round head with no molding, long feet, slender hands and lots of vernix. We waited 39 weeks for him with longing and finally here he was in our arms…we’d been in love with him from the beginning! 

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Elizabeth Rain
7 lbs 0 oz 

I went to bed on April 25th disappointed. 

The day had started at 4:07 am with contractions, inconsistent contractions, but the real thing nonetheless.  Just like my labor with Adeline, I had contractions off and on all day.  So by 5 pm, I was ready for the “real” labor to start.  And it didn’t.  I knew baby Eliza would come when she was ready, but we were all excited to finally meet her. So having contractions that didn’t seem to make any progress was quite a let down.  I told myself, “Oh well.  Maybe tomorrow,” and turned off the light. 

Later in the night, a thunderstorm rolled in and it started to pour rain with lots of thunder and lightning.  Adeline woke up a little before 1 o’clock and I went to her room to comfort her.  I sat by her crib until she fell back asleep and then went back to my bed and tried to make myself as comfortable as possible.  I looked at the clock and saw that it was 1:20 am.  I closed my eyes and dozed off. 

Then three things seemed to happen at once:  thunder crashed, the baby jumped, and my eyes flew open.  It was 1:50 am, and suddenly I felt water gushing out of my body.  I jumped up and ran to the bathroom -  well, waddled quickly.  My water really had broken!  I changed into dry clothes and woke up Rob.  He was very groggy and I assume he just wanted to go back to sleep because he kept asking me if I was SURE that this was the real deal.  I said yes, moved to the den, and called Jane. 

I was amazed at how awake Jane sounded at 2 o’clock in the morning.  She talked to me for a while, asked me some questions, talked to me through a contraction, and then said she was on her way to my home.  At this point, the contractions weren’t very intense.  Rob got dressed and we sat in the den timing contractions.  Over the next 30 minutes, the contractions became much stronger, and were about 3 minutes apart. 

Around 2:30 Jane got to the house.  She was calm and quiet. My contractions were increasingly intense. Jane asked me where I wanted to give birth and I told her in my bedroom.  We moved camp into the bedroom and started getting ready.  We tried to be as quiet as possible since Adeline was asleep in the next room.  It felt best to me to sit up perfectly straight.  Jane checked me at one point and laying back during a contraction was incredibly uncomfortable.  So Jane asked if I wanted to sit on the birthing ball.  I decided to give it a try. It was wonderful! Rob sat on the bed behind me with his arms around me, and helped to stabilize the ball. 

Jane’s assistant arrived and while Jane was briefing her,  I felt like I needed to push. I don’t know how long I pushed, maybe 15 minutes. I couldn’t tell if I was making any progress, so at some point I asked if they could see the baby.  Jane told me to reach down and feel the baby’s head. That was wonderful!  So with the next contraction I PUSHED and out came my sweet Eliza Rain! It was 4:56 am. Rob caught her, held her for a moment, and then put her on my chest.  

The rest of the morning is just a happy blur.  What really stands out to me about that morning is how calm and peaceful it was.  I was tired and euphoric, but there’s no way I could have been so at ease anywhere else but at home, in Jane’s good hands. 
         Praise God!  Stacey H.

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