For me, there was more to bearing fruit than just finding out I was pregnant
and then changing all my bad habits into good ones.
It was a matter of maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle to ensure the best physical conditions for pregnancy, which, you all know, happens without planning.
Think of a healthy pregnancy as a gardener would his garden.
Sow a seed into the highest quality soil for the best harvest.
(photo taken at 12-1/2 weeks)
The number of women choosing home birth has increased in the past five years.
A recent article explains some understandable reasons why.
During the earliest weeks of pregnancy,
we made a decision based upon the experiences and words of encouragement
from a supportive group of women and mothers
to make a commitment to having the peaceful and intimate experience
of a natural (unmedicated) home-birth.
One friend said, “Whatever floats your boat. That's brave.”
(It does float our boat!)
To us, it was not just a matter of courage,
but of a solid trust in my body
to be able to perform such a mind-blowing physiological phenomenon
without medical intervention/instruction/interference.
I am proud to say I had a peaceful, trouble-free,
deeply gratifying labor and birth.
I was able to labor at my own pace, in the position of my choice, and trust my body to do what it was designed to do.
Chris and I made a birthing plan once we devoted ourselves to have a home-birth
We were believing God for every detail,
even for the pleasant weather we received on the birth day (72˚F and sunny in March!).
In our story, we were sure that we wanted a water-birth because it would be the most secure way for our baby to transition from womb to world.
(next two photos taken at 41 weeks, in stage one labor, on our patio)
After a couple of sunning my back on the patio,
I felt it was time to go upstairs to our bedroom,
where I chose to continue laboring at my bedside.
My midwife arrived shortly thereafter.
She was there to give me encouragement and to soothe me through each abdominal rush (contractions seem to say the opposite of what my body was actually doing,
which was opening up).
It was time to get some pressure of my basketball, I mean my belly, so into the pool I went!
The rushes, the meditative groaning,
and the deep breathing followed for a [fast] hour and a half
until I felt the urge to push.
I looked up from my zone and said,
"When can I push?"
Jen replied softly,
"If you need to push, push!"
What peace!
I knew exactly how hard and how long to push down.
There was quiet encouragement in the background.
I felt a burst of water and then the rushes were coming strong and steady!
Bring on Stage 3, Homies!
Although I asked for direction, I was following my body's cues and signals.
There was no one “telling” me what to do.
It went something like this:
Urge to push...
Push down with support from Chris
(yes he was in that pool with me, giving counter pressure and ready to catch!)...
Breath in deeply and out completely...
Then hang over the pool's edge
While letting go of every last sensational rush to the last degree.
As the baby came closer to the birth canal,
letting go to rest became more laborious,
so the final pushes were closer together.
The transitional stage of moving down
and the crowning of the baby's head
was the fastest most empowering part of labor.
I felt each motion and was falling in love.
Then I felt....hairs. Silky hairs!
I was so excited for the next rush
because I knew it was the final push to birth our little "Mo."
Then it came!
The little slippery-seal body floated away and up into his daddy's arms.
He lay there in Chris’ embrace with eyes open and alert,
almost as if to be ready to speak.
He only made a couple cooing sounds for his first, "Hello."
I turned to see my gleaming husband and fresh baby boy!
A sight unforgettable.
Forever etched into my heart.
We saw that our baby was a boy and named him Ajay Zane.
Umbilical cord still attached,
Ajay made his way into my arms for our first embrace.
His skin was still milky with vernix,
(the lotion-like moisturizer that should be left on the baby’s skin, not washed off).
He did not have his nose and throat suctioned
or have any salve wiped into his eyes.
It's no wonder he didn’t wale and cry.
Skin to skin contact is all that he needed.
“We did it! Our baby is here and he’s healthy and handsome!"
After about five minutes,
the cord finished sending the vital blood it carried for nine months into Ajay’s body.
Chris cut the cord (Go, Mister!!) and Ajay was now independent of the placenta.
I suckled him at my chest to encourage one last rush for the placenta to be delivered.
Once that was free,
Chris and I moved to our bed,
where we watched Ajay take to my breast and nurse.
Let me tell you, I was ever ready for this moment
and the years of breastfeeding to follow.
(I had been offering to nurse my friends' babies since I started lactating on week 19...).
We reveled in this completion of the reproductive cycle.
Frankly, it was pure awesomeness.
Our midwife and doula quietly cleaned up the pool setup
while our little family enjoyed our first hour together
in our own bedroom in our own home.
We will cherish those moments forever.
Telling our family the news!
Peacefully chilling after being measured:
8 pounds 4 ounces, 21-1/2 inches long, and head circumference 14 cm
Only one hour old and already so much to think about
If you're asking yourself where all the "ouchies" and "boo-boo's" in this story are,
there wasn't a single one to speak of.
I'm positive that me soaking in hot water for an hour helped immensely and also
being hands-on for the birth allowed me to work with my body
and make way for the baby's little noggin during each laborious push.
Talk about bonding and totally amazing.
My midwife said that I might feel a little burning for a moment when Ajay's head crowned. There was a slight burn, but again, I added a bit of pressure and that was the end of that. (maybe 5 seconds of burning and then the baby's head was born. Some mom's have been cut down there to "make room" for the head. YIKES!)
Our baby's head was born in about 30 minutes or about 12 pushes.
Some of you have asked how long my labor was.
I'm so glad it was all day working up to the intense stages of labor.
So my total "true" labor was about 6 hours from patio to pool.
I did absolutely no "prenatal care" or doctor visits, and no sonograms either.
In fact, I was 25 weeks pregnant before I ever found my midwife (info at bottom of message).
My care consisted of a couple mandatory PH tests (pee on the strip) to check protein and other levels,
blood pressure checks every so often,
and, of course, I wanted to hear the baby's heart beat every single visit with the doppler.
He had a little techno-beat going for us!
As for the medical stuff that my midwife was "required" to offer us as our "right",
it was an emphatic "No thanks" to the vaccines
(all of them, especially Hep C which is primarily found in IV-drug users)
and "Not for us" to PKU testing (scrape the heel) and Vitamin K shots,
and a "No way" to the eye goopy-junk (that is for people with STD's and is a known carcinogen!).
Other than that, I just got to hang out and talk with my midwife about what I thought labor and birth would be like. We bonded like sisters. She was/is a blessing to us!
**Are you or a loved one experiencing a healthy pregnancy and planning a birth? Please contact me with any inquiries or if you're located in northwest PA, go right to the source:
our wonderful friend and midwife Jen Bozza.
Please check out her new website, [designed by my amazing husband]: caringforwomenmidwifery.com
