Talking on the phone in early labour..I did a alot of phone talking during the whole thing. My aunt out West was on the line and heard Little L being born. I spoke to her just seconds after he made his grand entrance..
I woke up at 4:30am on Jan 10 with contractions. I decided to time them so I got up to watch TV, and my husband got up with me. We watched a movie on the dish and my contractions were a steady 5 min apart. It felt so much different than the first time I gave birth because this time i was feeling alot of rectal pressure with each contraction..that never happend with my oldest. Right at 6am I paged my midwives, who came over at 7am. We soon found out that I was 6 cm, and about 80%. By that time the contractions were getting painful and I got down on my hands and knee's for them. My midwife applied pressure to my hips dureing contraction's wich helped with the pressure. My midwives left at 8am to give me some alone time with my husband, and they promised to call in one hour. When they called at 9am, the pressure had gotten alot worse, and it was hard to stay quite dureing one, and I asked my midwives to come back to the house. I walked around my house and talked on the phone alot, and my midwife was amazing. No matter where she was in the house if I had a contraction she was there in a heart beat to remind me to breath and relax my body. My husband; who I love dearly is no help when I'm in labour, and spent his time cleaning the house. Although he did take a trip to McDonalds when I asked for a Big Mac. By 20 to 12 my contractions were 1 minute apart and very painful. It took me a really long time to eat my big mac, and the fries ended up getting cold. My midwife joked that I would make a great commercial for them ; Women in labour still has time for her big mac; LOL.
At 1, my midwife checked me and I had made no progress, I was still 6cm, so I decided to go ahead and let her break my water. She warned me that once my waters were broken things would happen very fast and it would get be very painful...She was not kidding. My contractions hurt so much that I yelled, screamed and cried, and I only had about 30 seconds between them. The pressure to push was amazing. I had never had the pressure with my my first born. The next time my midwife checked me I was told I could push. I went from 6-10 cm in about 30 minutes. I was so happy that I could push, and it took only 4 times to get my little man born. Between pushes 1-2 I was able to reach down and feel his head crowning. With push number 3 his head came out. I could see his head out of me, and also see and feel his feet kicking me on the inside. I yelled at my husband to look at my belly cause it was so neat to feel my baby on the inside as well as the outside.
My midwife told me he would be born with the next push so be ready to hold him, well I pushed as hard as I could with push #4, and as soon as his shoulders came out he was put up onto my chest. It was so beautiful. He was so little I just knew that he would weigh less than my first son. He ended up weighing in at 6lbs 8oz. His length at 51 cm, his chest, head, and abdomen all at 34 cm. He was born at home in his big brothers bedroom at 1:43 in the afternoon :-)
Having a home birth was the best choice I ever made. The more I compare my two childrens births, the more I feel cheated with my first one. That is something I will have to work on..
Home birth is safe
Going to the hospital is 4-6 times more dangerous then giving birth at home. Every University study done has reflected this fact. Home birth is safer! Truely it is! :) Why? Because doctors interfere with birth, they do not help it. They make mistakes, use medications never approved for use in labor (for example potocin is used to start labor even though the PDR says it is not meant for that purpose!) Hospitals are full of germs. The C Section rate for a hospital is over 30% and for a homebirth it is less then 2%. The fear-tension response that women experience in the cold unfamiliar setting of a hospital creates pain and a longer labor. The average homebirth is 6 hours while a hospital is usually double that. Pregnancy is not a disease! It is as natural as breathing. Does it hurt to breath? Then Preganancy shouldn't hurt either. Really! Are bodies were meant to do this. This is the most basic of biological events.
