The Birth of Novy - 5/5/02

At 34 years of age and 8 years of marriage, Neil and I decided to have a baby. We were very fortunate that I conceived easily, and the adventure began.

I knew before I even became pregnant that I wanted a homebirth. In my college years, I had looked into becoming a midwife, but the hours were not for me. I enjoy sleep and predictability too much. I searched on the Internet for midwives in our area and interviewed Jan. Neil and I were very comfortable with her, so the relationship began.

My pregnancy was uneventful - fortunately. I had some nausea and tiredness in the first trimester, felt good in the second trimester, and like a whale in the third. In the last month, I had lots of practice contractions that just felt like bad cramps.

At 1:15 am on May 5th, my water broke. I was actually angry, as I had wanted my membranes to stay intact until active labor so I could have the extra cushioning effect on my cervix during contractions. I put a towel on the mattress and went back to sleep. I did not wake Neil. I knew he would be excited and nervous and never let me sleep. I know my midwife had wanted me to call her, but getting up and calling would have fully wakened me and I would never have gotten back to sleep. I knew I would have a long day ahead of me; the call could wait.

Around 6:30 am, I started getting contractions every 15 minutes; by 9 am they were 7 minutes apart, so I called Jan. I went back to bed for a nap at 10 am. Jan arrived at 11:30. I ate a little and moved around the house. At 2 pm, we went for a walk in the yard, and at 2:30 I was 6 cms dilated and in active labor. I used a labor pool Jan provided for about 2 hours. The pool really helped; I lay over the side and slept between contractions. During the contractions, I tried to keep very relaxed so that my uterus would not be working against other muscles. I did pretty well at this, and Jan kept an eye on me too and reminded me to relax.My husband asked me what a contraction felt like. For me, the best analogy was that it was like a leg cramp (Charlie Horse) in my uterus.

At 5:30 pm, I was fully dilated and 100% effaced - it was time to push. Toward the end of my pregnancy, Jan had checked me internally to make sure my pelvis had enough room for the head. She noticed that I had very strong and tight pelvic floor muscles and a very tight perineum. She told me at that time that I would probably need to push hard during the pushing stage. She was right on the mark with that comment.

In the beginning of the pushing stage, I did not know the correct way to push, and did not put as much effort into each push as I should have. I tried many different positions: in and out of the labor pool, standing, squatting, all fours, on the birth stool, on the toilet. After a while, the midwives determined that the baby's head was not flexed quite correctly and was having trouble getting thru the pelvis. They asked me if I would be willing to walk up and own our staircase. I was not thrilled with the idea, but knew that whatever they asked of me was for the best. After 4 trips up and down (very slowly), the baby's head was positioned correctly. The pushing effort began again.

When the top of the head was at the opening of my vagina, the asked me to lie on my back for a bit so they could work on my perineal tightness with compresses and massage. [Jan: This position is sometimes helpful in bringing a baby thought the pelvis when other positions fail.] Neil and the midwive's apprentice Lucky helped support my legs while Jan and her partner Helen worked on my perineum and I pushed. We all worked long and hard, but I still remained tight and only the very top of the baby's head would emerge and then stop. I did not feel it, but Jan said that an internal band inside the opening of my vagina snapped, finally giving room for the baby' head.

The baby's heart rate had been good throughout the 5 hours of pushing, but then I heard a heart rate of 80 and Jan saying they may have to perform an episiotomy if the baby could not get out soon. [Jan: The baby's head was fully through the pelvic bones at that point & had been crowning for over half an hour, & Janna's tissues were stretching V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y] When I heard that, I told myself that the baby was coming out no matter what. I felt pressure from the head on my urethra, so I pressed there while Jan and Helen held the sides and bottom of the opening. I gave it everything I had, which was more that I would expect after 5 hours of pushing. [Jan: I did not perform an episiotomy, although this situation is a legitimate indication for one.] During the second contraction after the low heart rate, her head made it out! They say her eyes were wide open. After another push, her shoulders came out and she was on my belly with towels rubbing her dry and a cap on her head. It was 11:07 pm.

They suctioned some mucus out of her mouth and nose, and she lay there contentedly, with just a little whimper. Her head was a little bruised from all the pushing against my perineum, and she was covered with meconium from the long pushing time (This made for fewer diapers in the early days!) She was 7 lbs 11 oz , 20 ¸ inches long and beautiful.

The placenta came out 20 minutes later, but because my uterus was fatigued from all that pushing, it was not contracting down as it should have, and there was more bleeding than normal. I was given some medication and my uterus was manually compressed to make it contract, and all was fine. Unbelievably, there was no tearing of the birth canal!Novy was put to my breast and suckled for a little while; I was in awe.

I was little light-headed, so I slept upstairs with Novy on the futon where she was born, while Neil slept on the floor next to us. It was 2:30 am when we finally settled down. Jan stayed the night to make sure I was OK.I cannot say that I slept much. I could not stop looking at her - it was all so surreal.

While you are pregnant, you know that a baby will be coming out, but you have no idea what he/she will look like or be like. I am so happy that we had a homebirth. We were all a team working together on the birth. I felt so supported and loved during the whole process. Novy has never been away fro