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Mariah Elizabeth Kennedy's Birth

By Sherry Kennedy

It was Thursday morning, February 5, 1998. I was 40 weeks and 3 days into my second pregnancy. I work in my home as a family daycare provider. It was almost 7am and I knew that the children would be arriving soon. I had cut back the number of children I was watching to only two other than my own child. April and Danny came before and after school only, so it was a fun & non-stressful way to make a little extra money. As I sat up in bed that morning I felt the familiar tightening of a contraction. I smiled to myself and got dressed and ready for the children. I had been having contractions on and off for about a month, so I wasn't too concerned about this one. After the children went to school I began timing my contractions out of curiosity, as I did just about every day… I was really ready to have this baby! The contractions were mild & came at 9:50, 10:01 and 10:10. I went about my day as usual, cleaning the house and taking care of my son, Billy. By noon the contractions were slightly stronger, but irregular lasting from five to ten minutes apart. I noticed a change in the contractions at about one O'clock. The contractions changed from very mild to mild/moderate and were more regular coming at about four to five minutes apart. I called my husband to let him know that we had a pattern going, but that it would still be a long time because the contractions were short and mild despite their frequency. I called Amber, my Labor Assistant & Brenda, my midwife to give them progress reports on how I was doing. The children came home from school at 2:20. I gave them an afternoon snack and then we headed for the park across the street. I got onto the swing thinking the back and forth motion might help the baby's head drop a little lower onto my cervix. The baby's head was already very low in my pelvis. I swung for a while, pushed the children on the swings and chased Billy all around the park. I was definitely contracting the whole time we were at the park, but I didn't monitor the contractions at all.

Amber came over during the day to check on my vital signs and the baby's heart rate. Amber palpated the contractions as mild to moderate. She said everything seemed fine and told me to call her if I needed her. The children were picked up at about a quarter to five and I began making dinner for my family, stopping to time contractions as I cooked. My contractions came every three to six minutes and were still mild. I called Amber again, feeling fairly certain these were just Braxon-Hicks contractions again but not wanting to be caught off-guard.

Amber came over again after dinner. At 7:30 p.m., contractions were still coming every 5-10 minutes and the baby was moving a lot. At 8:30 the whole family went for a walk. My contractions soon became more regular and stayed that way, every four minutes lasting at least 60 seconds. I let Amber go home thinking I could rest tonight and maybe have the baby tomorrow, ha, ha! At 11:45 p.m., after a hot bath and a shower, contractions were stronger and finally I had my bloody show. I called Brenda to let her know about the show and she said she'd come as soon as I was sure I was in labor. I still didn't believe that this was really it. Bill and I went to bed. I soon found that I could not get comfortable. My stomach cramped up every few minutes. I tried to ignore it because I wanted to sleep, but when it didn't stop I told Bill to wake up and call Amber and Brenda. Amber showed up shortly, But Brenda, the midwife lived in San Louis Obispo, about an hour away. I was worried now that she might not make it because we could hear a storm starting outside. It was the second of the Big El Nino storms and the wind was howling. It's interesting that the weather was so calm just a few hours before.

Brenda arrived at 12:40 a.m. and found me to be at 6 cm, 100% effaced and at +2 station. Amber and Brenda frantically began setting up for the birth and hoped Brenda's assistant, Mary would make it on time, because the weather was worsening. Bill was very gentle and comforting to me. He held me and stroked my hair. Amber was wonderful too. She applied counter-pressure to my back, which relieved the discomfort. She also massaged my legs and feet to help me relax as I lied on the bed on my side. She applied a hot corn-pillow to my abdomen and I felt completely relaxed. Bill encouraged me to drink grape juice throughout labor and to use the bathroom periodically. At 1:20 a.m. Mary arrived. She helped Brenda with the rest of the setting up and Amber began videotaping. I threw up twice during transition, but was still happy and smiling. So far I hadn't had any pain, just discomfort with the contractions which were very strong. At 2 a.m. Brenda checked me again and found me to be fully dilated. I gave a tiny push and that felt okay. Just as the pushing began the power went out. Everyone rushed to light the candles. I was lying on my side and was fairly comfortable, but my instincts told me to get up. I got onto my hands and knees. I had an urge to push so I did and felt a tremendous release of pressure as the membranes ruptured and there was a huge gush of clear fluid. It only took one more push and the baby's head was almost crowning. I was suddenly aware of a terrible feeling that I was about to tear and for a long time I refused to push at all. The pressure and stretching of my perineum was far more painful than I had expected. Brenda applied hot towels and gently massaged the scar tissue from the epesiotomy of my first birth. (No one warned me ahead of time that scar tissue does not stretch as well as healthy normal tissue does.) Finally, after about an hour, I decided to try a few good pushes despite the pain they caused. I gave a good strong push and felt such burning and pain that I was sure the baby's head must be out.

I was surprised that it was not. The pushing was so painful that I cried out when the contractions came and was very vocal. Brenda had me reach back and feel the baby's head. The bones were overlapping each other so much that I thought to myself that my child was going to be a Clingon, as in Star Trek. On the next contraction I grunted a lot as I pushed. Then I did something totally weird. A strong contraction came, I was on my hands and knees still, and I completely straightened my legs so that my bottom was up in the air and I pushed the baby up and out screaming loudly as the baby's head was born. I didn't have to push the baby's shoulders out. The rest of the baby's body slid out easily. Mariah Elizabeth was finally born after 1 ½ hours of pushing. We had to do some maneuvering to get Mariah onto my chest because the cord was short. Once she stopped crying she latched on and began to nurse. Bill cut the cord after it had stopped pulsating.

Our clock said the time was 2:41a.m, but Brenda recorded the time by her watch as 2:47. Then Amber heard someone say it was quarter to three and somehow wrote the time down in her records as 3:47 a.m. When we got Mariah's birth certificate I went ahead and told them 2:41 a.m. for the time of birth because I was certain that our bedroom clock was accurate. The placenta arrived at 2:47 a.m. without complication. Brenda told Bill to turn on the generator so that she could see the extent of my bleeding, but just then the power came back on. Quickly the candles were blown out. My perineum had withstood the stretching even with the scar tissue, but I had a deep first-degree tear inside my vagina and it needed a few stitches. Bill walked with Mariah while Brenda Stitched me up. Mariah had had her first bowel movement while I was nursing her and delivering the placenta, so I needed a shower because there was tarry black meconium all over me. I got up after being stitched with the intention of going to the bathroom to take a shower, but I stood too quickly and fainted. Brenda and Mary caught me before I hit the floor, but my blood pressure was low and I had lost a lot of blood (an estimated 900 c.c.'s) so they put an oxygen mask on me and had me sit and breathe for a while. Finally I got to take a shower, but Brenda was worried about me and wanted me back in bed as soon as possible. She had me sing to her while I sat on a stool cleaning myself in the shower so she'd know I was all right.

In all of the excitement of having a baby, I forgot to put the plastic shower curtain I had bought on the bed to protect the mattress. The midwives did an excellent job of cleaning up and getting the blood out. It turns out that Hydrogen peroxide works wonders as a cleaning agent. Finally I was tucked into a nice clean bed, with Mariah and Bill where I was told to stay. Billy slept through the whole thing. I had had ringing in my ears since fainting, but after a large glass of grape juice, a bowl of oatmeal and a little rest that went away.

The newborn exam revealed a normal healthy baby girl, weighing 10 lbs. and measuring 21 ¼" with a 14 ½" head circumference. We were surprised she was so big! I even told Brenda to weigh her again and asked her if she was sure the scale was calibrated correctly. She said she had a certificate saying it was calibrated just last month. I was amazed at Mariah's size since until the eighth month my fundus had measured lower than average according to the Obstetrician I had been seeing. Everyone went home at 6 a.m. and we called the De Los Santos family to let them know that my maternity leave had begun. I took three weeks off from daycare to care for Mariah & Billy.

Billy was so happy when he saw the baby that morning. He kept saying, "A baby! A baby!" He's loved his sister since the moment he first saw her and he's very protective of her. It was a wonderful experience and I'm glad we did it this way. I'm convinced that home birth with intermittent fetal monitoring and someone trained to deal with complications is the safest way to have a baby. For more information on natural childbirth, I recommend reading the following books: Birth Reborn by Michel Odont M.D., Childbirth Without Fear by Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, Husband-Coached Childbirth by Dr. Robert Bradley and Birth Rights by Sally Inch. I read more than twenty pregnancy-related books during this pregnancy, but these are some of my favorites having information that you may not be able to find anywhere else.