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Samuel Dennison Smith

Born: March 27, 1996 5:24 am
7 lb. 4 oz, 21 inches

First, I must say how wonderful it was to read these stories in the weeks prior to Sam's arrival. They taught me that no two births are the same and that any I should throw any pre-conceived (no pun intended) notions out the window! Also, that no matter how I got there, the end result would most certainly be worth it...and it was!

When we found out we were expecting our first child, my husband Dennis and I sought the assistance of a well known duo of midwives in the area and proceeded to have a normal and healthy pregnancy. (Aside from 12 weeks of puking...it was cake!) At 40 weeks, I had gained only 21 lb. and felt great.

My due date of 3/23 passed uneventfully and I went back to work on Monday morning. On Tuesday night, the 26th, Dennis and I attended our birth class dealing with fathering and circumcision. Everyone was excited for us...we were the next birth to occur in the practice and the anticipation was tremendous. The class was long (2 1/2 hours) and for the last hour, I couldn't get comfortable. I was glad to be leaving at 9:30 and I remember telling my midwife that I didn't feel like my baby was ready to be born for a while and I'd probably see her at next weeks class. Ha!

When we arrived at home, I was still feeling uncomfortable and decided to just give up and crawl in bed around 10:15. At midnight, I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed my lower back ached...almost like I was starting my period. I went back to bed. As I tried to go back to sleep, I realized that my back pain was coming in waves. I woke Dennis up and told him I thought things were starting but that I'd give it another half hour before I called the midwife. I told him to stay in bed and sleep. He stayed in bed...but he didn't sleep!

After a half hour of pacing, I called Melissa at 12:40 am. She instructed me to go back to bed. My contractions were coming every 5 minutes (still in my back) and pacing was just wasting my energy for the long haul ahead. For the next hour and a half, I would doze for about five minutes, then pop out and lean on the bed, squeezing Dennis' hand through each contraction...(sometimes banging my head against the wall!). When I was spending more time out of bed than I was dozing, we decided to call Melissa again. It was 2:30. She listened to me have a contraction and told me to call back in a half hour. We called back ten minutes later when I had a bloody show and I felt like things were getting too intense to handle. (At this point they were coming every 2 minutes and lasting for around 45 seconds.)

I remember feeling so relieved when I heard Melissa's soothing voice. She arrived at 3:10 to find I was already at 7 cm! She called her partner and assistant and for the next half hour she scrambled to get set up. The contractions were so incredible. Dennis could feel the muscles rippling up and down my back. Melissa kept telling me to let the pain wash off my body...to let go. I started doing something she called 'toning', where I attempted to utter a constant noise throughout an entire contraction. When she heard me start losing control of that noise, she checked me and found I was fully dilated. It was 3:45. She told Dennis to call her partner again with instructions to "high tail it over here!".

Melissa said I could start pushing. I did this while sitting propped up in bed with my knees drawn up, but I didn't feel like it was productive. I needed gravity. When Susan and Carol arrived, they helped me into a squatting position next to the bed, with Dennis sitting behind me providing a shelf for my arms. Carol sat cross legged in front of me and Melissa laid on her side with a pen light to check my progress.

Carol kept telling me I was a powerful woman...that the pain would get worse, but it would be over soon. The energy was so great, I felt almost like we were one person. Pushing made me an active participant in the birth rather than having to just endure the pain. During each push, I would concentrate on pushing in the correct place (not on my rectum)...but I felt like I wasn't making any progress. Everyone encouraged me to push three times during a contraction, but by the second push, I was ready to pass out from holding my breath for so long!. After a few sips of warm honey and salt water and a reassuring peak to see the quarter sized portion of the baby's head, I felt a little better.

After an hour and a half, Sam was born with one push. (I was supposed to transform one push into many small grunting pushes...but my body and mind didn't coordinate and out he came!) My perineum ripped a bit...but didn't need stitches to heal. Sam pooped as he came out and cried almost immediately.

Being at home was truly wonderful. I knew I could trust my body to do all that it needed in order to birth a baby. The support and quiet strength I took from my husband and attendants is hard to describe. Sam's birth couldn't have been more perfect.

Beth in Vermont