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Jessica Marie Dietz's Birth

At 36 weeks we decided to arrange for a midwife to deliver our baby at home instead of using the OB/hospital we had been planning on. Our first daughter, Dani, had been born in a hospital and while there are no negative feelings about her birth, there were things that could have been done differently things that resulted in a fourth degree tear through the rectum. I thought about just hiring a labor doula and still using the hospital, but decided I really wanted something different for this birth. My doctor (not the same as with my first child we’d moved) was also beginning to treat my pregnancy as an illness even though I’d been told he was the best in the area for a Bradley birth. I was gestationally diabetic with both children. I had it well-controlled throughout both pregnancies but the OB for my second was insisting on more visits/tests and general paranoia than my first and more than was needed. I began thinking about home birth when I was 5-6 months, but Carl (my husband) was not extremely thrilled with the idea. After showing him some of the reading I'd done and interviewing midwives he felt better about the idea.

We enjoyed having Beverly do our last prenatal visits at home. She involved Dani (then 19/20 months old) and Carl in the visits much more than an OB and was really as much of a friend as a health care provider. My due date was Feb 25th. My family was planning on coming down to Texas from Indiana for the birth on the 24th (we have a history of going late in our family). Beverly had suggested taking some herbal supplements and herbal tea in hopes of not going too far over (she wanted to avoid a larger than necessary baby – my first was 9lbs, 3oz). It made me a little nervous about my folks missing my labor especially when I began passing bits of the mucous plug on Feb 16th. On her Feb 19th visit Beverly advised us that I was 3cm dilated and could easily have been stretched to four. She also told us that as soft as I was she expected me to go quickly once I started we may want to encourage my parents to come down early.

My parents started down that night and arrived the afternoon of the 20th. That day I drank 4 cups of an herbal tea to encourage labor. That evening I took a fairly energetic walk while my dad watched Dani. The walk caused some contractions, but they faded after I came back inside. Somewhere between 9 and 10pm I began having some contractions again, but I'd been doing that for several weeks so wasn't sure it was anything to get excited about. As Dad was leaving for the hotel (around 10pm) I had a couple of stronger contractions and warned him that they could get a phone call during the night, but maybe not.

I went to bed while Carl tried to catch up on some work for his employer. I kept having contractions that were strong enough they began waking me up. Around midnight I thought of telling Carl to come to bed and get some rest, but a contraction stopped me from getting up and I fell back asleep after the contraction was over! I did get up at 1am to check on Carl and he was shutting down the computer. Carl went to sleep almost immediately but I kept waking up for contractions which were getting stronger and closer together. Around 2:30am I got up and got Carl's watch to time contractions and crawled back into bed. By about 3am I was uncomfortable in bed so got up and walked to the living room to time them Carl was still blissfully asleep! At 4:30am, after a couple of tough contractions, I decided it was time to call Beverly. The contractions were every 5 minutes and lasting 60 seconds. I then got Carl up and called my parents.

Beverly got there between 5:30 and 6am. After watching me for awhile and taking all my vitals and an internal exam (which I *think* showed 4-5cm dilation I don't remember she did tell me my bag of waters was really bulging) she took a nap (we found out later she’d just delivered someone else at 10:30!). As she headed for the bedroom Beverly suggested we might want to consider filling the labor pool that I would probably want it when I hit 6cm or so. I wasn't feeling that close, but we went ahead and filled it anyway. I should mention that Dani was posterior (no one told us that until it was too late to do anything, anyway) and it was a pretty rough labor ending in pitocin, an epidural and a "stressed" baby that appeared fine at birth. So far this labor had been an entirely different experience. I was able to rest between contractions which hadn't been possible with Dani. It made it much easier to deal with! The rest of the day contractions were about 30-60seconds long and 5-10 minutes apart. We all sat around and talked in between contractions. I walked around the house some, rested hands & knees on a labor ball, sat on the labor ball, leaned on walls, you name it. We sat around the dining table at lunch and enjoyed the homemade vegetable soup Mom had brought down from Indiana. Beverly suggested several times that it was a beautiful day out I may want to go take a walk and then come back in and get in the pool. Even though the pool had been my idea, I didn't feel quite ready I was afraid at this point it may stall labor. Late afternoon I finally went out and walked around the horse pasture where one of our geldings was nice enough to let me lean on his neck. When I came back in contractions really picked up in strength and closeness. Beverly suggested I may want to call the attendant we had arranged to oversee Dani. She also called in the second midwife.

Between 4:30 and 5pm I started feeling like I may need to push. Robin (the second midwife) suggested I go ahead and try with the next contraction and see how it felt. It did feel better so I kept it up. After awhile I felt it was time to get into the pool. After watching me for awhile, Beverly decided to do an internal exam to make sure I didn't have a lip left. It turns out I did, but because of the yet unbroken bag of waters, there was no swelling. Beverly attempted to push the lip back, but I just wasn't pushing effectively. She told me to just breath through the next contraction. It did help. I'd gotten worn out and a little out of control during the exam/lip manipulation and it felt good to breath and relax. I slid further down into the water and let the warmth relax me too. Beverly suggested getting up and going for a walk, but I just laid there. Everyone left Carl and I alone for a little while and I basically dozed between contractions from about 6pm to 8pm. I was really grateful to Beverly for just letting me rest awhile. I'm sure an OB wouldn't have let me!

Around 8pm I felt it was time to leave the pool. I got really chilled while drying off/putting some clothes on and that seemed to trigger stronger contractions. I walked back out to the living room where everyone else was eating the lasagna I'd frozen several days before. I managed to swallow a little of the vegetable soup and a few sips of water while I leaned over the labor ball. Although in better shape than I was a couple of hours before, I was still pretty tired and pretty serious at this point, too. I was also wondering if the 21st was really going to be my child's birthday or not! After awhile I moved from the labor ball to the rocker. Dani was put to bed and her attendant left. As Dani's attendant left, I discovered she'd found out she was pregnant earlier that day. I joked that this was probably not what she needed to see today! Not long after that I began feeling a slight urge to push again. I breathed some and pushed some, I think without really admitting to anyone that I was. Robin was called to another case and there was some discussion on whether she should leave or stay until a replacement got there. They suggested doing an internal, but I was kind of out of it and ignored them completely. Robin went ahead and left. Shortly after that the urge to push got stronger enough that I told Beverly. After a few pushes on the rocker she made me move to the bathroom to empty my bladder. It was about 9:45. The walk there wasn't fun and once there I stayed and pushed. Beverly saw me opening up and asked for a flashlight. She really couldn't see, so asked me to move off the toilet. I leaned over the sink for a couple pushes until she made me squat, Carl behind me on the toilet (I'd intended to squat for the delivery, but just didn't want to move at this point). She started saying how close I was that this baby was just falling out. It didn't seem that way to me and I believe I told her that in a not-so-nice tone!

At about 10pm I started feeling like the baby was having hiccups! I mentioned it to Beverly and she immediately got out the Doppler. She told me the heartrate was really low we needed to get this child out now. She had me listen to the heart tones to emphasize what she was saying. The heart tones corresponded to the "hiccups" I was feeling. She told me later it wasn’t the hiccups, but the child asphyxiating. Beverly insisted I push even between contractions. We're having fun now! I was feeling incredible rectal pressure/pain, but no stinging, stretching sensation I'd been told to expect when I crowned, so I was sure I had a long way ahead I was sure I wasn't going to be able to do this. After a couple more pushes, she moved me to the bed so she could help a little better. At 10:06 after much screaming and pushing on my part, Jessica Marie was born. The cord was wrapped around her neck. It was loose, but had evidently been pinched by her shoulders on the way down the birth canal. The additional midwife arrived a few minutes later.

I never did experience the stinging, stretching sensation just incredible rectal pressure/pain. I didn't even know her head was out until I heard them say something about having the cord out of the way now. She was 10lbs, 2oz! She took a few seconds to cry, which seemed an eternity to me, but was just fine. She required no resuscitation even though Beverly was preparing to do full resuscitation and even had my dad grab the oxygen tank. I was tired enough I could hardly hold on to her and even had trouble positioning her at the breast, but once there, she took off like a champ. The video shows me as a fairly comatose individual at this point (grin)! I did tear a little, but nothing compared to Dani's birth. The anesthetic shots and the stitching were not nearly as bad as I had envisioned. I was surprised how well the stitches felt the next day, as well. What bothered me much more was the tailbone Jessie apparently pushed out of place! A trip to the chiropractor the next week helped that but even after the stitches had quit bothering me, that still bothers me. I stayed on bedrest for 3 days as directed by Beverly, but on the 4th day (Sunday) I got up and went to church and have been up ever since.

I'm glad I decided on a home birth. I know my experience with this birth would have been much different in a hospital. (1) My long, slow labor throughout the day would have been deemed abnormal and probably artificially assisted. (2) Beverly considered breaking the bag of waters while I was in the pool. Later she was glad she didn't she thought it may have put us in a position where the heart tones dropped before I was truly ready to push. As it was I developed a small leak while she was checking the baby just before birth, but the majority of the fluid gushed out after the baby. Artificial rupture probably would have been done in a hospital. (3) Jessie passed some meconium just as she was born. They may have wanted to take her from me in a hospital. Beverly was able to tell, though, that it was done there at the last minute and though it created a mess, Jessie wasn't in anyway compromised. (By the way the midwives did a great job of clean up, which I wasn't expecting). (4) I know I wouldn't have been allowed my "rest" period in the hospital. Between all of the above things I wouldn't wonder if I might have ended up with an emergency c-section. (5) At home, Carl was able to deliver our daughter, to join me in the labor pool, and be perfectly at ease to help me in any way I needed. He was great during the labor/birth of both our daughters, but I think he felt more at ease to be himself during this one. I, for one, liked having him rip his shirt off to take his newborn daughter! (6) I felt (and I think we all did) much more at ease, comfortable and supported in my home. Beverly was great. She was content to let us lead, and yet very knowledgeable and competent when things weren't going quite right. She was there the entire time, watching, supporting, and just being a friend to everyone there. She made the birth an enjoyable experience for everyone. If I do have another child I will want another home birth assisted by a midwife hopefully Beverly!

-jenn
Mom to Dani 6/12/94
& Jessie 2/21/96
dietz@topher.net