Eve's Treasures™

Our Birthing Journey

Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. ~ Psalms 128:3

Why We Choose Home Birth

We've had the last 3 (UPDATE: make that 5 now!) of our children at home, and it's been great. It should not need to be reiterated that childbirth is a natural God-created process, NOT a medical "problem" to be treated. The same God that put the baby in the womb can see it safely out. Medical emergencies are rare, but when they occur we are greatful for trained medical personel and procedures. Childbirth rarely results in a medical emergency and statistics show home birth to be safer than hospital birth, especially if the mother has given proper care, nutrition, and preparation to her body and baby.

Our first pregnancy ended in a mid-term loss. It began with spotting, then my water broke with much bleeding. It was a horrendous and painful labor. The nurses in the hospital never told me I was losing my baby, I had no idea what was going on, they wouldn't call my doctor. They sent my husband home, left me alone, and I delivered. I hit the call button, they came in and whisked our baby, that I'd only had a quick glance of, away. They only told me, "It was very underdeveloped and had probably been dead a long time, and basically it wasn't a baby. Have a DNC, wait at least 3 months before trying again."

What does this have to do with home births? I determined I was going to educate myself, be prepared, and have the best birth for our next.

Our next 4 were hospital births. For the first, we did the best we knew at the time to be "all natural" - no ultrasound (Dr. said they were too new and unproven); no iv, shave, or enema; no drugs (though they sure offered) and rooming in (after they kept the baby for a short while), but thankfully many of the invasive procedures that are routinely done now were unheard of then. They did really try to push the bottles, told me she'd die if I didn't give her water. I knew better, but was glad to hear the Dr.'s reassurance that I was doing right.

The next two, we went to a different hospital, walked in, delivered in 5 and 3 minutes, baby went directly into my arms and only left them to be placed on the scale as we wheeled by it on the way to my room, and we left within 24 hours.

We determined the next would be born at home, this was such a piece of cake. But we had no access to home birth info back then and moved across state 2 days before my due date, so had her in the hospital, with IV (new Dr. wouldn't take my no for an answer), in a birthing chair, same uneventful experience.

We thought we were done, until God opened our eyes to being "quiverful" minded, that is, open to accepting all the babies He sent, without trying to prevent them.

Next was definately to be a homebirth. Our "quiverful" blessing, everything perfect. Labor was long but not bad in any way, and it was the only labor that began with my water breaking. I was really kind of oblivious. After nearly 60 hours (and phone contacts with our Dr. made during that time), and no real urge to push, we went to the hospital (out of town - we'd NEVER get it this great in our local hospital), in the beginnings of a snow storm, to be checked. He found a breech presentation and uterine exhaustion. Encouraged me to push as continuous as I could, threatened C-sec if I couldn't get her down. I squatted and she came. She died 3 hours later, from a congenital heart problem, nothing that had anything to do with being home, nothing that had anything to do with the long labor, nothing that would have been any different if we'd been in the hospital, nor that could have been known in advance.

That made my husband nervous about trying the next one at home, so back to that same hospital for the next. All the children were there standing around my bed, I was on my side, the Dr. turned his back, everyone was visiting amongst themselves. I said, "The head's here." They looked at me and said, "Oh, we have a baby born." Because it was middle of the night and very cold, he asked us to stay until morning. Same as others, never left my arms except to be measured. Uneventful, #5. Counting? That makes 7 hospital births. Only 2 with ANY kind of problems, and those were nothing that anyone could've done anything about. Again we decided we could've done this at home and not worried about the cold.

Finally, to our first actual home birth! Labor was uneventful, but a little more uncomfortable once we got to transition and pushing, because my water never broke. Levi was born with the waters intact. Then our faith was tested greatly. He didn't breathe for 5 minutes, otherwise he was totally healthy and perfect. We called out to God for his life. And we called our Dr. who was not alarmed and talked us through it. He began breathing well before we cut the cord, and we were grateful to crawl into bed together, rejoice in our blessing, and relax in the goodness of God. (After watching their previous sister be born, some of our girls opted out of this one.)

Our Isaiah (2nd home birth) was our "perfect" home birth. Light labor began about lunch time, while I was out with a bunch of friends for a birthday lunch. I finally told them at the end of the party. Mid-afternoon we had a few couples come over and pray with us, while I labored quietly sitting on the floor. We had planned for 3 female friends and our children to be with us for the birth, 1 friend and our oldest daughter attending, the rest praying, helping with children, and taking care of things in another room.

Our oldest daughter went ahead to lead worship at our church service taking a cell phone (new invention, don't even remember who had one,) with her in case things sped up, and our other attendant went to pick up dinner for her family. I was laboring peacefully in the tub with my husband at my side. I got out of the tub to urinate and my water broke in the toilet. I told my husband I wasn't going anywhere, laid down on the bathroom floor and delivered Isaiah with one push into his daddy's hands, no blood or mess. We tried to call our daughter on the cell phone right before he was born and couldn't get through. The ladies in the other room heard Isaiah. When one called her husband at the restaurant they own, our attendant was driving through and he told her she was too late.

Shekynah's birth was an all nighter. Twinges that "this is it" began, mid-evening, and we called our friend and married daughter around 10 or 10:30. After the great tub experience with Isaiah, I was sure I'd just rest in the tub and perhaps deliver there. This time it got old after a while and I went back to bed. Again, no water breaking yet, so that same discomfort. It did break right before delivery with slight meconium staining. It was weird, there were 3 or 4 births with meconium staining by those we knew locally at that time, that we hadn't seen in any of our previous birth experiences. But there were no respitory problems, and again we were so grateful and so enjoyed being home. The one word I would use to describe home birth is peaceful. The whole atmosphere of the labor, delivery, and especially afterward, when you're ready to relax and crash is totally euphoric.

It would appear that our home births have had more "out of the ordinary things" (what some would call "complications") happen than our hospital births. Still we would never trade our home births. We see them as much more positive experiences than the hospital births. We have the relaxing comfort of our familiar surroundings, and loving support of our family and friends that share all the other aspects of our lives. [Our 2 births since this was written, have both been totally "uneventful", except for the water not breaking - again, though not as "easy" as Isaiah's]

We are in control (being led by the Holy Spirit), rather than someone we don't even or hardly know, and don't know the spiritual beliefs and practices of. We are not subjected to degrading, potentially harmful, or just plain unnecessary or uncomfortable procedures. We don't have to worry about us or baby "catching" anyone else's "germs" or infections, so prevalent in hospitals. We have the privacy of birth being a "family affair", where all of our children can come in and be a part as much as they want, and can create their own bonds with the baby whenever they want with no barriers. My husband and I can snuggle the baby together in bed (with no interruptions, -- OK, at least not by strangers, especially ones wanting to probe you and whomp you), rejoicing over what God has done with our union.

One thing that we VERY STRONGLY STRESS is that PRAYER is a VERY necessary part of homebirth. I think, many times, people are so ingrained with the attitude that, "The Dr. will take care of us," that although they may be praying for the birth ahead of time, etc., they don't abide in continuous prayer during the actual labor and birth (aside from the "Help me God" through the contractions, or in complications.) We need to see that GOD is our Deliverer and put all our trust in Him, and He will see us through. In a homebirth there is less tendancy to think "someone else" will take care of any problems. We must have faith and trust in Him, the Creator and Giver of Life.

In addition to delivering many of our own children at home, I've also been blessed to serve my daughters in their own home births. All of our grandchildren that have been born near us have been delivered into their MeMo's (my) hands. So far that is 3 grandgirls by dd#1, and a grandson and granddaughter by dd#4. I've also been blessed to serve at the home births of several others, including a surprise twins birth.

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