The Precipitous, Low-Tech, Home Water Birth of a 12 Pound Baby Boy to a 42-year-old Over-weight Woman with High Blood Pressure!

 

-Liz, Arlington

 

Griffin, my fourth child and fourth home birth, was born on April 2nd, after a 2 hour and 12 minute labor.  He was 12 lbs. exactly, born at 38 weeks!  Labor started at 4am with a couple of light contractions which woke me up, accompanied by a trickle of amniotic fluid.  I got up and went to the bathroom, where I had a few more contractions and more trickling.  When I came out of the bathroom, I asked my husband, Nathan, to get up and start filling the tub (which he had luckily already set up in the dining room)...and then called Tammi (my midwife) and my mom, who was coming to be support for our 8- and 4-year-old girls.  I also called my friend and fellow student midwife, who was supposed to come take pictures and assist if needed, but I couldn’t reach her. I went to the living room and sat in my rocking chair on a chux pad...and huge gushes of water started coming out all over the floor, completely by-passing the chux...there was basically a lake forming.  Nathan had to run for the towels...

 

 

Tammi and mom arrived a little before 5am.  Tammi set up her stuff, and mom got the girls up around 5:30.  By then the contractions were getting stronger, with me unable to talk during or even much in between.  I wanted to get in the water, and I think I did just as the girls were getting up.  Soon after, I felt transition-y, with some shaking in my legs. I was sitting upright in the tub, and Nathan got in to help support me.  I must have transitioned into pushing around 5:50-ish...and pushing was really painful and intense. I asked Tammi to check me to make sure I was completely dilated, because it hurt so much it didn't feel right...but she never got a chance, because the baby was coming.  I had an overwhelming urge to push like crazy, and definitely felt a huge ring of fire as he crowned.  His head came out, and then Tammi suggested very firmly that I turn over to hands and knees, to open my pelvis more....little did I know, he had a nuchal hand (hand up around his neck and face) that was making it harder to get him out.  She helped his hand out once I was turned over, and then I pushed out his body into the water, over an intact perineum, at 6:12am.  We were all so surprised and happy to have a boy (after three girls)!  A very fast and furious birth, but once we knew he was 12 lbs, and with a nuchal hand, I understood why pushing was so intense.

 

 

                                        


The third stage, and the immediate postpartum period, didn’t go quite as smoothly as the birth.  The placenta was for some reason really hard to birth...it took 45 minutes, the last 25 minutes of which I was pushing with everything I had.  The placenta turned out to be fairly big, with a nice long plump twisty cord...and with a true knot in the cord!


Then, about an hour after, once I was tucked in bed with my baby, I started getting really dizzy, and almost passed out.  Tammi and Nathan got me flat on my back with my feet up, and I had to really focus to stay present.  Tammi seemed to know just when to call me back each time I started to float away.  After getting catheterized (my full bladder was keeping my uterus from clamping down), and taking a bunch of tinctures and spoonfuls of honey, I started feeling better, but for the whole day I felt woozy if I tried to get up.


What with all this going on, and possibly because the water in the birth tub wasn't quite warm enough, Griffin got chilled...he was 91.3 degrees, and it took him the entire day to get up to a normal temperature, keeping him skin to skin on me with blankets and a heating pad over him.  He wouldn't latch on to the breast despite repeated attempts...until he was 12 hours old exactly.  I think he was just really sleepy from the fast birth, and trying to conserve body heat from being cold…or perhaps just not interested yet. After two days of very minimal nursing, he became a pro on day three when my milk came in.  The delay in latching worried me a bit, as all my other babies latched on within minutes, but it did not seem to be a problem for him at all.


I am very proud to say that this baby was never exposed to any ultrasound, either by Doppler or sonogram, and that I never had a single vaginal exam or any other unwanted intervention...a very low-tech pregnancy and birth.  I am also very happy that Griffin got every last drop of his cord blood.  We didn’t cut the cord until three hours after the birth, so I am sure he received the life-long benefits of getting all the blood he was supposed to get. 

 

 

 

Although I'm an old pro (emphasis on "old") at giving birth, this pregnancy and postpartum presented some challenges...but it was an extremely joyful and wonderful birth.  All the ‘high-risk’ factors listed in the title of this story were non-issues, as my body, the birth process, and just the right amount of help from my midwife worked perfectly together.  I'm so thankful to have had another amazing home birth with excellent support from my midwife, husband, and family. 

                           

 

.

Liz (again), Arlington

The Precipitous, Low-Tech, Home Water Birth of a 12 Pound Baby Boy to a 42-year-old Over-weight Woman with High Blood Pressure!

 

-Liz, Arlington

 

Griffin, my fourth child and fourth home birth, was born on April 2nd, after a 2 hour and 12 minute labor.  He was 12 lbs. exactly, born at 38 weeks!  Labor started at 4am with a couple of light contractions which woke me up, accompanied by a trickle of amniotic fluid.  I got up and went to the bathroom, where I had a few more contractions and more trickling.  When I came out of the bathroom, I asked my husband, Nathan, to get up and start filling the tub (which he had luckily already set up in the dining room)...and then called Tammi (my midwife) and my mom, who was coming to be support for our 8- and 4-year-old girls.  I also called my friend and fellow student midwife, who was supposed to come take pictures and assist if needed, but I couldn’t reach her. I went to the living room and sat in my rocking chair on a chux pad...and huge gushes of water started coming out all over the floor, completely by-passing the chux...there was basically a lake forming.  Nathan had to run for the towels...

 

 

Tammi and mom arrived a little before 5am.  Tammi set up her stuff, and mom got the girls up around 5:30.  By then the contractions were getting stronger, with me unable to talk during or even much in between.  I wanted to get in the water, and I think I did just as the girls were getting up.  Soon after, I felt transition-y, with some shaking in my legs. I was sitting upright in the tub, and Nathan got in to help support me.  I must have transitioned into pushing around 5:50-ish...and pushing was really painful and intense. I asked Tammi to check me to make sure I was completely dilated, because it hurt so much it didn't feel right...but she never got a chance, because the baby was coming.  I had an overwhelming urge to push like crazy, and definitely felt a huge ring of fire as he crowned.  His head came out, and then Tammi suggested very firmly that I turn over to hands and knees, to open my pelvis more....little did I know, he had a nuchal hand (hand up around his neck and face) that was making it harder to get him out.  She helped his hand out once I was turned over, and then I pushed out his body into the water, over an intact perineum, at 6:12am.  We were all so surprised and happy to have a boy (after three girls)!  A very fast and furious birth, but once we knew he was 12 lbs, and with a nuchal hand, I understood why pushing was so intense.

 

 

                                        


The third stage, and the immediate postpartum period, didn’t go quite as smoothly as the birth.  The placenta was for some reason really hard to birth...it took 45 minutes, the last 25 minutes of which I was pushing with everything I had.  The placenta turned out to be fairly big, with a nice long plump twisty cord...and with a true knot in the cord!


Then, about an hour after, once I was tucked in bed with my baby, I started getting really dizzy, and almost passed out.  Tammi and Nathan got me flat on my back with my feet up, and I had to really focus to stay present.  Tammi seemed to know just when to call me back each time I started to float away.  After getting catheterized (my full bladder was keeping my uterus from clamping down), and taking a bunch of tinctures and spoonfuls of honey, I started feeling better, but for the whole day I felt woozy if I tried to get up.


What with all this going on, and possibly because the water in the birth tub wasn't quite warm enough, Griffin got chilled...he was 91.3 degrees, and it took him the entire day to get up to a normal temperature, keeping him skin to skin on me with blankets and a heating pad over him.  He wouldn't latch on to the breast despite repeated attempts...until he was 12 hours old exactly.  I think he was just really sleepy from the fast birth, and trying to conserve body heat from being cold…or perhaps just not interested yet. After two days of very minimal nursing, he became a pro on day three when my milk came in.  The delay in latching worried me a bit, as all my other babies latched on within minutes, but it did not seem to be a problem for him at all.


I am very proud to say that this baby was never exposed to any ultrasound, either by Doppler or sonogram, and that I never had a single vaginal exam or any other unwanted intervention...a very low-tech pregnancy and birth.  I am also very happy that Griffin got every last drop of his cord blood.  We didn’t cut the cord until three hours after the birth, so I am sure he received the life-long benefits of getting all the blood he was supposed to get. 

 

 

 

Although I'm an old pro (emphasis on "old") at giving birth, this pregnancy and postpartum presented some challenges...but it was an extremely joyful and wonderful birth.  All the ‘high-risk’ factors listed in the title of this story were non-issues, as my body, the birth process, and just the right amount of help from my midwife worked perfectly together.  I'm so thankful to have had another amazing home birth with excellent support from my midwife, husband, and family. 

                           

 

.