A Simple Birth at Home

The Birth of my Seventh Child: Susanna Fern

Our seventh child, Susanna Fern, was born at home at 12:47 a.m. on Friday, December 28th. Our midwives, Gerri and Heather, arrived about 20 minutes after the birth. Oops! We hadn’t called them soon enough. Jeff did confer with them on the phone when the baby was coming out.

On Christmas Day, the mucous plug came out. All day,  I felt an abundance of fetal movement and contractions but there was no pattern. In the evening, Jeff and I watched a good movie at the theater since I had realized this would be our last chance to go out without a baby for about a year. Contractions stopped sometime after we came home from the movie.

On the morning of December 27, I had a midwife appointment. I went by myself because as parents of six children we always had a lot going on and carefully planned our schedule to be efficient. Jeff thought it was a waste of time to go to the appointment because it was an hour drive each way and the midwives were about to come to our house soon for the birth. During my prenatal visits, I repeatedly told our midwifery team composed of Gerri Ryan and Heather LeMaster, “I am boring. I don’t have pregnancy and birth complications.”

They said, as did our family physician, who was our back-up doctor for the birth, “Boring is good.”

We went for a little family hike on the afternoon of the 27^th. At 5:30 p.m. contractions started coming around 11 minutes apart. As the evening wore on, they continued to be 10 to 11 minutes apart but the intensity of the contractions and their duration increased. We had put the five younger children to bed. Rachel (16) wanted to know if we could drive her somewhere the next day at 10 a.m. Jeff told her we weren’t sure “because we don’t know what time Mommy will have the baby.”

Rachel went to bed knowing we were in labor. I decided that since the house was cleaned up and ready for the new baby, we should watch a movie in our living room. We watched it but I missed parts during contractions and when I went to the bathroom. Every time I went to the bathroom, I had a big contraction. Jeff wanted me to change my clothes so that I wouldn’t have the baby in overalls. I put on my nightgown, bathrobe, and bunny slippers to warm my cold feet.

Jeff turned off the movie and timed a few contractions, so he could call our midwives with information. The contractions were only about ten minutes apart. He called Gerri and asked her to come. I was lying on the living room floor and my body started shaking. I thought to myself, oh no, transition. I called out “now, now, now.” Gerri told me later that she did hear me say that in the background.

After I finished shaking, I moved to the sofa and lay down on it. I liked my ambiance with the gas parlor stove on and the lights low. I asked Jeff to come push on my lower back to apply counter pressure while I had a contraction. The counter pressure felt good but I could feel the pressure helping the amniotic sac coming down and out. I said, “My water’s going to break on the sofa.” Jeff got rags to clean up the sofa and I rolled onto the floor. A few minutes later, I crawled because that is what felt right, down the hallway and through our bedroom to our bathroom. Jeff woke up the five older children. Lydia (2 and ½) stayed asleep in her crib.

I was on my hands and knees on the bathroom floor waiting for the baby to arrive. We realized the midwives would not make it. We hadn’t called them soon enough. I did a little bit of instinctive blowing. I was in the open knee chest position. Ted (13) held the phone for Jeff. I heard Jeff say on the phone, “she’s already on her hands and knees.” As a Bradley Method^® instructor, Jeff knew all about the dos and don’ts of not having the planned birth attendant at the birth since this is covered in every class series.

He told me to push. I answered, “I’m not good at pushing.”

I had one contraction when the head came out and then went back in. Then I had another contraction and the head came out and the baby crowned. My eyes were closed. I opened them for a moment to peek at our children observing while sitting on our bed. Jeff called the midwives again for support and directions. He had some concern about the cord being wrapped around the neck because two or three of other others babies were born with the cords around the neck. I had full confidence that we would have no complications because our midwives were not in the room to help.

Jeff announced to me that he was observing the fetal Heimlich maneuver and the children also saw it.

Our baby was born into Jeff’s hands. Ted did his job of announcing “it’s a girl.” Elizabeth (7) told us that the clock said 12:47 am for the time of birth. Jeff handed me our baby.

Our newborn nursed almost immediately on both sides. I sat on the floor right where I gave birth and nursed the baby until the midwives arrived. She was and is beautiful. Heather handed Gerri the stethoscope and Gerri told her to put it away. I took that as a sign that Gerri had full confidence, as I did, that we had a healthy newborn. I squatted to deliver the placenta.

We had a lotus birth, meaning the umbilical cord was not cut from the placenta. We kept the whole package together until the umbilicus separated from the placenta at 10:35 p.m. on Dec. 31^st.

I took a shower after the “Golden Hour.” Our baby weighed 9 lb. even and was 21” long. She chose her “due date” for her birthday.

Our midwives cleaned up the fluids on the bathroom floor and put the dirty linens in the washing machine. Gerri did the newborn exam and pronounced our new homebirth baby was healthy.

Rachel, Ted, Sarah (10), Elizabeth, and Seth (5) each took a turn holding their new sister. She had a simple uncomplicated birth.

By 3 a.m. our family of nine were all tucked into bed. Our midwives had returned home. Our fifth daughter was snuggled between us. All was well. In the morning, we named her, Susanna Fern Dean.

Jeff commented later, this was the easy birth “dream birth,” I was planning to have with Lydia but did not. This is the story of the birth of our seventh baby, a beautiful homebirth, the birth story of two Bradley^® instructors.