The True Story of a Home Birth Turned Car Birth

Taken from my Myspace.

When we decided to become pregnant, my husband and I also decided that the hospital was just not the right place for us to have a baby (so long as everyone was healthy). My reasons - The whole IV, constant monitoring while strapped to the bed thing didn't work too well for me before, psychologically speaking. His reasons - hospitals are places where SICK people go... why subject a healthy woman and baby to possibly getting MRSA? (side note- Ashton caught MRSA from the hospital about 7 months ago - he is over it, thank God) I began my pregnancy by looking into alternative options, which at the time were either the free-standing birth center in Kennewick, or a home birth.

I had my first prenatal appt. at the birth center in Kennewick, didn't really click with the midwife, and learned that the center was going to be closing before my pregnancy was term, then the center midwives would be doing home births only. My Dr. for the past 12 years or so has been a local Naturopath, who also happens to be a midwife (home births only). So, since the birth center was out, I decided to go with her for a home water-birth.

My pregnancy went well, especially when compared to the previous two, no ultra-high blood pressure, yay! At about 34 weeks my Braxton-Hicks contractions became really strong, and I was ordered to bed rest until 37 weeks to prevent pre-term labor. 37 weeks came... and passed, all the while the contractions continued. During my 38 week appointment (which was Christmas Eve) my blood pressure was elevated, but I was dilated to 3. My midwife and I decided to try a form of inducing labor, and to see if my body would go for it. She stretched my cervix from 3 to 6 cm. Sounds painful, but really wasn't that bad. Kendall & I left the appointment and went to the grocery store. I was having pretty hard contractions (although I could still keep up a conversation through them) 3 mins apart. When we got home, we called the midwife. About 15 minutes later she was at our house with her assistant. Then we waited... 5 hours... the contractions were continuing, but no progress was being made. The midwives left to spend the rest of Christmas Eve with their families, and gave me instructions to call if my contractions became any more intense. By the end of the night the contractions were gone.

I spent Christmas grumpy and contracting. I was 6 cm dilated! When was the baby going to come out? Dec 26.... Dec 27.... came and went. We woke up Sunday the 28... no contractions. That morning we decided not to go to church, as Hailey had been sick the day before. We would have been pulling up in the church parking lot at 11:00... which happens to be exactly when my contractions started, and about 30 seconds between them. I had had so many false starts already. These were strong, but I wanted to have them for at least 1/2 hour before calling the midwife. I got in the shower.

I realized that every time I had a contraction I was kneeling down in the shower, because I really couldn't stand through the contractions (they really were not painful, uncomfortable and crampy, but not PAIN). After a 10 minute shower, I got out and asked Kendall to call my parents to get the kids, and let the midwife know that I needed her.

........ This is where the story gets good .......

11:15 - Kendall calls dad, he is on his way. Then he calls the midwife... on her cell, emergency pager, home phone, and office phone... no answers, he left a message on each line. I am down stairs on the couch, hoping that this is not just another false start.

11:45 - Dad shows up to get the kids. I am on the toilet. I feel fine between contractions, but during them I am worried about not knowing where the midwife is, although I am sure that I have hours of labor ahead (after all, I can handle these contractions, they will get much, much worse I am sure) Kendall is continuing to call the midwife every couple of minutes.

12:00 - Kendall is still calling the midwife, I am beginning to feel pretty scared about her not being on her way over. I don't want to be scared, because everything I have read about birth basically says that fear causes tension, which causes pain. And I did not want to have unnecessary pain. When Kendall comes upstairs to check on me, I am trying to lay down in bed, hoping it will slow things down until we can reach the midwife. However, I was finding it nearly impossible to remain laying down through a contraction, being upright was just far more comfortable. This is when I start to think... we are going to have to go to the hospital.

12:15 - When Kendall comes upstairs to check on me, I tell him we need to go to the hospital. Between contractions, we go downstairs. I am on the living room floor having another contraction, and Kendall tries the midwife one last time, telling her we are on our way to Lourde's. While he is leaving this message on all of her phones, I get my shoes on walk out to the car, through the swampy, melting snow mess. (Those of you who have been to my house know that the only thing behind it is dirt... or in this case really deep mud). I can feel another contraction coming on, and really don't want to go hands & knees in the mud... I push through, and get the car door open before collapsing on the front two seats. Kendall gets out to the car about when this contraction ends, and we begin the 10 block drive to Lourde's. About halfway there - aka 30 seconds from my house - I feel a pretty intense pressure, and my water breaks. Damn, I should have put something underneath me! Kendall pulls into the Emergency entrance at Lourde's. I am ripping my pants off... I can feel the head crowning. He runs inside long enough to say "My wife is having a baby in the car" and comes back outside. I have been trying as hard as I can not to push... in fact I am sort of pushing the head with my hand to try to keep it in. Kendall is outside again, and sitting on the door frame on my side. I can keep it together no longer... the head comes out.

12:25 - We both sit there for what feels like minutes, but was probably only 1 or 2 seconds, figuring out what to do. The baby makes a small cry! Not even out yet. Kendall figures all must be well, so tells me to go ahead & push baby out. He maneuvers baby's shoulders just like the midwife told him to (in case of emergency birth, that we of course would not need, b/c the midwife lives about 5 miles from us), and out baby comes, no problem. He hands the baby to me (still fully reclined in the passenger seat) when his phone rings. It is the midwife. She got our messages, and is taking the 4th Street exit right now (which is about a mile from Lourde's), and will be at our house in about 3 minutes.

Suddenly, the Emergency room doors fly open wildly, out fly a few Dr.'s and nurses, with tons of blankets. Someone bounces a gurney off the side of the car. A clearly shaken Dr. approaches me with scissors and says that he needs to cut the cord. I tell him no. I say, "We were going to have a home birth, our midwife just called, she is at our house, we live a few blocks down the street, we are just going to go home." Dr. tells me this can't happen because of the risk of infection to me and the baby. I am well read enough to know that infections are rare when the birth takes place in your family's environment, as you are already used to the bacterias. I know that if they get me out of the car, there will be intravenous antibiotics for me and baby, and 2 days of being stuck at the hospital, not to mention the fact that we would have to pay about $5000 out of pocket before our insurance kicked in (as compared to $1800 for a home birth that was already paid for). I know the Dr. was doing what he felt was right... but the hard part was over, and I was certainly not going to give in now.

Kendall, relieved to know that I was in no mood to be admitted to the hospital, shut my car door, got behind the wheel, and began to back slowly around the Dr's trying to block us in the parking lot. They ask for our names, which we give them through the window, they tell us that they will have to file paperwork to protect the hospital, we tell them that's fine.

We get home just as the midwife is arriving, she cuts the cord and hands baby to Kendall to take inside, then helps me walk back through the swamp, into the house. Then the whole placenta thing happens. Only after that when she asks if we know what we have, do I realize that I still don't know if we have an Audrey or a Kingston. Audrey! We all sit around and look at each other for a few minutes, then try to breastfeed the baby. While baby and I are working on that, Kendall goes outside with the shop-vac to clean the car. Then the cop shows up.

Although the sight of Kendall cleaning blood out of the car was probably a dead give-away, he asks anyway. Were you guys just at the hospital? He was just checking to make sure everything was OK. That we were getting medical attention, and that, no, CPS was not necessary in this case. He talks to K for a bit, and then the midwife. Everything is all cleared up, but I do feel bad that we caused such a stir at the hospital. The poor ER Dr's thought we were completely irrational.

It is a pretty crazy story, but, having done it, I would want it no other way. The look on Kendall's face as he helped his baby into the world was priceless.