Birthing at Home Kept Me Intervention Free

Three months ago I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy daughter at home. To this day, I look back and wonder about the moments when, had I been laboring in a hospital, interventions or assistance would have been encouraged. It's a possibility that those suggestions could have been orders, that action must be taken to protect or potentially save my child.

There could have been an entire series of interventions I may have encountered had I labored and delivered my daughter in a hospital.

I could have had an intravenous drip, been ordered a cesarean section, I could have torn (I did not tear), I could have been given Pitocin to encourage the speed and intensity of contractions, or have been assisted by either vacuum or forceps. It is highly likely that I would have experienced one of those interventions, if not several.

However, none of these interventions took place at my home birth. And I credit my completely natural, unassisted birth to birthing at home.

Being in an uncomfortable environment unproductively alters labor, from lengthening it's progress to stopping it altogether. Your mind as well as your body needs to be able to feel moments of relaxation and rest. In order for this to take place a laboring woman must instinctively trust she is safe.

There is a fear woman have of feeling pain during childbirth. And it is a scarey thing. It's good to acknowledge that fear. That is part of the process. You shouldn't try to get away from the fact that you will feel pain, because you will, no matter how strong or tough you are. Birthing a child is an incredibly hard thing to do. Unless you have given birth, you cannot imagine the intensity of contractions.

However, too many woman have heard horror stories about the inability to handle that pain, and they've heard it from women who have had children! This is not good. A pregnant woman is sensitive; in a valunerable state of mind. Pregnant women should be shielded from negative stories. They should hear empowering ones instead.

There is also a mass perception that birth is dangerous. Television shows and movies depict labor and delivery as a rushed, scream fest. How then, could the average woman expect to relax?

The ability to be able to rest your mind and body comes down to creating an environment that you feel comfortable relaxing in. For me, that place was at my home. I realized soon into my journey that I was going to need to find a way to conserve energy. The best thing I could do was be quiet and still, even to sleep. (which I did, sometimes for just five minutes at a time) between my contractions.

Eric and I strung Christmas lights in our living room and bought candles. The nights became my favorite part of the three day birth journey. Darkness was soothing. So was water. I took several baths during my labor. The warmth and weightlessness made my contractions feel easier to handle. On the third night, the morning I gave birth to Ella, I got much needed sleep in the bathtub. It was the only place at that point where I could have done that, easing the pain just enough to drift off.

My labor was rather long, at just over 24 hours. Doctors and nurses don't care too much for long deliveries these days. The rational average of delivery time in hospitals before the introduction of intervention has moved down from 24 hours, to just 12. Lets face it, births are exhausting for all parties present. Why not move things along, for instance, by encouraging stronger contractions for a shorter delivery with Pitocin? Or, for an even faster delivery, schedule a C-Section.

I was awake most of Sunday night, and all of Monday and Tuesday before giving birth on Wednesday morning at 9:28. I had eaten very little on Tuesday, so my midwife directed my fiance, Eric, to make me a protein smoothie in order to keep my blood sugar level from dropping too low. I drank a smoothie at ten o'clock and another in the morning.

(Hypothetical) Intervention #1: IV Drip
The sign of my decreasing energy is the point in which the first intervention would have introduced, an IV drip. Technically, there is nothing wrong with having an IV. The downfalls are how much it restricts movement, the inability to birth in water and the generally inconvenient role it plays in your birth journey. Consider it the ball and chain. It goes where you go.

All seemed to be going perfectly until around four AM. My midwife felt my belly to check on the baby's position and realized she was cock-eyed. In order to help straighten her out, I had to assume an incredibly difficult position to hold for 45 minutes without the guarantee that it would get her back into alignment. The pain was the most intense I had felt so far. I was literally in screaming agony, but I held the position and with the help of homeopathic pellets, it worked!

Intervention #2: Cesarean Section
This depends on whether the doctor or midwife at a hospital would have caught the fact that my baby's head was crooked. Beyond that, whether they would have suggested I hold that position and it's effectiveness without homeopathic remedies. It is highly likely that I could have been ordered an emergency C-Section if not caught soon enough or had the results of positioning failed.

At seven o'clock on Wednesday morning, I was only dilated to 5 cm. This was hard news for me to hear, as I was begining to feel very tired.

What appeared to be a setback turned out as a blessing in disguise. It was in the moments after hearing the news of my lack of progress when I made the final commitment to myself and my baby that I could do it. I thought about what I would do in that moment if I were in a hospital, and my answer was nothing. Realizing this, that I would rather be right where I was, doing the hard work that needed to be done, got me through it.

Intervention #3: Introduce Pitocin along with Epidural OR C-Section
Pitocin is given either to induce labor or strengthen contractions. Generally the strength and intensity of contractions has been reported to be stronger than those without. Given my lack of sleep and overall hours spent laboring, Pitocin would have been a likely suggestion as with pain medication or Cesarean Section.

The urge to push came spontaneously at about 8:45. My midwife checked to find me fully dilated. Ella took almost an hour to make her way down through the birth canal, and when her head did begin to emerge, it took 5 very unique pushes to get her out.

Intervention #4: Vacuum or Forceps
I most likely would have had the least amount of control or say in this final decision or result. Assistance at the end of birth as well as tearing are very common. A doctor may have wanted to help me deliver Ella by sucking her out with a vacuum or grabbing her head with steel forceps. Those methods are enormously unappealing to me. The kind of assistance I needed was guidance and coaching.

I was instructed by my midwife to push gently, a far cry from the usual "purple-faced pushing" depicted on TV and in movies.

#5) Common Result of Vaginal Deliveries in Hospitals: Tearing
"Push cheer leading," definitely would have resulted in the tearing of my perineum. The slow and patient way I was coached to push Ella prevented tearing.

My appetite returned after Ella was born. Eric cooked me eggs, toasted a whole wheat bagel, and poured a big mug of orange juice. I could not have been happier to be in my own home, eating my own food, thinking about how lucky I was to be able to sleep in my own bed that night.

I sat up to see the sunlight shining brightly through the windows, house a buzz of excited voices...phone calls announcing our success and camera clicks. Ella was laying wide-eyed beside me getting measured and inspected.

I had an empowering, natural and safe (a hospital is located less than 10 minutes away) birth because that is what I set out to have. Eric and I researched and planned for months ahead of time. We now believe, not only through study but now personal experience that low-risk, healthy women have a lower chance of risk delivering at home than in a hospital.