Lindsay’s Birth Story
by her mother, Carla

This story begins well before the birth. Initially, we had decided to have the baby in the hospital with the same practice that we used for our daughter Fiona. However, it became obvious that we were not happy, and we decided to transfer our care to the Greenhouse. I felt so relieved. The midwives were much more personal and caring, as well as more proactive. I was concerned about having another pre-term baby. Kip suggested supplements based on some recent studies while the ob/gyns just said that they’d check my cervix at a certain point to see how things looked.

Things went fine until we realized that what we were feeling under my right rib really might be a head, not a bottom as I had been hoping. We scheduled an ultrasound at 36 weeks and found out that the baby was in the frank breech position. Since our first daughter was born at 34 weeks, we were very nervous about the position, even though most babies turn in time. We tried every non-invasive method that we could think of to turn the baby, I was taking homeopathics, pointing a laser pointer at my little toe, and spending 20 minutes a day with my head and knees on the floor, bottom in the air. One night we even held a light to my lower belly and directed music down there. The baby didn‘t turn.

GHBC does not do breech births, and apparently neither do ob/gyns due to the results of a 2000 study, which supports the premise that c-sections are safer for mothers and babies with breech presentation. We were told that it is a liability issue since malpractice insurance doesn’t cover vaginal breech deliveries anymore. Many people I know would rather have a c-section than go through natural labor, and feel that it is safer. I, however, had terrible fears about a caesarean birth; I had visions of a baby that didn’t breathe or worse. I wondered who would take care of my 2 ½-year-old daughter while I recovered. We don’t have the kind of support system that would take care of us. My personal mantra became “turn, baby, turn!”

Kip tried to do a gentle “midwife” version, but couldn‘t get the baby‘s bottom out of my pelvis. We read a book about breech births that the GHBC loaned us that discussed the risks of breech births and various delivery techniques. The book was written by a midwife and was supportive of vaginal breech births as being safer than c-sections under certain conditions and with an experienced practitioner. I should mention that I witnessed the birth of my nephew who was in the frank breech position at a birth center and that there were no complications. The midwife was experienced in breech births and was confident that she could handle any circumstances that arose. I am thankful to my sister that she asked me to be there; seeing that beautiful birth no doubt influenced our decision.

Week 37 was a roller coaster. The baby still hadn’t turned and we consulted on Monday with an ob/gyn about the possibility of doing a hospital version. She didn’t sound very hopeful, saying that she has a 60% success rate (national average according to what I found on the internet), with less success with babies that have been in the same position for awhile (like our baby) and those with anterior placenta (like ours). My husband Jeff had an especially bad feeling about how the baby and I would endure the procedure. We decided to wait and explore our options before scheduling the version, although we felt like we didn’t have any really good choices. We felt abandoned. We tried to find the midwife that delivered my nephew and found that she has relocated out of state. We researched “The Farm” through their website and contemplated leaving the state to have our baby.

On Tuesday of Week 37, Kip referred us to Pat Kramer and Rosalyn Tulip, lay midwives based near Ann Arbor who do home births and have experience with breech births. I talked to Pat on Tuesday and arranged to meet with her and Rosalyn the next afternoon. We met with them and were incredibly impressed by these two wonderful women. They discussed potential complications with breech births and how they would be handled. We all decided that we felt comfortable with a home birth with them attending if the baby didn’t turn. Pat attempted another gentle version but concluded that the baby was happy where she was. We set up an appointment for a prenatal home visit on Friday.
We felt incredibly relieved and grateful that they would take us on so late in the pregnancy. We decided not to mention our decision to most of our acquaintance.

The next day, I talked with the nurse of the doctor that we’ve consulted with to let them know that we wouldn’t be scheduling the version. She was terribly concerned about the risks of a home breech birth. I called my husband in tears. Jeff was no doubt wishing that I hadn’t called them, since the conversation had only worried me. That afternoon, I had my last prenatal appointment at the Greenhouse. Both Kip and Clarice made it clear to me that they were supportive of a home birth in this situation and I felt a lot better. They loaned us the Greenhouse’s birthing tub. They gave me herbs for the bath and a peri bottle, all of which we’d been looking for all over town but hadn’t been able to find. Late that night, I found the 2000 study on the Internet and read it. It was sobering, but there are obvious issues with the study and my gut feeling was still that a home birth with experienced attendants was our best option.

Pat and Roz came by on Friday for the home visit. We looked through the house and discussed potential locations for the birth. We decided that either our bedroom or the baby’s room would work best. We discussed the additional supplies that we’d need and various details. That weekend Jeff got the hose and fittings to fill the tub and we were “ready.” I spent the week wrapping up things at work. Pat did a pre-natal check on Tuesday; all seemed fine. The contractions that had came and went the week before disappeared. On Friday, my day off (week 38), I gathered the birth supplies in the baby’s room and washed windows. I started to feel that I was really ready for this baby, but I had no contractions.

Later that night, as I was getting up from my daughter’s bed after she’d fallen asleep, I felt a pop and realized within the next few minutes that yes, it was my water breaking. It was 9:15 p.m. My husband was out for a walk. I called the midwives and Kelly, the woman who agreed to be our childcare support person. At that point I’d had one contraction. Pat and I decided that I would call back in an hour to let her know how things were going. I asked Kelly to come at 11 p.m. so she wouldn’t have to get up in the night and could take care of Fiona if she wakened. I thought that the baby would likely be born around 4 a.m. or so at the earliest. I took a shower. Jeff came back from his walk, and I told him the news. We were both surprised. We started moving the birthing supplies, but I soon needed to lie down.

I tried to listen to my hypnobirthing CDs, but all I could hear was the crinkling of the tarp under the birthing tub as Jeff tried to fill it. This labor felt much more painful than my first, and I had more difficulty relaxing. I blamed myself for not practicing the hypnobirthing CDs enough. I asked Jeff how the tub filling was going; I thought that the water might help the discomfort. My husband had discovered that the fitting he’d bought Sunday didn’t fit. Quite tactlessly, I exclaimed, “you didn’t check it?!” He rigged up the hose with some duct tape, which worked . . . for a while. I heard swearing at one point when my husband realized that it had failed and water was flooding the bathroom. Jeff then started filling up the tub with a 5-gallon bucket, a slow process with a 120-gallon tub.

At 10:15 p.m., I yelled for Jeff, who couldn’t hear much of anything over the sound of running water, to help me get up to use toilet. I panicked when I realized that I was in transition. I was trembling, cold, and starting to feel “pushy.“ The midwives were over an hour’s drive away, meaning that ideally the midwives needed to be on the road an hour before (although I hadn’t even felt a contraction then). Jeff called the midwives. They questioned whether or not they really needed to come right then...no doubt it seemed highly implausible that it was going this fast. I was terrified. It was not the plan to have a breech birth at home, unassisted by experienced midwives. It could all be going terribly wrong. I went back to bed; Jeff continued to fill up tub. Kelly arrived, right when we asked.

At some point after that I realized that it was going to be way too late for the tub. I called Jeff, frantic, but he couldn’t hear because of the running water. Finally I screamed loud enough, luckily Fiona who is in the next room, didn’t wake up. Forget the tub, I needed him. He finally heard me, caressed my back and spoke to me gently. It made my skin crawl, “don’t touch me!“ He backed away, and I panicked, “don’t leave me.“ It was all too much. I was really scared and told him that the baby was coming. I couldn’t help pushing, although I didn’t want to push until the midwives were there. I felt the baby moving down.

I asked Jeff to call a midwife. Jeff called Rosalyn on her cell. She was near Webberville. Jeff gave me the phone, and Roz told me that if I felt like pushing, and it was going that fast, it was ok ...not to augment the pushing but that following the natural urge was all right. I cried that the baby was coming and I needed her with me. My husband was thinking that we shouldn’t have given back the book on breech births that GBC loaned us, since it had descriptions of techniques for breech births in it. It was looking like he might be the only one there to catch the baby.

Jeff stayed on the phone with Roz and directed her down the road. She sprinted into the house at about 11:45 p.m. When she finally arrived, she was bemused at my “fancy underwear,” which were the disposable incontinent underwear suggested by Kip. She waited for a resting spot in between contractions to remove them, but there weren’t any at this point. She reminded me to breathe, which I’d been forgetting to do. She told me that I was so relaxed (really???!!). I told her that the underwear would tear off, but she was not able to tear the side that I was lying on. I was unable to articulate that I was now afraid that the baby would be born unassisted in the underwear because the baby is coming.... NOW. I wanted to say that the baby was crowning but I knew that couldn’t be the correct term so I actually said nothing (!?!) for awhile, except that shouldn’t she check (in retrospect, she perhaps thought that I meant a cervix check, which we were way beyond needing at that point). I finally managed to say “I’m stretching around the baby.... my perineum is stretching around the baby” or something like that. I was on my side and needed to raise my leg to let the baby through; my leg cramped and Roz massaged it and offered support. I wondered if she realized that the baby was coming...I wished that I could talk to her about this fact but I was apparently unable to discuss it.

Sometime around midnight Pat arrived. She let me know she was there, and seemed to understand that the baby was coming. She went in and out of the room, asking for supplies, which somehow were mostly still in the baby’s room. Jeff was so focused on the tub that he had forgotten to bring them in. Pat was asking where the bulb syringe was and I was telling her that it should be on the dresser, but if not, it might be in the baby’s room in the crib in a brown paper bag (thank goodness I’d collected everything earlier that day). The shower curtain (to cover the bed) was still on the dresser, but I was obviously not getting up so it could be placed. “Where are the receiving blankets?” “Gosh, I know I set a stack in the crib, not sure where they are now“.... all this discussion as I felt the baby’s bottom pushing through...NOT quite as I had envisioned it.

Jeff had initially asked Roz if he should abandon the tub and she’d told him “oh, no, keep filling.” At midnight, however, he helped collect supplies. Pat said that since I was almost ready, Jeff should get behind me on the bed and they should turn me to a better position. Strangely enough, this position was lying on my back with my heels and bottom on the edge of the bed. Jeff was behind me, very close, talking to me gently. Somehow we moved into position and the underwear was finally off and they told us “she (the baby) looks good.” Pat told me that the baby would be born with the next push.... I was so relieved. It was happening! The baby was alive! Everyone was there!

With the next contraction I felt the baby’s body gently slip out, and with another gentle push she was born! Pat placed the baby on my belly (short cord) and I saw the top of her head, all pink and covered with brown hair. Soft cries, then she was quiet and looking all around, moving. I was so relieved, I cannot express...the baby was alive and seemed fine. She was breathing, moving, pink! Jeff was there, looking, reassuring, in wonder.

Pat wrote down the time: 12:15 a.m.; assessed the APGAR: 10 and 10! Maybe she should get extra points for breech and homebirth--14!! Kelly came by to say that Fiona had woken up with the baby’s first cries and had asked to see her baby sister. Sure! She toddled in, all smiles and wonderment. She got into bed next to us and petted the baby’s little head. Then Fiona noticed the meconium everywhere. “Mama pooped in the bed? Ha, ha, mama pooped in the bed!” The midwives so nicely cleaned up a bit and noted that somehow the carpet and bed had largely been spared. Pat brewed an herbal bath. We visited, took pictures, and picked a name. Pat reminded me that the placenta would be coming soon--35 minutes had gone by (!)...it did, minutes later.

Kelly got me a bowl of cereal with milk--fabulous! I took an herbal bath with the baby in the big, deep tub--wonderful. Baby liked it, kicked, and straightened out her poor little legs (so funny looking from being breech--sticking straight out from her hips). She nursed like a pro. At 2 a.m. or so, Roz and Pat, and then Kelly, went home. Jeff put Fiona to bed, and we tried to sleep but were too excited to get much rest. We were indescribably grateful. The next day was rough because Jeff needed to clean up the mess and try to watch Fiona after little sleep, while I stayed in bed with the baby.

I would like to add that although the last weeks of my pregnancy and the birth were often tense, we are infinitely grateful to the midwives and staff at the GBC. Although we were disappointed that we were not able to birth at GBC, it is hard to imagine that we would have had the same information and choices available to us if we had chosen another local health care provider. In spite of all our worry, Lindsay was in a fine position to be born, and it was a beautiful birth. We are thankful every day for this birth.