Mead's Birth Story
Written by her Daddy, Bill

The car turns a corner and the engine makes one last acceleration. I see lights on in the window as we arrive. The midwives await us inside the Greenhouse Birth Center. We take our time in the parking lot, because we are moving slow. For a few minutes we are simply holding each other. She stands barefoot on the warm asphalt, with the passenger door of our Saturn open. The light from the window and the door silhouettes the embrace from the viewpoint of any nocturnal creatures.

After entering the Birth Center, Karrie breaks for the restroom. She was getting sick, and that had been rare during the pregnancy. This was only since she woke me up.

While we awaited the baby arrival, Karrie was in the large bathtub. Karrie was in it for most of the time, and I was beside it, waiting. Once she entered the birth room, she did not leave it until hours after the baby was born. Some areas in the room that she spent time were in the bed, in the bathroom, and on the birth ball, but the preferred location was in the tub.

The room was a yellowish color from the lamps. It gave a feeling of warmth. The tiles surrounding the tub were a clean, bright white. Hardwood floors glistened as knees and feet slid across them. A woodstove hologram seemed as if from a cabin in the north woods. A door led in from the center, and another one led you outside into the warm, dark night.

Karrie was quite pleasant throughout the birth. She was not bothered by any conversations occurring around her, but any beeping sounds from the personal electronic devices needed to be stopped immediately. Being a school night, the appropriate phone calls had to be made so that both of us would have substitute teachers in our room. I just made the call in the meeting room of the birth center. This plush room was full of pillows and some organic art hung on the wall. A ceiling fan was turning for my benefit, and also the meeting for new mothers or expectant fathers that occurred here earlier in the evening. Here I was pressing little keys on the cell phone, dealing with computer prompts and requests. Something ancient and monumental is occurring two rooms away.

Upon returning to the room, Karrie was relaxed in the tub. This birth tub made the experience totally different, I’m sure, since this was the only place she was truly comfortable, and I was able to help her relax. Only my presence was needed, since it was obvious that the sound of my voice only tensed her. Reassuring words at this point seemed quite out of place. She needed no outside relaxation, since she was well on her own. This would have been totally different, had she not been so prepared. We both spent many weeks in Mary Lawton’s HypnoBirthing class. This facilitated her advanced state of relaxation, and even allowed her to be able to sleep between contractions. She could get through what she called ‘pressure’, and then go to a basic hibernation state where only her nostrils were visible above the water. This state of relaxation was only possible in the water. Outside of the water, her ‘strongest’ contractions occurred, and this was hours before the birth.

As hours passed, and Karrie had been in and out of the tub, I could tell that the birth was getting near. The timing between contractions was increasing. I alerted Dawn, a midwife, that we were getting close. She alerted the other two expert midwives. Soon Kip was in the room. She examined Karrie. Clarice entered. She was knitting. They were all relaxed. We were within 45 minutes of the birth.

I donned my red swimming trunks and entered the tub. I sat at one far end, giving Karrie most of the room. The lukewarm water was comfortable. I was ready.

Twenty minutes passed, the contractions took on a different form. Clarice used a flashlight to observe the underwater events. What is she feeling, I thought. Soon we could see the head. It was only a crescent. Is it a girl’s head or a boy’s? We would soon know.

More and more of the head came out until the head was out. Clarice checked the neck of the baby, to make sure that there were no problems with the cord. Soon the shoulders were out and I was told to pull the baby out. Only the legs were still in. The baby slid out with very little help from me.

Without looking, I lifted the baby up, out of the water, and on the chest of a new mother.

“Is it a boy or girl?”

I had to lift the baby up to see that it was a girl.

We put a hat on the baby. We wrapped her up. I cut the cord. We stayed in the tub until it was time to get in bed and rest. We forgot about the champagne, and had coffee instead.

As Mead was born, the most beautiful sunrise beamed through the window.