Joshua's Birth Story

 

Joshua’s Birth Story

I always knew I wanted to birth my babies at home, although I always assumed it would be with a midwife. But we were in Japan when I became pregnant with my first, and I had a hard time finding a midwife. Finally I did, though. She was 78 and had been a mw for 51 years, and had attended over 3,000 births!! Anyway, when she ordered a blood test, she found out I am rh-, and she freaked out! She refused to attend my birth then, and told me to go to the hospital! (RH- is extremely uncommon in Japan, so they aren't really well-informed about it~ she told me my baby would need a blood transfusion immediately upon birth!!)

I am not anti-hospital, but I was not convinced that I needed to go to one just because of this. So, I did some research, and I found some info on unassisted birth. I was intrigued! I thought Fabio would totally veto the idea, but he was really cool with it! Shocked me!

I took really good care of myself during the pregnancy & did everything I could to ensure a happy & easy birth. I was so sure I'd pop the baby out in a few hours and bounce back to normal in a week or so. LOL!! What can I say? I'm an optimist by nature!!

We planned a private couples birth, but my mom was going to fly in *after* the baby was born to help us out. But the timing of things like that is hard to plan!

I had SEVERAL convincing "false alarms". Contractions would be just a few minutes apart, for hours at a time, very strong and steady. Every time I was just *sure* that this was it, but then it would stop! This happened over about a two week period.

Well, turns out God knew what I needed better than I did, (shock!) because only 1 hour after my mom got to our house, I started having contractions again. It was Wednesday night. It wasn't the first time, though, so I didn't want to get my hopes up. But I prayed that baby would come by morning, or else that the contractions would stop now!

Around 4am I woke up Fabio, since things were still going strong. He was great! Very supportive and gentle. Around 6am, mom woke up and found out I was in labor. She made me carrot juice that really hit the spot!

Around 10pm, contractions got really long, like almost 3 minutes each, with only about 15-30 sec between them. Fabio prayed that baby would come by noon, but noon came and went, and still no baby. Ugh. Then a little after 1pm, the contractions slowed WAY down, almost to a stop!! I couldn't believe it! Was all that *another* false alarm? But, I knew my body needed rest, so I tried to rest, and eat some to keep up my strength.

Around 7pm, things got back into full swing. Good! Surely by midnight, I thought!

Around midnight, contractions changed to being "pushy", then around 1am, I felt that first almighty urge to push! I did, and my water broke. It nearly flooded the living room! I couldn't believe how much water there was! I remember thinking at that point for the first time, "So this must be the real thing!!" LOL I pushed my brains out for the next 2.5 hours. I thought it would never end!

Around 2:30am, baby's head crowned, and I thought with every push, that it would be the last one. But they just kept coming. He was *finally* born around 3:20, nearly an hour after crowning. Talk about that ring of fire lasting forever!!!

When he was finally born, he stuck his hand out first. His hand was what had been holding things up! He had his arm in the birth canal with his head. Ouch! After that, his head came out, although I still had to push for each little tiny centimeter that came out. I was squatting/kneeling when I had him, leaning on a stool which I gripped with all my might with every push.

Well, besides his arm (nuchal hand), it also took a long time because he was eleven pounds! Big head too. The main thing that kept me going was that God kept bringing to my mind that verse from Isaiah 66:9 "Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?" says the Lord. "Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?" I held on to that promise!

The placenta flopped out about 10 minutes after Joshua was born - yeah! Something easy about his birth. (the only thing!)

I was SO weak! I nearly passed out every time I tried to stand up for the first few days. I couldn't even hold Joshua while standing until he was about 4 days old. Recovery was long, way longer than I imagined it would be.

Then I realized how God knew just how much I needed to have my mom there! She was so wonderful during and after the birth! I think Fabio would have been freaking out if it weren't for her, because it was taking so long (about 30 hours total). She was so calming.

Well, nothing went as I thought, but everything went so well too! With such a big baby, he needed that long of a labor to be able to maneuver himself through my pelvis without getting stuck, etc. I was so thankful to be home~ I know I would have had all sorts of things done to me in the hospital, including most likely a c-section, since he was so big and was taking so long. I was also glad not to have anyone poking or prodding or bugging me!

I hope to have all future blessings that come to us this way too, except that this time I will be sure to invite my mom for the birth too! LOL Just hope the next ones wont be quite so big, nor take so long, and will keep their hands down at their sides!!

Just thought I would say too, though, that it was all worth it and God used the whole experience to teach us so much! I wouldn't take it back for anything, although I wouldn't volunteer to go through it exactly like that again either!! 

Here I am with Joshua, at about 2 months old: 

Elizabeth