Andrew's Birth
-by Jenny
Hatch. Jenny is the author of A
Mother's Journey.
Andrew in Kindergarten
Leilah asked me to write this story today. It
is a different experience writing this story five
years after the fact than it was right after it
happened.
I had a 45 week pregnancy with my fourth baby
in 1996. I know exactly when the first day of
my last period was and Andrew was born 45 weeks
to the day after that date. However, I also know
when he was conceived, and his gestation from
conception was exactly 42 weeks, because I tend
to ovulate in the third week of my cycle and have
35 day periods. Anyway....
After my third hospital birth in 94, a successful
VBAC that restored my faith in my body, I came
across Laura Shanley's book "Unassisted Childbirth"
at our local library. Laura had signed the book
and I had a feeling that she was a fellow Boulderite,
living in Colorado. I looked in our local phone
book and there she was. I read her book in one
day and that night I was talking to her on the
phone. I told her how great the book was and we
exchanged phone numbers. Reading her book gave
me the confidence to tell my husband that I would
never again birth in a hospital and that if he
wanted to have anymore children with me, we were
doing it at home alone. I do NOT recommend giving
ultimatums to one's spouse. It created untold
stress in our marriage. Rather I believe it is
wisdom to gradually share the truths of self-sufficient
living with one's spouse, and trust that ultimately
the truth will set you free to give birth how
you want.
My husband was supportive of me doing my own
prenatal care. We had worked as Bradley childbirth
teachers for eight years and Paul knew that I
knew more about how to build a healthy child than
any MD. As my pregnancy progressed, I became convinced
that I was having twins- as I was so much larger
than my previous pregnancies, which had all resulted
in babies eight pounds or more. I decided to eat
the twins diet described in Elisabeth Noble's
book Having Twins, which included 150 grams of
protein daily and 4500 calories a day.
I was tandem nursing my one and three year-olds
when I conceived, and decided to cut off my daughter.
She turned four during the pregnancy and I felt
like I was falling to pieces nursing her while
pregnant. She was a really intense nurser from
day one- probably because of her c-section delivery-
and it was not easy to cut her off, but I had
to. I continued to let my son nurse a couple times
a day, and trusted that my high calorie diet and
the focus on protein would protect the baby.
During my first trimester I was VERY tempted
to go get an ultrasound to see if it was twins.
The day that I finally decided to call my MD,
I had a warning dream that made it very clear
that if I had an ultrasound, it would be BAD,
so I did not do it and instead focused on my diet.
About the fourth month I decided to radically
change my diet and switched to a vegan 80% raw
foods diet and used protein drinks to get most
of my protein. I have since become converted to
the Weston Price way of thinking and am doing
my current pregnancy based on the principles of
his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (go
here). I believe my high soy diet contributed
to my baby's thin cord, and my postpartum bleed
that reduced me down to a 4.7 hematocrit after
my UC. I also did not have enough nutrient-dense
foods in my diet, and although I am sure I was
not iron or protein deficient during this pregnancy,
getting those nutrients from supplements and soy
protein may not have been the best choice.
Anyway, I was very disciplined in my diet and
was eating literally all day long. I drank a quart
of fresh juice every day (carrot, celery, parsley,
chard, kale, spinach, and beet tops). I also have
a wheat grinder and used it daily to freshly grind
my grains, beans and seeds to be slow cooked as
hot cereal. I ate organic wheat, rye, kamut, spelt,
oats, barley, flax, sesame as well as aduki, black,
red, white and pinto beans. I felt this variety
would give me a whole range of nutrients and they
tasted great. The rest of the day, I was munching
on fresh organic produce, seeds and sprouts. Every
night I drank a two quart bottle of water with
liquid minerals and sea salt in it. This nighttime
hydrating was essential during our dry hot summer.
I had a great energetic pregnancy, and when my
colostrum came in it was pure white and very liquidy,
like nectar. I wondered if the sticky, thick yellow
colostrum of my other pregnancies was because
of dehydration. My two year old gulped down the
colostrum like milk and loved the taste of it.
I started contractions almost the minute I was
pregnant and continued throughout. Towards the
final weeks I believed I was in labor about a
thousand times. We had the hottest August on record
in Colorado, and I sweated through with no air
conditioning. My husband bought me a pool from
Toys R Us, and every night we would fill it with
tepid water and I would go out on our deck and
lay in it for hours to take the weight off my
body and cool down. I had quite a few people express
fear about our plans to birth alone. We didn't
tell my husband's parents until afterwards, and
my parents really tried to be supportive, but
I know they were scared.
As each day slowly went by I was so ready for
the baby. I was frustrated, because I would sterilize
my bathroom thinking the birth was imminent, then
a few days would go by and I would have to do
it again. I finally got down to the wire and knew
that we were close, I had been having tons of
pubic bone pain- could really feel the ligaments
stretching, and my contractions would come every
night for the last six weeks, regular for five
or six hours every five minutes. This experience
really made me wonder about all the women on bed
rest for "premature" labor, and especially
those who ran to the hospital with the first twinge
and then gave birth to a three pounder after a
"failure to progress" labor.
The day before Andy was born, I went to my chiropractor
and he gave me a good adjustment and an acupuncture
treatment to align everything. He also gave me
a blue and black cohosh tincture to help jump
start labor. I went home and took quite a bit
of the tincture throughout the rest of the day.
(Later I learned that these powerful herbs can
cause a hemorrhage if not gradually used during
the last few weeks of pregnancy). This day of
use was the first time I had ever taken either
herb, and I know they contributed to my short
fast labor, and also the extreme bleeding afterwards.
[Note from Leilah, site editor: go
here for more about the dangers of "naturally"
inducing with black and blue coshosh.]
The morning of Andy's birth Sept. 7, 1996 Paul
and I awoke and made love twice. A steady rhythm
of contractions began and I just knew in my heart
that Andrew was going to be born that morning.
I had visualized a late night six hour labor in
my cad pool. I ended up with a three and a half
hour labor on a cloudy Saturday morning. As I
contracted, I vocalized in a loud AHHHHHH that
easily moved the energy up and out of my uterus
and allowed me to do this labor painlessly and
alone. All of a sudden, I felt like squatting
and Andrew rushed down the birth canal. I felt
him crown in that one major movement! I waited
five minutes and then felt like I should stand
in a standing squat.
As the contraction came on his head slowly emerged
from my body. I called to Paul to come into the
bedroom. He did and surprised said, "That's
a head... it looks funny, oh I know, the water
hasn't broken yet" I asked him to wash his
hands. He asked our older children if they wanted
to watch the baby being born and they said no
they wanted to watch Saturday morning cartoons.
My son Jeff who was two did come in and see Andy
emerge from my body. Later he would go up to the
neighbors and say "Andrew came out of Mom's
butt".
During the final five minutes of the birth I
could feel Andrew doing this back and forth motion
with his shoulders and kicking hard with his feet.
He was so ready to come out and he was trying
to help! Paul came into the bedroom, and I felt
like I should drop down on all fours. As the contraction
started, Andy just slowly emerged completely encased
in the sac. Paul gently caught him. Then the cord
ruptured right by his navel and the sac broke
spilling fluid all over the floor.
Andy was pink and beautiful but he was very floppy,
and was not breathing. I was so surprised as I
had felt him moving seconds before. He just lay
there quietly not moving or anything. I tried
a little finger swipe and puffed a little into
his mouth. Then Paul took him and gave him a blessing
and commanded him to breathe, but nothing happened.
Paul said, "Jen I am in over my head I am
going to call 911". I told him I was not
going to sit there and watch my son die, and supported
him calling for help. I kept working on him, not
really clued into the fact that I was bleeding
my life away- literally gushing blood all over
the floor. I just kept puffing into his mouth
and trying to do a little Heimlich maneuver.
Literally within seconds of Paul calling 911
we heard a pounding on our door. A volunteer fireman
named Shawn who lived a few blocks away from us
had heard the call come in over his radio and
he decided to just come to our house to help rather
than check into the firestation first (which was
also less than a mile away from our home). Shawn
bounded up the stairs after the girls let him
in. I handed Andrew to him and he said he just
"knew what to do" even though he had
never been taught this technique. I call it "Shawn's
suck and spit baby survival system". He put
his mouth over Andrew's mouth and nose and hoovered
him with his own mouth and then spit out the fluid,
which he said was clear, and just a little bit
stuck in his throat. Then he gave Andy three puffs
of air and he opened his eyes. I truly believe
that if Shawn had handed the baby back to me and
left we would have been just fine.
But by the time he got Andy going, half our town's
fire and police departments had shown up at our
little townhouse and Shawn handed the baby off
to the EMT's. They immediately intubated him and
took him to the hospital. I was sitting naked
in my room in a pool of blood, and seven firemen
came into my room to "help" me. They
inserted an IV to my collapsing veins, as I was
going into shock and then brought up this chair
and bumped me down the stairs to the ambulance.
I arrived at our local hospital and spent the
next three days doing all in my power to get myself
and Andrew home. The fact that he and I were both
home by the next Tuesday was a miracle of amazing
proportions. If you want to read the details of
my hospital experience, our adventures with social
services, and our eventual bonding after a very
frustrating beginning, go to my web
site and get my book "A Mother's Journey"
to read about not only these experiences, but
all of the ups and downs of our journey to unassisted
birth. I don't have the time or the gumption to
write it all again.
Andrew weighed 11 pounds 12 ounces, was 23 inches
long, and had a 15 inch head. The fact that I
birthed him with three pushing contractions, no
tears and no perineal damage was an amazing witness
to me of being able to birth in the position I
wanted. I am still committed to UC, despite our
traumas and the harsh treatment by the powers
that be. Even though these past five years have
been a challenge because of the fallout from his
birth (people throwing it in my face and telling
me my life choices were a threat to my children
etc...), I am still determined to birth at home
alone. There is no going back to the hospital
after feeling the freedom of being in control
of my own pregnancy and birth.
I hope that this time things will go well, and
if they don't we will just deal with it. My husband
is again supportive of me doing my own prenatal
care, and we plan to have an educated friend come
over during the labor to help us out if we have
problems after. This is the compromise that both
of us can live with after five years of discussion.
I hope I haven't scared anyone from UC. Andrew's
birth taught me that even with all sorts of physical,
spiritual, and emotional preparation, we have
no guarantees of things going perfectly.
I look at this perfect son and I just feel gladness
now. He is my joy and pride. I have read other
difficult birth stories, and the Mothers always
seem to talk about how that baby is their most
obedient, well behaved and loving child. This
has certainly been the case with my jolly giant.
He has continued to grow at an alarming rate,
passing up his older brother in weight and size.
The loving, peaceable spirit he has brought into
our home has far outweighed any discomfort and
trauma surrounding his birth.
[Another note from Leilah: one way to reduce
trauma in babies is by never cutting the
umbilical cord just after birth.(Jenny didn't,
but this is important to note here.) Meconium,
excess fluids- respiratory problems brought about
by these can be prevented by not forcing the baby
to breathe too soon by cutting the cord. For more
about this by Gloria Lemay, go
here.]
Jenny's children
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