Birth Story

In August of 2007 after finding out we were pregnant but shouldnt have been (on the pill) we were pretty excited! 3 months into it on October 16 we found out it was a (very rare) molar pregnancy (no baby but everything else) so I had to have surgery to remove it as it can be cancerous! I ended up in the ER again a few weeks later (December 5) with complications and found out it regrew itself (even more rare) so I had to have another surgery. On New Years Eve I ended up in the ER again for what I thought was going to be the same thing again to find out it was kidney stones- so 2 more surgeries that week for the stones. 4 surgeries within 2 months! During all of this I was fired from my job because they did not want to wait for me to return after the health issues were resolved.
We were told by Dr.’s to wait a year before trying to have a baby because of the molar pregnancy had high rates of returning. We decided to get pregnant in February anyway. I knew immediately I did not want another hospital birth after a horribly traumatic experience with my first son 13 years prior (that’s another story)! I educated myself & sought out providers for a home water birth & found Patrice Bobier from Full Circle Midwifery from Hesperia. Jeff still wanted the assurance of a Dr. for backup due to all the issues we had previously. I ended up having some bad pains around 18 weeks & my Dr. told me to goto the birthing center which when I arrived there in pain & tears was very rudely turned away because I was not 20 weeks yet. I went to the Dr’s office & was sent back to the birthing center with a referral & found out it was kidney stones! Thank God the baby was okay!
Well every month- then every weekly appointment at the Dr. there was something wrong (mind you Dr.’s are trained to find something wrong with you). They wanted to send me to the ER in early October for an induction because the amniotic fluid was low- (apparently they don’t know the levels change constantly with baby’s urine & etc.). Well Thank God for my midwives knowing better or I would have been at the mercy of a Dr. and could have had my peanut waay too early with potential of a plethora of other problems arising.
The week he was born – my water broke on that Tuesday evening (November 19) after our appointment with the midwives. On Thursday night it had started to snow so we went for a nice long walk in the early blizzard weather of November. AND the next morning (Friday November 21, 2008) awoke around 6 am to contractions being pretty regular. We called Patrice to let her know we thought the baby was going to be born that day as I knew she was teaching in Traverse City that day and needed her close. Jeffs mom, my mom, and the 3 midwives all arrived around 10-11 am. By that time I was kind of laying folded over on hands & knee’s in our bed Jeff rubbing my back upon each contraction. Around 11:30 Patrice advised me to get into the birthing tub- YAY that was some major relief. Around 1:20 I felt pushing urges- actually started some pushing around 1:50 and at 2:02 they could see some of the baby’s head. (During all of the labor/delivery process I ate & drank as much as I wanted/needed). By 2:39 I was pushing well and at 2:48 baby came shooting out through the water so fast Jeff almost didn’t catch him! We snuggled and nursed for quite awhile then Patrice asked if we wanted to know if it was a boy or girl- we were so happy we forgot about not knowing what he was. After learning he was a boy, they cut the cord, delivered the placenta, I got out & showered off and we all went to OUR bed! So serene, so perfect!!! Praise God!!!