Views on Childbirth - part 8

Read part 7: Blondie's Birth here

Kitty's Birth
Kitty was definitely our surprise baby - in more ways than one! At the beginning of August I came down with some severe back & neck pain which had me laid up for a couple of weeks. I thought that I had just overexerted myself and finally went into the doctor's to see if they could do anything. I was given some prescriptions for the pain & some anti-inflammatory pills. While I was there though I asked if they could give me a pregnancy test just to make sure that we could rule that out. I got the prescriptions filled and went home to take my first round of them. The next morning though I got a call from the doctor's office telling me, "Congratulations, you're pregnant!" I wasn't too sure what to think about that news. At the time Blondie had just barely turned 1! I asked the nurse if I could continue taking the prescriptions that I had been given and after consulting with the doctor was told that I should stop taking them immediately. Well, so much for the pain relief. Thankfully I was able to manage with just Tylenol for a time and then I got better to the point that I didn't need to take anything anymore.

I wanted to see Hugs again for this pregnancy & birth but she informed me that he Stake President had told her that she could not continue to practice midwifery without having her temple recommend taken away until a law was passed to make it officially legal in the state! At this time the midwives had been trying for several years to get a law passed to make the practice of midwifery legal. It was inadvertently made illegal several years previous when some wording had been changed in the Utah law regarding the practice of medicine. So, I decided to see my midwife's partner, Suz, and try to do all I could on my end to help this law get passed. The legislative session in Utah runs from January-March and my baby was due April 23rd. My midwife during this time was continuing to involve herself with birth by working at the Birth Center located in the Salt Lake Valley (she has a RN degree and worked as a Labor & Delivery nurse for years before she became a midwife). Thankfully we were able to get the law passed that year and my midwife was able to attend to me once again starting in the last month of my pregnancy. Kitty's birth was the first birth she attended after the law was passed.

I had my 20 week ultrasound and we elected not to find out the gender again. My mom was scheduled to fly out on Monday, April 18th. She couldn't come until then because she was accompanying some kids for a solo & ensemble festival that was taking place the Saturday before. On that Saturday, April 16th, I was having some fairly regular contractions in the morning and I though that this might be it. I called my parents and my mom was not too happy. Things slowed down though the rest of the day and the contractions pretty much stopped. That evening I gave my midwife a call and let her know what had gone on that day. I told her to be prepared in case things progressed that night.

Well, I ended up getting hardly any sleep at all that night. Around midnight I started having some fairly regular contractions and I knew that this was it. We called Hugs around 5 in the morning - she was grateful that I had called and warned her the night before because she went to bed earlier than she had been planning on. With this birth I spent most of my time laying on my side on the bed trying to get as much rest as I could - I was exhausted from not getting much sleep that night. DH & Hugs got the pool set up and as I got closer to the delivery I got into the water. My water broke once again in the water and then the kids started to wake up. I was a little concerned because we didn't have anyone there to take charge of the kids (my mom was supposed to do that) and I didn't want them to be a distraction to me. Hugs called a fellow midwife to come and be at the birth but she ended up getting to our house just after the baby was born. Hugs said that the last stage of my labor went quicker than she had anticipated. My favorite memory of this birth was Blondie coming in to the room and coming over to me in the pool and just quietly putting her hand on my shoulder. It was such a sweet gesture at that moment of the labor for me.

When I got to the pushing stage I told DH to move to the other side of the pool near Hugs so that he could observe the birth - usually he is at my head supporting me (either physically or emotionally) and he hadn't up to that point really seen the actual birth. I was pushing in a semi-reclined position in the birthing pool. As I felt the burning sensation of my body expanding, I slowed up on the pushing to prevent tearing. I just remember DH being amazed at how the head compresses so that it can fit through the birth canal. Once the head was born my midwife observed what she refers to as a turtle move where the head comes out and then goes back in slightly - this is a sign that the shoulders are stuck. I couldn't believe that this was happening to me again! This time my midwife was prepared for it and was in a better position to help the baby out so she didn't have to jump into the pool again. She was able to help ease the shoulders out and then I brought the baby up to my chest. The baby was quickly wrapped in a blanket and I held it to me keeping the body under the warm water. We sat there for several minutes before I looked to see if it was a boy or a girl. I looked and to my surprise it was another girl!! That whole pregnancy I had been planning on this being a boy! It took us a couple of days to finally decide on a name for her!

Kitty Jane was born around 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning, April 17th. She was 7 lbs 12 ozs, 19" long - so all of my kids so far have been within a pound of each other. My mom was not too happy to hear that she had missed another birth (she has been present for 2 out of the 4 now). DH had to call the primary president to let her know that I would not be able to teach my primary class that morning at 9!

Once again I didn't tear at all and I had a lot of energy immediately after the birth. After Kitty had tried nursing a little and they weighed and measured her, DH took all of the kids downstairs so that the midwives could work on me (my favorite part - uterus massaging). DH had the kids each take a turn holding their new baby sister & taking pictures while this was going on. I then hopped in the shower for a quick wash - as I was getting out of the birthing tub Luke looked at me and said, "Wow, you've got a dirty bum!" It was a funny comment coming from a 4 year old but that's what he noticed - as I'm sure you can imagine the water in the birthing tub gets fairly dirty from the birth & the placenta!

The only thing that I would change about Kitty's birth would have been for her to allow me to get a little more sleep before the labor started & for her not to have gotten stuck (neither of which I had any control over). Blondie & Kitty's births were very similar and the only reason I would call Blondie's birth my favorite is because I felt more rested up for it.

I have been very grateful for my midwife in all of my births and I love her laid back approach to birth - and yet she will quickly step in when the need arises. Kitty ended up having O neg blood so I didn't need a rhogam shot after her birth - and now that homebirth midwives can become licensed in the state, they can carry and administer rhogam themselves without the mother having to go to the hospital after the birth.

We also had a little bit of a roller coaster experience with Kitty a week or two after the birth because my body wasn't producing enough milk. When I took her in for her 2 week appointment she was not back up to her birth weight. Luckily we have an awesome pediatrician who gave me a list of things to do to get my milk production up and had me supplement with some formula in the meantime so that she would start gaining weight. My problem was that I was keeping myself too busy with the older kids and was not focusing enough on the baby. It's amazing how much of a psychological process childbirth & breastfeeding are...