Be It Ever So Unclinical, There’s No Place Like Home

I was the first person to hold my daughter upon her emergence into the world. It was a special feeling, one I must share with many of my forebearers several generations back.

The little human opened her eyes and grunted, a statement that said, “Here I am.”

But let me back up about nine months. Upon learning that we were going to have a baby, my wife Amy and I examined our options. Earlier conversations with people and a little bit of research helped us reach the decision to use a midwife. In addition to knowing a couple of midwives, I knew people who had used midwifery services for the birth of their children. I was impressed by what I had learned.

Everything about midwifery seemed grand and as birth should be. In our minds, doctors are for serious ailments and traumas.

Our next decision pertained to location: hospital or home. The only thing in favor of the hospital was that we could get insurance to cover the cost. A typical hospital birth without complications or the need for surgery would run about $5,000. A home birth weighs in at a little over $1,000 and includes postpartum home visits by the midwife, so the new mother can continue to rest.

We would have to pay for a home birth out of our pocket, but with some eight months until the birth, saving the money and paying for the service seemed no problem. So, that little concern about insurance was diminished even more. And there were no other benefits to a hospital delivery to speak of.

Some might ask about the security of being in a hospital where we could get quick medical help if there was an emergency. In our research, we found that the prevalence of intervention in U.S. hospitals (even Spokane statistics) ranked much higher than in home birth figures. The risk of having birth by Caesarean section is greater in a hospital than in laboring at home, encountering a problem and then going to a hospital.

(Although the United States is considered the leader in technology and drug research, our infant mortality rate is much higher than that in a country such as Holland, where home birth is the preferred method. The World Health Organization says 90 percent of all births are normal and need no intervention.)

I have yet to mention routine episiotomies and epidurals, but you can see where this is leading. The cons sealed our decision in stone.

So we next found a midwife to our liking. The prenatal care was outstanding. Her home along the Spokane River is a vista of tranquility. We enjoyed going there for regular visits, starting at about an hour once a month and becoming more frequent until the last month, when they occurred once a week.

We also accepted the service of a doula, a birth support person who provided us with additional information on what to expect from the experience.

When the birth day finally arrived, we were set. We had our list of supplies - towels, receiving blankets, a portable heater, olive oil, a bucket to catch the placenta, pregnant woman, etc. Our spirits were high and we were anxious.

Amy’s contractions had started the night before so we called Tamy, our doula, and she came right over, notwithstanding the hour - 3 a.m.

Amy’s one fear was of being overwhelmed by the pain. Once her cervix started to open, she met that fear and found it was too much of a nuisance in the face of what she had to do.

It hurt more than I’ll ever know as a man, but she faced that pain. Later she commented it took everything she had but that she never felt handling the pain was beyond her abilities.

I took her for walks, held her hand, and made sure she ate to keep her strength up. Linda, our midwife, arrived with her apprentice as Amy’s contractions came on more rapidly.

The moment of truth found Amy giving birth on her knees, supported by Tamy who helped her concentrate.

Amy yelled once or twice. In between she would take small spoons of applesauce or give over to a smile when I would joke with her.

I held little baby Malaika’s head up as it emerged from the birth canal. Her cord was wrapped about her neck and shoulders, but Linda had it off before I blinked twice. In a hospital, this might have made doctors panic, as would the fact that Malaika was born posterior, but there was no sense of panic here in our little apartment.

In this room were the baby’s mother and father and friends. It was a nest where the fatigued and happy mother could rest with her newborn. With the head free, it took one more major push for the shoulders and arms - and what transpired next can be read at the beginning of this little article.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Darryl Caldwell Contributing writer