Missy and Curt Frantz's Homebirth Story
A water birth, but hold your breath for the suspense!

Carla Nicole

born after 7 hours of labor

July 13, 2003 at 8:10am

She weighed 8 pounds and 8 ounces and was 21 inches long

Missy's mother, Joyce Leslie, made the 13 hour drive from her home in Michigan to ours in North Carolina to be with us shortly after the birth but now she would be here for the birth...or so we thought. She stayed with us for ten days taking care of us and our house (laying mulch, gardening, mowing the lawn, vacuuming the house three times, cleaning toilets, scrubbing floors, doing laundry, sewing quilts, cooking meals, cleaning the kitchen, doing some plumbing, running errands, etc.). We took gentle measures to invite labor to start; drinking raspberry tea, taking the herbs blue and black cohosh, nipple stimulation, sexual intimacy, walking, soaking, massages, then finally and most dramatically stripping the membranes between the uterus and the amniotic sac. An internal exam at this point indicated Muffin had backed up to -1 station while Missy's cervix was 75% effaced and 2 cm dilated stretchable to 4 cm.

For days Missy was having contractions while walking (some as close as five minutes apart) but generally they were not strong or regular and they stopped when she was sitting or lying down. We were reluctant to take the next labor-inducing step and do an amniotomy (rupturing the amniotic sac or breaking Missy's waters). That was a large gamble since if labor did not start within 48 hours, we would give up our hopes for a homebirth. On Friday, July 11th, 14 days beyond Muffin's due date, we asked our midwife to perform another internal exam. Muffin was back to +1 station and Missy's cervix was 95% effaced and 4 cm dilated stretchable to 5 cm. It looked as if when labor started, it could go very quickly since so much progress had already been made.

On Saturday, July 12th, it seemed that Missy would go into labor. In the morning, her system purged itself as if preparing for birthing. During the day Missy slept and rested, garnering her strength in anticipation. When it looked as if labor was not imminent, Curt stepped out for a little over an hour to officiate at the wedding of two friends, Tuan Nguyen and Phuong Nguyen. He returned immediately following the ceremony, just after Missy's mom left. Joyce stayed with us as long as she could--she returned home to prepare for another trip, to celebrate her 50th high school class reunion in Iowa. Seven hours after she left our home to return to Michigan, 16 days after Muffin's due date, the first phase of birthing would start.

It Begins
At 1:00AM on Sunday July 13th, Missy thought there might be a pattern to her contractions (which she was having while lying down and which were strong enough to awaken her) and decided to wake Curt and asked him to time the contractions. They were 10 minutes apart. A few hours later, they had closed to 5 minutes. Curt was sleeping through many of them.

Missy: "How long since the last contraction?"

Curt (groggily): "15 minutes."

Missy: "Did you get the two others."

Curt: "Oh, 5 minutes."

At 4:00AM we called our doula. [The word, "doula," comes from the Greek word for the most important female slave or servant in an ancient Greek household, the woman who probably helped the lady of the house through her childbearing. The word has come to refer to "a woman experienced in childbirth who provides continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to the mother before, during and just after childbirth." (Klaus, Kennell and Klaus, Mothering the Mother)]

She suggested we call our midwife and let her know what was happening. Based on Missy's contractions, she indicated she and our doula would be leaving for our house shortly.

By 5:00AM Missy's contractions were collapsing on each other. She was standing during them, leaning on a dresser, Curt stroking her back and legs. They woke their 10-year-old son Eric from a deep sleep and his excitement brought him quickly to full consciousness. Eric had attended Bradley birthing classes with us and now he was putting some of what he learned into practice, helping Missy relax through contractions by stroking, massaging, and encouraging her.

Having contractions on top of each other was difficult for Missy; she decided to enter the birthing tub, which was emptied then filled with fresh water after labor started. The birthing tub is 5 feet in diameter and some 30 inches deep enabling a laboring woman to fully immerse her body in water. The water helps relax a woman through contractions allowing them to be more effective. It also makes her skin more pliable for birthing and its buoyancy lightens her load.

At 5:20AM, Curt called a family friend, Cindi -- who had homebirthed her second daughter and who would be Eric's advocate and caregiver (as needed) during the birthing--to tell her Missy was in heavy labor. Cindi arrived 20 minutes after the call along with our midwife and doula. Between them these women have attended hundreds of births and have personally birthed fifteen babies--most of them homebirths. The full birth party was in place.

Support For The Queen And The Process
Labor's first phase was perfect. Missy was in her bedroom, with low lights and soft music playing, attended by her son and husband and three experienced, loving, supportive, encouraging friends. Cindi would later write of this time, "Missy is GLOWING! A floating Queen who is extremely focused, peaceful, and ready. I am so proud of her tears come to my eyes." Independent of Cindi's comments, Missy later said she felt like a queen with everyone listening to and helping her meet her wants and needs. She felt her power. What she requested was immediately given her: "Don't touch my stomach," "hold me like that again," "press on my knees," "water please."

Eric was bringing Missy cold water to drink and frozen grapes in case she wanted to snack. Curt was massaging her forehead, shoulders and back. The three wise women waited and watched, honoring the process as it unfolded. They offered inspiring words of encouragement, they gently helped with a touch, or a suggestion for a position, relaxation technique, or way for Curt or Eric to touch or hold Missy. They were in the background flowing support and energy that raised and strengthened Missy. They also took pictures and video, offloading that responsibility from Curt.

The atmosphere was relaxed, calming, loving and empowering. Missy was occasionally moved to laughter in the midst of her laboring. Some insights and comments were humorous; one from Curt went over the line. Complimented by Cindi for the good support he was providing Missy, he cracked, "Yeah, I'm doing all the work here." The room got quiet and the women exchanged sideways looks at each other. Leave it to Curt to create a pregnant moment on a pregnant moment.

As the labor progressed, Curt and Eric entered the birthing tub with Missy to give her even more support; Curt holding and caressing her from behind and Eric using massage and acupressure points to help Missy relax through contractions. After two hours in the tub, our midwife suggested Missy step out and see how the contractions were out of the water. The contractions immediately collapsed back on each other. After three contractions, they went back in the tub. The contractions spaced again...but not for long.

"This Baby Is Being Born!"
At about 7:00AM, Curt asked if the first internal check could be done. Midwives in general tend to minimize performing internal exams, as they are an invasion of a woman's most private space at a most delicate time. On Missy's request, the midwife measured the opening of her cervix at 8.5 cm. By 7:20AM, the contractions, even in the tub, were back to back. Our midwife suggested the urge to push might come soon. Twenty minutes later, Missy left the tub for a bathroom break. When she re-entered the water, she had the urge to push. Curt and Eric followed her lead and supported her in sometimes squatting and sometimes sitting back positions. Eric donned the goggles he had placed nearby and dove underwater to have a closer look at labor's progression. The women in attendance, homeschoolers in heart if not in practice, proclaimed this was the ultimate homeschooling experience.

Though she had not eaten in ten hours, Missy threw up, which our doula self-protectively caught in a bowl. Our midwife indicated that was a sign the baby was passing through the cervix.

The second phase of labor, the pushing phase was barely thirty minutes long but very intense. Early on, our midwife made a comment that Missy found to be a source of strength throughout this phase. She said, "Just think, soon you'll be able to lay around all day and nurse your baby." Missy focused all her incredible strength and energy into powerful pushes. The atmosphere electrified. Her voice, quiet, confident and determined throughout the first phase of labor, rose in volume and pitch. After several pushes, it began to lose its sense of confidence and became somewhat frantic: "What's happening? What's going on?" our midwife was now in position to help Eric catch Muffin. Her calming voice temporarily quieted Missy, "Everything is fine. Keep doing what you're doing." The confidence in Missy's voice returned for a few pushes, then: "I'm losing it. I'm losing control!" our midwife got Missy's attention then assertively and lovingly told her, "You are not in control. This baby is in control. This baby is being born."

A couple of pushes later, only a dozen or so pushes and thirty minutes into labor's second stage--Cara's head began to emerge. Eric, giddy and positioned for the catch squealed, "Everything's going perfect. I see her head! She's almost here! She's almost here!" He asked our midwife where the baby's face was and she calmly stated that she was facing down but her face was not yet out. Missy was still struggling and somewhat frantic. Our doula leaned in and stroked Missy's arm, "Let your baby move down. You can feel her." Missy placed her hands on Cara's head, and then slid them to her perineum. Our midwife encouraged her, "I like what you're doing with your hands."

Missy sought reassurance, "Are we almost there?" Eric responded excitedly, "Very close, very close Mom. Oh, I see her little ears!" Missy found that cute but her voice indicated she couldn't enjoy it, "It's burning." "Let it stretch," was her's response that soothed her till the next push.

"Aaarrrrggghh!" Missy groaned, "Is she moving? I think she's stuck! She's not going anywhere!" our midwife went on heightened alert, looking for signs of distress in the baby while keeping her voice calm and encouraging: "Her head is almost out." Then it was. Our doula noticed the liquid expelled from Muffin's mouth was clear, no meconium (the tar like substance unborn babies have in their lower intestinal track). Our midwife saw the tub water was turning dark, indicating the amniotic sac had ruptured and that it contained meconium. Its presence was a sign of baby distress. Cara might have been stuck and the pushes to get her out had been stressing her. Between pushes Missy cried out, "Who's moving her?" our midwife replied, "No one is touching her, she's moving herself."

As the next urge to push rose, our midwife commanded in a firm voice, "Push Missy!" Again Missy bore down, groaned, then cried, "What's going on?" our midwife calmly replied, "Her shoulders."

Missy pushed again and Cara Nicole Frantz was born at 8:10AM while Maurice Ravel's Bolero played softly. Missy reached down to bring the baby up to her chest from Eric and the midwife then she called out with a hint of terror in her voice, "Her cord broke!" our midwife immediately pinched the cord stub closed and asked our doula for a clamp--"quick, quick"--which she used to stop the bleeding. "Light please", she found the switch and lit the room. Eric leaned in and announced, "It's a sister!" our midwife monitored Cara's vital signs while Missy, moving back from fear to overflowing with joy, held her. Curt, still behind and being a chair for Missy, pleaded, "Let's hear some crying. We need a cry. Cry Cara. Come on and cry baby." Cara was quiet. Pale from losing blood. Not obviously breathing. She lost her oxygen pipeline before her lungs had a chance to assume that responsibility. Our midwife suctioned her nose and mouth then Cara made a soft cry and we all exhaled.

Our midwife, who had respected Missy's need to hold her baby immediately after birthing and who had found a strong heartbeat, reached out and asked in a calming voice to Missy, "May I have the baby for a moment?" Missy handed over Cara, who was now making little crying noises and gasping. She laid Cara beneath us beside the tub and rubbed and oxygenated her with a CPR pump and mask placed over her nose and mouth. Within a minute, Cara's vital signs were all good and she was coughing, grunting, and crying, though still not loudly. She was back in mommy's arms while we were still in the tub. Eric noticed the reddish brown water we were in and remarked, "This water's yucky and I don't even care." Weeks earlier he had said he would bolt from the tub if the water got messy.

We moved from the tub to the bed where Missy kept a tube flowing oxygen near Cara's face for a couple of minutes as she rubbed her and they cuddled.

It seemed the fundamental problem was that the umbilical cord was an extremely short one, perhaps twelve inches long (one third to one half the normal length) and had probably begun to weaken due to its age. Though Curt had his heart in his throat for about a minute, wanting to hear a loud cry instead of whimpers, Missy felt relief the pushing was over and complete confidence that our midwife would address any problems Cara was having. She later laughed that while working on Cara, she looked up and saw six anxious eyes looking down on them.

After Cara was born, the rest of the morning was a blur, a jumble of overwhelming emotions. It would be three hours before we started calling family and friends. Our midwife, doula, and our friend Cindi stayed at our home--though with a very low-key presence--until it was clear that the new expanded family was doing well. They gave us time alone, cleaned up the birthing bedroom, and started the laundry.

Cara Nicole Frantz weighed 8 lbs, 8 oz and measured 21 inches long. She began nursing within twenty minutes of birth. At birth, Cara had an especially cone shaped head, we guess because she sat so low in Missy for so long and perhaps because of being somewhat stuck during birth and pressed by Missy's powerful pushes. The newborn cap kept sliding off her pointy-head.

Thirty minutes after Cara was born, the placenta--the "afterbirth"--was passed. Eric was concerned that it was placed in the same bowl into which Missy had wretched. He was assured the bowl had been cleaned.

Missy had a couple small birthing tears the largest of which our midwife closed with two stitches. It is rather rare for a woman who births in water to have any tears but our midwife thought that this particular birth would have caused a larger tear. Eric held a flashlight for her as she performed the stitching.

Sitting on our bed, holding Cara on his lap for the first time, Eric beamed at his little sister. Our doula asked him how he was feeling. Eric continued smiling and shook his head, "It's nothing I can describe. It's beyond words. More than I could have expected. If I went through it again, it would still be more than I could have expected." Wise words from one so young.

Our birthing music soundtrack consisted of over eleven hours of classical music and soft music of the last 40 years (including music by artists such as Celine Dion, John Denver, The Carpenters, Lionel Richie, Kenny Rogers, Air Supply, and Bread). The songs were being played in random order. Cara's birth song, Ravel's Bolero, was appropriate. Bolero was the music used in the 1979 movie "10" starring Bo Derek. The music was appropriate because Cara is perfect to us. An hour after the birth, another especially moving piece played, Faith Hill's Breathe. Hill's longing calls for her loved one to "just breathe" stirred Curt to embrace Missy and Cara--and cry.

Within two hours of birthing, ebullient Missy was carrying Cara downstairs and outside for a birthing party photo. The next day Cara visited with our friends at White Tiger Taekwondo. People fawned over the day old baby as well as marveling at the mother who looked supremely comfortable and happy. It makes one wonder if postpartum depression is caused or worsened at least in part by a birthing process that robs the mother of her womanhood. The honoring of her womanhood and the empowerment that this birthing experience provided for Missy were complete.

The day of and after her birth, Cara had difficulty being moved between people or just having her position shifted. We initially chalked it up to having a hard time with transitions (she seemed reluctant to transition from the womb to the external world). Then we realized she was probably just very sore from the birth experience and being moved aggravated that soreness. This dislike of being moved disappeared within a couple of days.

During her first day, Cara had three states: sleeping, crying, or nursing. The voice that most calmed her in her crying state was that of her big brother Eric. By the second day she had recovered enough from her birthing ordeal that she added a fourth state, alert and mellow. When Missy's milk arrived in the morning of day three, the nursing state seemed to become Cara's favorite. The guidelines for breastfeeding babies are that they are expected to lose weight in the first few days after birth while they are only getting colostrum from nursing. This special milk is low in volume and fat, and high in carbohydrates, protein, and antibodies to help keep the baby healthy. Nursing babies are expected to regain their birth weight by their second week then to gain an ounce a day. By her fourth day, Cara had gained half a pound over her birth weight strictly from breastnurturing.

What if it were a planned hospital birth?
Had we gone the typical route of an OB/Gyn hospital planned birth; it would almost be a certainty that Missy would have been induced at two weeks past her due date. Missy's body and/or the baby may have been delaying labor for critically important, but unrecognized, reasons. It's unlikely any need for additional delay would have been honored. When administering Pitocin to induce labor, a woman is largely immobilized and connected to a monitor. She becomes a patient with a medical condition and the loci of attention shifts to the hospital staff and what they are going to do.

The stronger but less effective Pitocin induced contractions may have weakened Missy to the point of accepting if not asking for a drugged birth experience for her and the baby. Had her contractions fallen on top of each other in the hospital, as they did at home, this likelihood would have been much greater. The local hospitals do not have birthing tubs and it was the tub that spaced out the contractions.

When Missy called out, "She's stuck!" An attending physician, if he were listening to and trusting Missy, might have thought "get the forceps ready."

Eric would not have been allowed to help catch the baby. We would not have been allowed to keep the umbilical cord or the placenta.

Cara would not have gotten to know all those who had the honor of being at her birth and vice versa. As Cindi said while holding Cara a few hours after her birth, "I'm going to enjoy watching you grow up." Everyone at Cara's birth knew her family and already loved her.

When the unexpectedly short umbilical cord broke--which almost certainly would have happened in the hospital as it did in our home--Cara would have been taken from us to a place beyond our view. Our anxiety would have been worse and for longer than it was at home where we could see her breathing and struggling to cry.

The presence of the midwife, doula, and family friend enabled Curt and Eric to stay with Missy throughout the birthing. We would not have wanted to birth without their presence, whether at home or in a birth center or hospital. During Missy's birthing of Eric, Curt often left her side between contractions to get water, play music on a cassette deck, interface with the hospital staff, adjust the camcorder, etc. They were very happy to have a doula at their birth. It relieved Curt so that he could focus on Missy and numerous studies have shown the enormous value of having a doula during childbirth. With a doula and the knowledge and caring they bring present:

 Cesarean rates decreased by 50%

 Labor shortened by 25%

 Requests for pain medication decreased by 30%

 Epidural requests decreased by 60%

 Need for forceps decreased by 40%

 Oxytocin (Pitocin) use decreased by 40%

 Greater sense of fulfillment with the birth experience

 Reduced use of vacuum extraction

 Reduced chances of health complications and hospitalizations of baby

 Reduced chances of maternal fever and infection

 Reduced maternal bleeding following birth

 Increased chances of successful breastfeeding

 Reduced incidence of post-partum depression

 Reduced levels of anxiety with mothers feeling more in control and secure

 Increased chance of spontaneous vaginal birth

 Mothers have higher regard and increased sensitivity towards babies.

For pictures go to http://www.geocities.com/frantzcjf/cara/birthstory.html