Nama and Michael Best's Homebirth Story
Easy, breezy, birth for 1st time mom

Jahnu David

November 23, 1996

He weighed 8 pounds and 2 ounces

My water broke at about 10:00 Friday night, but I felt no strong contractions until the next morning at about 10:00. At about that time, I felt I needed my birthing coach and the midwives. So we called them up and my mother-in-law (my birthing coach) got there about 5 minutes after that. I told her I felt like pushing and she told me to please wait for the midwives. I wasn't too happy about that.

The first midwife arrived and my mother-in-law told her she should check me. She didn't really want to, fearing that I'd be disappointed with my lack of progress. But my mother-in-law insisted and so she checked me at about 11:00 am. "You're about 8 centimeters hun," she said.

"Well," I thought, "the worst is behind me now" (Yeah right). I asked if I could start pushing and was given permission to do so when I felt the urge (I kept my mouth shut about having had the urge for the last 30 minutes). I started pushing in bed at about 12:00. Apparently, I was not supposed to have this baby in my bed, so I was transferred to the pool, which was going to help me get more relaxed (Yeah right).

I got in and the contractions started again. WOW!! I pushed really hard, but nothing looking remotely like a baby came out. Yuck! I knew that this wasn't going to work and I told them so. They moved me to the living room and showed me the birthing stools I could use. A wood one and a short one. Well, I was never given a chance to choose, because I felt a monstrous contraction and I knew this was it. A fell back on the wood one. Hubby sat behind me and held me up. "PUSH!" I pushed. "Here's the head," one midwife said loudly. "PUSH HARDER!" I pushed harder. "There's some hair!" Pop! Out came his head.... I heard another midwife say, "He can't stay long like this." I pushed with the next contraction... And out popped an 8 lb. 2 oz little screaming boy! He cried right away, with no assistance at all :) I tore a little (his head was 14 in. around) so I had to get some stitches but after labor, this was a breeze!

Thank you to my awesome midwives! Thanks also to my mother-in-law who enabled me to have control of this birth and myself by leading me to homebirth. And biggest thanks to my husband Michael who is my rock and my sanity. I am so grateful to all of you!