My First Birth Story

by Claire C. McKiernan

Oddly enough, I owe my love for midwifery care to a doctor. It was 2002, and I was having my three-month prenatal exam at a well-reputed hospital in Raleigh.  When I began discussing natural childbirth with my OB/GYN, her response was, “Well, you can TRY it,” in a tone that did more than suggest I would not succeed.

           Then my husband, Mike, asked the doctor a simple yet fateful question:

                        “What would you do if this was your baby?”

           

      “I’d have a C-section at six months to avoid the uncomfortable 3rd trimester,” was her shocking reply.

    Shortly thereafter, I went on a tour of the Piedmont Women’s Health Center (now our beloved WBWC), a full hour’s drive from our home. I couldn’t believe our tour guide, Maureen Darcey, was saying everything I felt about childbirth, and with absolute confidence. I began to feel that my dreams were not just possible, but probable in this environment.

                

     I soon devoted myself to the advice given in Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way by Susan McCutcheon. I had read my mother’s old version of Robert Bradley’s Husband-Coached Childbirth, and if you discard the sexism of that time period, the idea of birthing like animals makes a lot of sense. Susan McCutcheon’s practical exercises and especially her stages of labor were indispensible. I reread those parts with each pregnancy.  I also credit the relaxing stretches with warding off back pain, even with a 60-pound weight gain!

         

    For simplicity, the midwives suggested that we work with the due date that had been given to me at the hospital. (According to my own charts, this was a week too early.) Christmas Day, the supposed due date, came and went. On the night of my husband’s birthday (New Year’s Eve), I felt my first contraction.

    I thought I’d have a New Year’s Baby for sure and slept sporadically that night. We spent a total of 12 hours laboring at home and then, in spite of what my childbirth book suggested, we went to the birth center (I wouldn’t jump the gun in future pregnancies). I labored another 17 hours at the birth center, and I often wonder how many miles I clocked walking in circles through those rooms trying to dilate more quickly.

               

     Fortunately, I had the expert help of two midwives, Helen and Angela, in addition to the loving support of my husband and mother. I kept going. And going. And going. My helpers saw to it that I stayed fed and hydrated, and I mostly remember just walking, walking, walking. Periodically, I’d lean against the kitchen table and breathe deeply through a contraction while Mike gave me an absolutely vital lower back rub.

    While stage one of labor had taken far longer than I ever expected, stage two (pushing) was blessedly fast. I gave birth on the bed to 22-inch, 9 lb., 1 oz Christina May at 3:18am on January 2nd 2003.

    For the next seven hours at the birth center, Mike, Christina, and I napped together, I made ecstatic phone calls, and we took photos plus a video of Christina with the hiccups (something I often felt her doing in the womb).  She was delightfully strong, alert, and oh-so-healthy! My mother kept us fed and helped me to shower, which felt wonderful after all that sweaty work.

    Before long, I was resting comfortably on my own couch, with a glass of water, a content baby at my breast, a phone, and my address book.  People couldn’t believe I was calling from home and how alert I sounded. Later that day, my in-laws visited from out-of-state and were blown away by how easily I got around, even up and down stairs. We finished Mike’s birthday cake, which had now become Christina’s “original birthday cake”.

    I was the first in the family (in recent generations, anyway) to have an out-of-hospital, midwife-assisted birth, and I encountered skeptics and worriers along the way. I’m always thrilled to speak about my midwife-assisted births and love watching a mind open up, even just a little, after hearing my stories.

    Was my first baby’s birth difficult? Yes, just as the word “labor” implies. Was it perfect? Yes, just like my baby.