Dave, whose lovely newborn family was pictured in our most recent Sunday photo album, shares their birth story.

Mother Nature was tucking herself in for a long winter’s nap under a thick blanket of leaves. The air was crisp but not yet cold. Kara and I had our plan all together - we would birth at home, naturally, with the help of our midwife “K”, her apprentice “A”, and our sister-in-law/doula M. All the supplies were ready, the birth tub was assembled, and our roommates all had places to spend the night. Past “due” by more than a week, I kept telling Kara (to little avail) that due dates are for library books. The anticipation of Zora’s arrival was omnipresent, and still we waited. Mother Nature would take her course as natural as the seasons change.

The nine previous months had all been one continuous act of preparation. At the outset we weren’t comfortable with the idea of a homebirth - at least not for our first. One trip to the OB/GYN that left me stranded in the waiting room while complete strangers insisted to Kara that she have an unwanted sonogram and we began to reconsider. Once we met K we never looked back.

There are many reasons for our change of heart, but they all stem from one thing, K cared. To her, Kara was not a patient but a person. I was not a liability, but an active assistant. And most importantly, to K, Zora was not a medical condition that Kara needed to be delivered from, but a baby whom Kara would birth. K let us have our baby on our terms (with all our dignity intact), while still providing the expert advice and know-how to get us safely to and through labor. You simply cannot get that kind of human/e treatment from an institution. Even the best OB/GYN has their hands tied by regulations designed to protect the corporate bottom line. The family will always come second in the hospital setting. K showed us a gentler way, and put our needs and interests first.

Right up to the last days before birth we met with her and A in her own home. Casual conversation was interspersed with listening to Zora’s heartbeat, urinalysis, and diet advice. Relationships based on mutual respect developed, and when the day arrived we were calling on friends to tell them they were needed - the baby was coming.That day came on Oct. 18th. Kara had begun labor the night before and we made final preparations and tried (unsuccessfully) to get a bit of sleep. By early morning the contractions were coming closer together and Kara was beginning to dilate (according to my untrained assessment) so we called for K and A (M lives with us).

Labor was very active and involved walking around the backyard, climbing stairs, relaxing in the birthing tub or in bed, even taking a shower around the time of transition.

Overall the atmosphere was kept very relaxed, with just dim lighting or candles most of the time, soothing music and constant refreshment and massage. Kara went through ‘hell’ and back with hardly a complaint. We focused on relaxation during contractions and ‘OM’ed through each one together. We cried sometimes, and sometimes we laughed; went from dizzying giddiness when we knew it was the day to ‘can’t see straight’ exhaustion… and then in one moment we went from extreme pain to overwhelming joy. And now she’s here with us and the love is beyond words.

Want to share your story? The Safe Birth Blog welcomes submissions to “Family Voices.” Email soracolvin@gmail.com.

My name is Laura, and I live in small town with my husband and our daughter, Gabriela. She will be two in January.

Gabriela was born at Greene Memorial Hospital with Molly Dickinson, a Certified Nurse Midwife. Molly’s calm, patient manner was a perfect match for me, and without a doubt I would have returned to Greene for my future children. However, the hospital closed the midwifery center in 2006 and none of the three midwives are delivering babies anymore. My husband and I had planned to have another child in late 2008, and after a lot of thought, I decided that I wanted an out-of-hospital birth with a midwife. We chose someone whom I already knew well and in whom I have supreme confidence and trust.

I know that I want to have another drug-free, natural child birth. In 2005, when I was pregnant with Gabriela, five of my friends were also pregnant. Four of them chose obstetricians for their births; the fifth chose a Greene midwife but was transferred to a doctor for a c-section. Their anecdotes are startling:

1. Two of the five wanted drug-free births, but neither of them was able to accomplish it because they both had c-sections.
2. Four out of five were induced. At her 39 week check up, one was scheduled for an induction at 40 weeks. Another, at her 40 week appointment, was scheduled for an induction without anyone even asking if she wanted it.
3. Three ended up with c-sections. One of them was convinced by her doctor, during labor, that her baby was just too big – he weighed about 7 pounds at birth, and my friend is not petite or small-boned.
4. Another friend said her doctor barely showed up in time – her daughter had already crowned when he walked in the room for the first time.

In contrast, my daughter was born just shy of 42 weeks. During my pregnancy, I was asked if I wanted to be induced, and I said no, as long as there was no medical problem. After 40 weeks, I was monitored twice a week to make sure Gabriela and I were both healthy. Once labor started, Molly arrived at the hospital about 30 minutes after I did, and she checked on me, stayed with me, and talked with me through all eight hours at the hospital.

I feel strongly that my best chance at having a happy, natural, drug-free birth is with a midwife, not a doctor.

Good Samaritan and Miami Valley Hospital are the only hospitals in the Dayton area that have midwives on staff. Good Samaritan is not in my insurance network, so MVH is my only “choice”. However, the MVH midwives are not on call seven days a week, so there is a possibility that a midwife won’t attend my birth. In addition, MVH is a 30 to 40 minute drive from my house. When Gabriela was born, we lived less than five minutes from Greene Memorial Hospital. I want to labor at home as long as possible, and I don’t like the thought of spending so much time trapped in a car, unable to walk around. I’m also concerned about my labor stalling because of the transition from one
location to another.

Ultimately, I want an out-of-hospital birth because even though I was very satisfied with Gabriela’s birth, there are some things I wanted to do differently the next time:

1. It’s important that I choose all the people who are with me during my labor. Molly and my doulas were wonderful, but there was a nurse at Greene Memorial who drove me absolutely crazy with her busy work, like changing empty trash bags in my room and just staring at me while I labored.
2. I want a more relaxing environment. After Gabriela was born, I was exhausted but unable to sleep because it was an unfamiliar setting. The nurses checked on me every hour or two and constantly asked when she last nursed and for how long. They were always concerned that she wasn’t eating enough. Their obsession made me anxious, and I began to doubt myself. I felt vindicated later when a midwife told me that babies generally don’t nurse much in the first 24 hours, because they are still recovering from the birth (just like moms!)

I left the hospital 24 hours after Gabriela’s birth. My hospital stay was marked by anxiety and tension caused by well-meaning nurses. In contrast, I finally was relaxed and truly peaceful once I was home with my family.

For all these reasons, I want my next birth to be an out-of-hospital birth. However, my chosen midwife recently contacted me to say that she has decided to stop attending births due to the current political climate in Ohio. I’m weighing my options to decide whether or not I want to have a child next year after all, and if so, where I will give birth.

I want women in Ohio to truly have a CHOICE about where and how they give birth. Right now I feel like I have no choice, and I don’t want my daughter to grow up and have her children in that kind of environment. I want midwifery to be a legal profession in Ohio, like it is in 24 US states and much of Europe, with home births, birthing centers, and hospitals accepted opportunities for all pregnant women.

Want to share your story? The Safe Birth Blog welcomes submissions to “Family Voices.” Email soracolvin@gmail.com.

I admire the women who know from their first pregnancy that home is where they want to give birth. I never even imagined it with our first daughter. I thought that by going with a hospital-based CNM practice, we’d chosen the safest, most holistic path available. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts as a Bradley Method-educated team, I still left the hospital with an unnecessary incision in my abdomen and an equally deep wound to my spirit.

A year and a half later, we learned I was pregnant again. I made the rounds, interviewed all the usual “VBAC friendly” suspects and concluded that I just couldn’t do it in the hospital again. The care providers were probably just fine, but I didn’t have it in me to fight all the hospital procedures. I didn’t want to negotiate my way through labor again. It had been a traumatic year and I simply couldn’t imagine mustering the internal fortitude to fight and argue over every little thing.

Finally, friends from ICAN and my local La Leche League group shared their stories of home birth and strategies for how they were able to bring their husbands along.

When we interviewed the woman who became our midwife, a sense of peace settled on me. She was the one. The next six months were a continual confirmation that we chose the right path for us. The partnership my midwife and I developed over those months attended to both the physical and emotional issues that needed to be dealt with in order to ensure that I would be able to labor as effectively as possible. I can’t imagine how that could have happened in a more traditional medical model.

By trusting in her completely, I was able to achieve the safest, most non-interventive, peaceful birth I could have imagined for our second child. I can’t imagine doing it any other way in the future. And when I think that I may lose this option simply because we don’t have a path for licensure in Ohio, I become profoundly angry. We all deserve the right to choose where we birth and to use the care provider who can best help us to achieve that.

Want to share your story? The Safe Birth Blog welcomes submissions to “Family Voices.” Email soracolvin@gmail.com.

I had a baby girl yesterday, my sixth child. It was a beautiful birth and my baby is lovely and healthy and nursing well.

My midwife camped out on my couch for almost three days, making sure I was eating and drinking and doing what I needed to stay healthy and hydrated and ready for labor. She cooked me tofu, loaded my dishwasher, and knew just which spot to push on my back during contractions.

My midwife also knew what to do to make sure my baby and I were safe from infection despite prolonged ruptured membranes with no labor. She knew how to resuscitate a three-week-early baby who didn’t want to be out and breathing, calmly and without panic, while the baby stayed in my arms and attached to her placenta. Having a good midwife made it possible for us to have a gentle, non-interventive home water birth despite circumstances that might have made an unattended birth unsafe or even tragic.