She’s 8! ~ And a homebirth transport story

She’s 11 today! I first published the story of Anna’s birth on her 8th birthday, 3 years ago. Every year on the birthday of each of my four children, I re-run the story of their birth. It’s a fun tradition, they love hearing how they entered this world, and I love that new people read about home birth days each year. Happy 11th Birthday, Anna!

I have never blogged Anna’s birth story before. It’s a hard, touchy subject for me. But here it is, nonetheless…

Anna’s Home Birth Day and Transport Story

Anna was born at our home in Colorado Springs – a planned homebirth. But like so much in life, her birth did not go as planned. My husband was active duty Air Force when I got pregnant. My option was to birth at the Army hospital 35 minutes south of our house. They had a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), but no water options: no tub, and they barely allowed women in the shower. And I had my heart set on the therapeutic value of water to help me through a drug-free, natural delivery. I read book after book after I got pregnant and became increasingly suspicious about the institutionalized American birth machine. Books like The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer,  Birthing from Within by Pam England, and Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin, and Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First by Marsden Wagner convinced me that I did not want to have my baby in an Army hospital {no offense, Army friends…}

I had my heart set on a water birth, so we searched for a midwife. And found one. An awesome CNM in Denver. Our insurance would not cover a homebirth. But we felt strongly enough about birthing at home that we decided to pay out of pocket. It is a decision we have NEVER regretted.

I went into labor the day after Anna’s due date. It was a gorgeous, sunny Colorado day in April – high temperatures in the 70s. My husband was in charge of a collegiate rugby tournament he was coaching – the Sweet 16 Tournament. I was under strict instructions to wait until the end of the tournament to go into labor, but that didn’t happen. Regardless, his team, the Air Force Academy Zoomies, won their matches and went to the Final Four in Berkley. I labored at home all day with my husband while he snuck phone updates about his team’s progress. My labor was hard. Nothing really relieved me. I couldn’t get comfortable in the tub. Everything I was scared about doing I did: hurt, moan like a whale, vomit, poop…it all happened to me. Despite wanting a water birth, the water didn’t work for me and Anna was born a little before 10 pm on my bed. I pushed for a grueling hour and half. And I tore enough to need stitches – I remember thinking that I finally understood the meaning of Johnny Cash’s song Ring of Fire. Wow.

Unfortunately, Anna aspirated meconium at some point {likely a couple of weeks before she was born} and I hemorrhaged.  She couldn’t breathe and I was bleeding out on my bed. The combination of all problems was more than our CNM and her three helpers could handle. They got us stable, but an ambulance came to take the two of us to the hospital. Anna rode on the cookie sheet we had readied per our birth instructions {just in case} and became known at the hospital as Cookie.I’m not going to lie to you. It was a rough first week. The on-call OB was not impressed with our decision to homebirth and I was not well received at the hospital. In fact, he told me repeatedly how much it was going to hurt me when he sewed me up. Puh-lease. I had just pushed an 8 1/2 pound baby out of my vagina without pain medication. I couldn’t believe his audacity. {But I still wanted my midwife to hold my hand as he sewed. My husband stayed with our daughter in the  NICU.}

The neo-natologist told us our daughter would probably survive. Anna was hooked up to every machine imaginable for the first two days of her life as she was treated for pneumonia because she had a lot of fluid in her lungs. The neo-natologist told us that 1 in 7 babies aspirates meconium during birth, and of those, 1 in 10 has a case as bad as Anna’s. We were barely allowed to touch her the first two days. She made a quick recovery, though, all things considered. {I know what you might be thinking, but the meconium had NOTHING to do with the homebirth}. While she was hospitalized, we had a spring blizzard and my tulips had their say about the unfortunate events.

We were prepared for at least a two week hospital stay but Anna was released after only one week which I attribute to her tenacity. She always has been one heck of a stubborn kid. 🙂 Because of the high altitude, she came home on oxygen and stayed on oxygen for about 8 weeks.

Once she got off that oxygen, she never looked back. She had more health problems her first year than any of our subsequent kiddos (well, except Sara’s hip problems – but I can’t really compare the two) and I attribute a lot of that to her rough beginning and heavy course of antibiotics as a newborn. But she has not let anything stop her since.

She amazes us every day with her wit, her temper, her brains, and her beauty. She is one heck of an awesome kid, and even though our tempers clash a lot, I love her more and more each day. I hope I can live up to be the mom she deserves. She is a fantastic kid.

Happy Birthday, Anna. I hope you enjoy your day as Queen.

And in case you are wondering, all three of my next children were also born at home – in much more uneventful births. You can read my second homebirth story here – Ben’s Happy Home Birth Day, and my third homebirth story here – Cora’s Merry Christmas Happy Homebirth Day. And I do plan to blog about my last two homebirths as the birthdays happen. Watch out in May for Sara’s birth story.