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Nate's birth of Douglas
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On Sunday, September 28th, 2003 we had a beautiful baby boy at 3:12PM. Douglas Charles was delivered at home by Tammy & Nate. He was 6lbs 14oz, and a long 19 inches tall.
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My wife’s contractions started around 1am, and got down to 5 minutes apart by noon. We had been planning an all-natural childbirth, so my wife got to take showers and move around as she felt comfortable. As the afternoon approached, the contractions started to get pretty strong, and I gave her some motherwort tincture I had prepared this year, 5 drops every 45 minutes starting around 1pm. She said the motherwort really helped take the edge off. Not dulling the pain, but making it more tolerable.
Around 2:30, she took a nice warm shower and I poured water over her belly & back, which really helped her relax. Then, after a few minutes in the shower, she said she felt the contractions pause, as if to gather strength, then came back like a powerful wave.
At this point, she started getting loud whenever the contractions hit…I believe this is the “transition” stage. I tried to be strong and get her to look me in the eyes during this time, and fed her raspberry infused ice-chips to keep up the fluids (we were both pretty worked up by this point)
Shortly, the contractions came faster and harder, and we had spread towels on the bathroom floor, as well as getting things together like alcohol and scissors for the cord-cutting. . The transition stage was a little rough, and my wife even screamed that a C-section would be F*$%@ing great right now, but I just kept her focusing on my eyes and then as the contractions paused I asked if she really honestly wanted that, and she said no.
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My wife described the next part as “becoming a cave-woman”, and she got on her hands & knees, saying afterward that she just remembers going into “auto-pilot” and just acting/reacting. I rubbed oil and massaged that delivery area (perenium? & vulva,etc). At that point we felt the head and everything happened pretty fast. The embryonic sac was still around the baby, but as soon as the head “popped”, the sac broke and the rest of the little guy shot out like a rocket, riding the fluid. I caught him and my wife helped massage him to start him breathing, and gently sucked out the mucus in his nose/mouth.
The amazing thing is he never cried, just wimpered a little and opened his eyes to welcome the world. Ten fingers, ten toes, and perfect in every way!!
My wife got to hold him while I was sent upstairs to get a different “squeegee” to suck any more fluid from his mouth. At this point, I had the classic “daddy-panic” since the object I was looking for was not where I thought. I’ll just summarize to say that within seconds the 6-drawer dresser with baby-stuff was completely empty and the floor looks like a tornado hit the room! LOL Luckily I found the little suction bulb before destroying the rest of the room! (it was on TOP of the dresser in plain sight where I put it)
After bonding with the boy for about a half-hour, we cut the cord and tied it off, since it had long-since stopped pulsing. My wife did not tear, and the fluid was a lot less than I was expecting. Even though this was our first child, everything went great!
The experience of catching my son is something I will never forget, and just amazes me even today, that this new life was inside my wife’s belly. Our child!
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It’s a shame that most of the people we talk to are surprised and very concerned that we had a homebirth, but for us it was the most natural thing to do. Women have birthed babies for hundreds and thousands of years, and doing things naturally was more rewarding than I can even express right now.
And not 15 minutes after the birth, with the cord still attached, my wife was sitting up and on the phone with both our parents and then her best friend. With no drugs to muddle her brain, she was just incredibly beaming and joyful holding our son within a minute. WOW!
Birth is a powerful, sacred event, and when approached with that perspective, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever experienced.
What I can say to other couples thinking about homebirth is to read up on whatever you can beforehand, so that you can act without hesitation. And most importantly, trust yourself. It can be done, it has been done for ages, and it is worth every minute of it.
Blessings to you all,
Nate (and family)
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