Julia and Dan's Baby!
(Julia & Dan Moseley)

Joanne Natasha
Due Date: January 15, 2000
Date of Birth: January 13, 2000, 12:38 am
8lbs 10oz - 21.5 inches

Julia's Pregnancy Diary

Birth Photos

Birth Story:

Prenatal Care
Instead of seeing a practice of ob/gyns, I went to a birth center and alternated between the two midwives there. My husband, Dan, and I got to know them both quite well. Most things with my pregnancy went great, even though I started this one out at 233 lbs. and 32 years old, and we planned a homebirth with a rented birth tub.

Prelabor/Labor Starts for Real
I had nine days of prelabor, then last Wednesday (01/12), I was talking to my father at around 7:15pm and found myself really on a soapbox and very defensive about a number of issues incuding not having formula around "just in case" and using cloth diapers. My sister, Christine, who was at our house, said she knew something was up because my dad was pushing my buttons so hard so easily. :-) I had four not-painful contractions while we were on the phone. As soon as I got off the phone, they started to pick up and to get more intense. By around 9pm, I called our doula, Beth Honn. By then, I was hanging out on the toilet, because I was feeling a lot of pressure on my bladder. I also found leaning hard into my husband's belly helped, somehow, so I asked him to hang out in the bathroom with me. We called the birth tub people at around 9, and they got to the house at around 9:45. The doula and my sister helped them set the tub up in our bedroom.

Transition
At around 10:45, I had one contraction where instead of moaning or just making noise, I kept saying "I can't". Dan and Beth kept telling me that I could, and I would tell them that I couldn't... as soon as that contraction passed, and the next one felt different, I realized that contraction was my transition.

Water Breaks
At around 10:50, my water broke (luckily, I was still on the toilet). I'd been wondering where our midwife (Valerie) was, and by then, I was asking for her and feeling a bit panicky that she was not there. She arrived at around 11, having already been called, and they helped me move to the birthing tub, which was just full enough for me to get in.

Into the Tub/Pushing
As soon as I got in, I noticed that the water was too hot, so we added more cold water and realized I could have gotten in it sooner! Oh well. Valerie started the IV for the antibiotics (I'm Group B Strep positive, so this was a preventative step for the baby). I labored in the tub for about ten minutes before really feeling the urge to push, and then I pushed for another hour and 20 minutes or so, mostly on hands and knees with my arms over the edge of the birthing tub, before Joanne was born at 12:38am.

The Birth
Valerie lifted her out of the water and placed her on my chest, but her cord was a bit short, and though her heart was beating well, she didn't cry right away. Dan looked her over and announced that it was a girl (we planned that he would do this). Valerie decided she didn't like her breathing efforts, and that she wanted the baby where she could check her out more thoroughly. Valerie asked Dan if he wanted to cut the cord, and he didn't, but after I encouraged her to, my sister decided she would. Christine cut the cord and they put the baby on the bed. Dan talked to her and was stroking her, and apparently after a bit of brisk rubbing and some oxygen, she pinked up and got her breathing under control. I was luckily unaware of the drama since everyone seemed so calm. Valerie said that the baby's heart was great, and her respirations were OK, but she didn't pink up as fast as she would like and she stayed "floppy" longer than she should have. Anyway, drama over in about five minutes. Her Apgars were 1 minute: 6, 5 minutes: 6, 10 minutes: 9; the low scores were because she was floppy and didn't cry. She is the picture of health now and I truly believe that she was in no danger at any point.

Delivering the Placenta
Valerie came back to me, checked me, and applied some cord traction to get the placenta out; it had already detached on its own and came easily. Valerie noted that in 500 births, she's never seen a baby so completely coated in vernix, especially not one at 39 weeks, 5 days, which we knew to be accurate from my temperature charting.

Out of the Tub/First Feed
I got out of the tub 8 minutes after Joanne was born, and they bundled me up on the bed with Dan and Joanne for our first nursing session. We checked her out, she had all of her fingers, toes, etc., and she nursed well. We also took a bunch more photos of the baby since she'd had a bit of the vernix rubbed into her skin.

The Repairs
We handed her over to Aunt Christine, and Valerie turned to the ugly job of stitching me up... I had torn completely, and deeply, exactly along the episiotomy scar from my first birth 16 years ago. That was the hardest part of the whole delivery, even with lidocaine and endorphins. At least Valerie didn't stitch me up as tight as that doctor did originally, and the stitches didn't hurt much past the first day.

Looking at the Placenta
Valerie asked Dan and I if we wanted to see the placenta; Christine and I did, but Dan didn't. So Valerie showed us the two parts of the amniotic sac, where the placenta was attached to me, and where the cord went from the placenta to the baby. I'm glad to have seen it, since I've never seen one, but we didn't want to keep it.

Clean up and Resting
Valerie, Veronica (the student midwife), and Beth cleaned everything up and got us settled in bed. Christine went to her room upstairs, and the midwives left so we could go to sleep at around 3 am. One of the nicest things about this whole birth experience was being in our own house, then in our own bed; having a place where my sister could retreat for some privacy (which even though it's lovely there, we would not have had at the birth center), and having our dog and cats at the birth. They all seem to understand that the baby is ours and our Lhasa has been guarding her carefully since she was born.

Statistics
Joanne Natasha weighed 8lbs. 10oz., was 21.5" long, and had a 13.5" head; I was in labor almost exactly five hours. She was born 01/13/00 at 12:38am, at 39 weeks, 5 days gestation. We have some photos of her up on her page now, and also I've done a page on the bellymask we did of her one week before she was born. The website is Pregnancy page. Next time we have a baby, we're definitely doing the homebirth thing again!! I wouldn't go to the hospital again for a birth unless I was dying; I said that before this birth but now I know it to be true in my bones.

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