Danielle K.'s Birth Story
I was a pretty easy patient without any major complications. However, one challenge that I faced was getting hyperemesis, which kept me from gaining the weight I needed to gain... Continue...

Dawn G.'s Birth Story
I am a 42-year-old nurse with a twenty-year-old, a three-year-old, a two-year-old, and a newborn! Continue...

Amy P.'s Birth Story
Ginger delivered all seven of my babies... Continue...

Silky's Birth Story
I woke Dan about 7 and asked, “Are you ready to have a baby today?” Continue...

Erin C.'s Birth Story
My first baby was stillborn, and when I got pregnant again, Ginger helped me work through a lot of the fears I had... Continue...

Celeste G.'s Birth Story
Finally, we filled the tub and changed the course of events. The tub truly is the “midwife’s epidural”...Continue...

Robin M.'s Birth Story
At around seven months, we found that Sophia was breech. My first baby had been breech, and I had to have a c-section. Bryan said he was against the homebirth if she was still breech closer to my due date, but I still wanted to try it...Continue...

Beth B.'s Birth Story
This is only the second time in the entire time I’ve known my husband that I’ve ever seen him cry...Continue...

Summer B.'s Birth Story
All my plans for a hippy acoustic homebirth went out the window...Continue...

Autumn P.'s Birth Story
I was originally going to have a hospital birth, but when I asked my doctor what her C-section rate was, she was very evasive and could never give me an exact number...Continue...

Pain-Free Labor & Delivery
By Autumn P., Saginaw, TX
Mom of Noah (08/12/05), Josiah (01/14/07), Victoria (3/26/08), and Baby #4 due 03/25/10

I was originally going to have a hospital birth, but when I asked my doctor what her C-section rate was, she was very evasive and could never give me an exact number. My aunt had two of her three children with a midwife, so I knew about midwifery. My husband wasn’t completely comfortable with the idea of a home birth with a midwife, but because of the way our doctor visits had been going, we decided to at least check it out. We found Ginger, and after speaking with her at one consultation, my husband and I both knew this was the way we wanted to go. Ginger was very open, she didn’t sugar-coat anything, she had opinions but didn’t force them on you, and I trusted that she wouldn’t put me in danger. I had both of my sons with Ginger, and when I found out I was pregnant with my third, there was no question that we would use her again.

I started care with her at around 8 to 10 weeks, and there was nothing negative I could say about the entire experience. I had pre-term labor and for about two weeks had really bad contractions. We lived close to Ginger at that time, and while we were out walking the neighborhood, Ginger invited us to come over to her house so she could check to see if I was dilating.

My water broke the morning of March 26, and my mom, aunts, Ginger, and I all packed up and walked to McDonald’s for breakfast. We joked along the way that we would surely get a discount on our meal if I had the baby there. No luck, the baby waited, and we went back home after breakfast.

We just hung out, and I took several baths and felt restless. I’m really blessed that I don’t have pain during my contractions. I had pain-free labor with all three of my children. I believe fear plays a role in how much pain someone experiences. If you take your arm and flex it for as long as you can, it doesn’t hurt. I think we have fear because of what we’ve been taught to believe about childbirth. I recommend the book Supernatural Childbirth by Jackie Mize – it really helped me, and usually I have several copies on hand to give out to pregnant friends. The key is trusting your body to do what God designed it to do, and finding a midwife you can trust also.

My labor progressed throughout the day, and when Ginger checked me at around 4:30 that afternoon, I still had some water around the baby’s head, and Ginger asked me if I wanted her to break my water. I said yes, and when she did, I pushed like three times, and my baby girl Victoria was out – born at 4:48 p.m.

It was amazing. I just can’t imagine doing it any other way than a home birth or with any other midwife than Ginger. After delivering all three of my babies, she is definitely part of the family, and we get together for dinner or lunch even when I’m not pregnant. Ginger is someone who will be honest with you and you can be honest with, someone you can really trust. She’s like an older sister or a really good friend. And she will be delivering our fourth in March 2010.

Pregnancy with Hyperemesis
by Danielle K.
Mom of Matthew and Allison

I had my first baby Matthew in England, where it is very pro-home birth and positive about midwifery. We moved back to the States, and I knew I wanted to have another home birth with my second, but there are a lot of options for a midwife in the Dallas area, and I didn’t know who to choose. I looked on a website called Mothering.com and asked for recommendations from other mothers, and Ginger’s name came up as a top choice. I met with several different midwives, but I really liked Ginger’s personality the best. She seemed like she was answering my questions without me having to ask them, and she was very genuine.

I started my care with Ginger at 12 weeks, and was a pretty easy patient without any major complications. However, one challenge that I faced was getting hyperemesis, which made me puke the whole time severely, and I was losing weight instead of gaining it. This had also happened with my first baby, but Ginger helped me deal with it through dietary strategies like eating an apple when I first woke up and small meals throughout the day. It really seemed to help, and although I only gained a total of three pounds for my pregnancy, my second baby Allison came two days after her due date and was perfectly healthy at 7 pounds, 7 ounces, two pounds more than my first child.

I started having contractions in the middle of the night and went into active labor at around 7 in the morning. Since I had been up the whole night and was having a water birth, my husband wanted me to call the midwife immediately since I was in our huge tub and he didn’t want me to drown. Ginger and her assistant came out, and they were great. They sat with me in the bathroom and in the living room when I would get out of the tub, and when I wanted to be left alone, they would hang out with my family and just check in with me periodically to get the baby’s heart rate and make sure everything was okay. They were hands-on when I wanted them to be and hands-off when I wanted them to be.

I continued puking throughout labor, and although I could keep down water, Ginger wanted to be proactive and give me an IV to make sure I didn’t get dehydrated. But I guess my body freaked out at the thought of the IV, because my water broke and the baby came out before Ginger’s assistant could get to the nearby birth center and back with the IV.

My husband became an EMT to help in case of any emergencies, and he was able to help deliver the baby. He was in the tub with me, and helped guide Allison out, as well as helped check the placenta. It was such an amazing experience for him that he is now in nursing school studying to be a nurse.

After eleven hours of active labor, Allison was born at 8:05 p.m.

We are planning to have more children and have already told Ginger that we will use her again. She went above and beyond my expectations, checking on me and the baby, sending Christmas cards, and making me feel wanted even after her job was officially done.I would tell people who are planning for a home birth to choose a midwife that they get along with on a personal level, someone they can be friendly with. For us, that was definitely Ginger.

Full of Surprises
By Dawn G., TX
Mom of Tyler (05/27/89), Wade (02/07/06), Wyatt (05/18/07), and Gabrielle (09/17/09)

I am a 42-year-old nurse with a twenty-year-old, a three-year-old, a two-year-old, and a newborn! Having worked in a neo-natal unit and seen the inner workings of a hospital birth, as well as delivering my oldest son in a hospital twenty years ago, I chose home births for my last three. But when I went into labor with my first home birth baby, my midwife was out of town! That’s how Ginger arrived on the scene…

Because I was ten days late, I was scheduled for an ultrasound appointment, but I knew I was already in labor as we drove in for the appointment. My husband, a doctor, questioned whether I was really in labor because I had experienced some false labor previously. Ginger was the midwife on duty to give me the ultrasound. I had met her only once before at a class at the birth center, but from that brief first meeting and our ultrasound visit, I knew that I wanted her to be our backup midwife and deliver the baby. She’s nice, she listens, and although I hardly knew her I felt really comfortable with her.

We went back home, telling Ginger not to come just yet, and I got in the bathtub to ease the pain of the contractions. My husband kept asking, “Should I call Ginger to come?” and I kept saying, “Let me wait just a little bit.” Well, the labor hit really hard at about 1 p.m., and I got out of the tub, and my husband called Ginger. I guess I waited just a little bit too long to call. She got there about seven minutes after Wade was born, just in time to deliver the placenta!

When I got pregnant again, I knew I wanted to use Ginger again. I now had a baby, and I really liked that Ginger would come out to my house for the prenatal visits – I didn’t have to worry about getting dressed, packing up Wade, or driving anywhere. This time when I went into labor, my husband Bob said, “I’m calling Ginger now. I really don’t want to deliver this one; I want to enjoy it.” So she came out about 3:30 that afternoon.

I like to labor in the water in my huge garden tub, where the warm water relaxes me so my body can do what it needs to do. Then when I feel like it’s nearing the end, I get out of the water and deliver in the bathroom. (I don’t want to make a huge mess in my bedroom or on my bed.) We always put vinyl tablecloths on the bathroom floor with comforters underneath so it will be soft. Ginger comes into the bathroom with me and just hangs out, checking on things as needed. I joke with my husband that I’m so comfortable with Ginger, she could climb into the bathtub naked with me and I’d be okay! She delivered Wyatt at about 10:30 that evening.

I had two miscarriages just before I got pregnant with my fourth child, and even though I had wanted a girl so bad, I was past forty and had pretty much given up when Gabrielle surprised us! I went into labor with her at three in the morning and had a lot of blood, so we called Ginger to come in immediately. Again, we hung out in the bathroom for a couple hours until I was 7 or 8 cm dilated. I was really tired by that time, because it was seven in the morning and I had been waiting for the baby to come since my mucus plug had come out at 1 pm the afternoon before. I was thinking, “I am too old for this, she’s not coming, having babies is for young people, I need a nap.” So I got out of the tub and laid down. My little girl calmed down, the contractions stopped for a good 30 minutes, and I got to sleep for about an hour before they picked up again. Gabrielle was born about 9:27 a.m. She was not too hard to deliver, but the placenta didn’t come out right afterward, so we tried some different positions, we tried tugging a little bit, we tried massaging my stomach and getting back into the shower to relax. Ginger offered a shot of pitocin, but I was adament that I didn’t want any shots. I was wondering at what point I would have to go to the hospital if this placenta didn’t come out. But after about an hour, the massaging and gentle tugging worked and it came out!

I don’t recommend home births for everyone, because some people aren’t comfortable with their bodies’ natural ability to give birth and would be worried the whole pregnancy. The hospital is a great place to be if you have a problem and really need to be there. My sister-in-law had high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia, and she needed to deliver in the hospital. But pregnancy in itself is not an illness. People can’t believe that I would do this without an epidural, but for most people an epidural just slows down the process and then you can’t even feel when you need to push. With an unmedicated home birth, of course you’re very aware of when you need to push, but it’s such an amazing feeling when it’s over and you’re totally alert, don’t need an IV, and the baby is right there with you instead of being whisked away for four hours. Even though my husband and I both are in the medical field, I feel very restricted by the hospital process.

With Ginger, I feel like my husband and I can be in control of our birth. She’s a very pleasant and mild-mannered, sweet person, and I trust her ability and her judgment completely. We will not be having any more babies, since our last one wasn't even planned, but I highly recommend Ginger to those looking for a home birth.

Baby #1 - Rachel... I was two weeks overdue and somewhat depressed. I'd gone to get a sonogram earlier that day at the birth center where Ginger was studying and they said that since the baby was still "breathing" she probably wouldn't come out for the next 24 hours. However, I had also had some "bloody show" that morning and Ginger found I was leaking amniotic fluid, so we knew I would give birth soon. So, my husband and I went to get some food and see a movie.

I had been feeling contractions off and on for the past several weeks. I didn't think anything of it when I felt several in a day. However, by the time we got to the movie in the evening, they were starting to get pretty strong. We stopped by a rather large store that's part of a chain mentioned fairly often nowadays for its "everyday low prices" and got a watch to time the contractions. We also decided to go home so I could rest. After all, nothing had happened earlier that day and I had contractions all the time it seemed.

By the time we got home at the other side of the Metroplex, the contractions were five minutes apart. We called Ginger and she told us to go back to the birth center. My husband raced into action and within a couple of minutes, the car was packed and we were heading all the way back to the center.

The birth went like clockwork and Rachel Amelia was born not long after midnight (my husband helped catch her). The only thing that was annoying was how nauseated I was toward the end of active labor. Ginger was a great support to me through the pregnancy. I really appreciated it since this was my first birth and I was terrified of all the possibilities.

Baby #2 - Sarah... Once again I was two weeks over. I went to bed, tired and ready to be finished with this pregnancy. Suddenly, I woke up and the bed was getting soaked. It took me a minute to realize my water had broken. I shook my husband awake and it didn't register at first what I was saying. Once he felt how wet the bed was, he jumped straight up and called Ginger, suddenly fully awake.

She came by to check me out and told me labor needed to start in the next 24 hours. She gave me some recommendations but no matter what I did, the contractions just weren't happening. I would start to go into active labor, but then my body would back down. We tried everything we (all the midwives there) could think of. At the end of 24 hours, I was starting to get tired and the midwives were talking about transporting me (I was at the birth center by that time).

One of the midwives, Bonnie Kitchen, asked to check my dilation. I've since forgotten what the number was, but we discovered the baby was posterior and it was keeping the baby's head from pressing down fully on the cervix. Bonnie had spent many years in England as a midwife and had experience with doing external versions during labor. While I was on my hands and knees with my head on the same level as my knees, she carefully pushed the baby back in, then Ginger (following Bonnie's directions) rubbed my belly in an attempt to roll the baby around. We found out we had 36 hours instead of 24 and that calmed us (meaning me mostly) down enough to let the now turned baby work her way out.

In about an hour I was ready to push, even though I was only at 9cm. Ginger made sure the cervix stayed out of the way during the initial pushing, and soon Sarah, our second child was born.

Baby #3 - Rebekah... I went to bed that evening with menstrual cramp-like sensations. They were painful enough that I woke up about one in the morning from it. I decided to watch some TV out in the living room and see if they died down or got worse. I told my groggy husband who nodded and promptly went back to sleep.

I had just waddled to the couch and sat down when I got hit by a huge contraction. It was so hard and sudden that I cried out in surprise. My water broke just before my husband came running out to the living room to see how I was doing. From that point on, I tried to time the contractions while my husband quickly got the kids dressed and ready for the sitter.

Our original plan was to drop the kids off at the sitter's then drive to a birth center we had used for our other births. By the time everyone was ready to go (about 20 minutes later), I didn't feel like we had enough time. It was more than logic. It was almost as if someone were saying in my ear over and over, "You don't have time to go to the birth center." I didn't really trust that voice until we were actually walking to the car. The contractions were becoming hard enough it was very difficult to concentrate on the world around me. I told my husband I didn't think we had enough time. Our other two had taken their sweet time getting into this world, so neither of us really took it seriously.

We dropped the kids off at the sitter's (about ten minutes away) and I felt the first small bit of panic. The contractions were 4 to 5 minutes apart. That voice was getting more insistent. I told my husband we didn't have time and he said that if we reached this one particular street (which would be about five to ten minutes drive time in total) and the contractions got to 2 minutes apart, we would turn around and go back since the birth center was an hour or two away. Sure enough, they were at 2 minutes just as we got to the street. My husband turned the car around and we went back.

At the apartment, I had to pause a couple of times on the way to the apartment. When I finally managed to get inside, I kneeled down in front of the couch while my husband called Ginger, our midwife. She was already at the birth center with another midwife, Molly Roe, and a couple of assistants who worked for the center. She jumped in her car along with the assistants and Molly. While they raced to our apartment, Ginger gave Rob instructions in case he had to do an emergency delivery. What would have taken them an hour ended up taking 20 minutes. They got there just as I started to feel the need to push. Everything was quietly set up while I pushed.

When the baby's head came out, I heard Ginger calmly say, "We've got cord," which meant the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck. So, they did a technique called a "jackknife": one midwife held the baby's head close to the vaginal opening while the other supported the body as it slid out. Except for that one complication, the birth went off without a hitch. Rebekah had a high Apgar rating and took to nursing just fine. It was a great experience all around.

Baby #4 - Deborah... I was a few days past my due date when I woke up with really strong contractions. Thinking this would be like Rebekah's birth, I waited for that really strong contraction. Nothing happened. Eventually the contractions went away. When Ginger came by to see me the next morning, she said the baby was posterior. I was terrified this would become a long and difficult labor like Sarah's had been, so I spent most of that day on my hands and knees, trying to get the baby turned around.

By that evening, I was having strong contractions in pockets. They'd be five minutes apart for 20 minutes, and then I'd go 45 minutes without anything. That went on for several hours. It was late in the evening when I called Ginger, hoping she'd be able to help me get into active labor. We'd decided to have a home birth because of the speed with which Rebekah came into the world, so she met me there.

Not long after she arrived my body went into labor by itself. Ginger, Molly Roe, and Ginger's assistant Erin quietly set up and waited. When I needed to push, they all went into action quickly. I ended up pushing for only seven minutes. It felt like I just couldn't hold back. Deborah came out blue, but quickly changed to a healthy pink. She took to breastfeeding just fine and has been growing fast, just like her sisters.

Baby #5, #6, & #7 - Stories Coming Soon!

Indescribable Happiness
by Silky
Mother of Eason (10/13/04)

When I woke up at five in the morning in my 38th week of pregnancy with contractions, I was a little giddy, but told myself it was a dream and went back to sleep, waking about every 10 minutes. About 7am I knew it was the beginning of the end of my wonderful pregnancy. I loved being pregnant. I was never sick and only slightly uncomfortable toward the end, but mostly relished in the beauty of the belly. My husband, Dan, referred to me as the “Belly Monster”, which I thought was funny.

I woke Dan about 7 and asked “Are you ready to have a baby today?” Blurry eyed and a little out of it he said “No way”! “I think so” I told him and we got out of bed to go for a walk and watch the sunrise. I sent him to work and told him I would call if it picked up. I spent the day with my sister in law and niece running last minute errands, taking pictures and canceling the Blessing Way we had planned for that evening.

It was 7pm before the contractions started to pick up and I gave the go ahead for people to start coming over. My husband, mom, god mom, mother in law, father in law, two sisters, three sisters in law, and best friend as well as Ginger, Bonnie and Erin all showed up by about 9, when the contractions started to make everything blurry. At some point I started throwing up and could not stop. The contractions were so strong and disorienting they made me hurl until Bonnie put some salt on my tongue and had me take smaller drinks. It stopped after that, but then I got hot and cold, hot and cold. Before a contraction I would get so cold I would shake and through it so hot I would flush and sweat. As fast as my sisters could cover me up I would demand they uncover me. I went from the foot of the bed to lying on my side to sitting backward on the toilet delirious with pain and frustration and unaware of all the efforts my family was making to comfort me. I come from a family of home births and healers, so our births are filled with love, support and massage. I know it helped, but I was too out of it to notice at the moment. I really just wanted Dan to be there and needed his voice and strength to ground me.

I think I only said “I can’t” once, but spent most of my time saying “Oh Lordy, Oh Jesus” and “I can do it”! I don’t usually refer to Jesus, but it felt right, helped me keep my sense of humor, and I truly feel that a higher power was giving me the strength to do what I was doing. That wasn’t all me.

I was so tired, and about 1am Ginger checked and said I was almost fully dilated but my waters were still intact. I had originally said I didn’t want my waters broken, but I was ready to go, so she broke them and soon afterward I felt pushy. I started pushing. It was my god-mom Barbara who taught me how to push. She said to stop blowing the air out of my mouth and use it to push my baby out. I listened and 45 minutes after my water was broken I pushed my son out. There was not even time for Ginger to tell me his head was out before I pushed his body out too. All at once, I had a baby. A beautiful 6 pound 11 ounce baby boy named Eason Daniel. I was so glad to see him and hold him. He let out one big roar when he came out, then mewed like a little kitten. Perfect.

I felt a little gypped when I still had to deliver the placenta which meant more contractions, and deal with all the post birth trauma to my body. I just wanted to enjoy my baby. It was so wonderful to finally fall asleep with my baby snuggled up close to me. To feel him. To see him! So tiny and perfect. Eason’s birth was the most empowering and rewarding experience of my life. I did what I would otherwise think was impossible and am happier with my son than is describable.

Overcoming Fear after a Stillbirth
by Erin C.
Mother of Trinity (07/21/01) and Lily (11/08/02)

On July 21, 2001, I gave birth to my first child, Trinity Morrigan. She was stillborn at 33 weeks, due to an apparent cord accident related to low amniotic fluid. I had planned a natural birth in a birth center in Dallas, but ended up experiencing a hospital delivery. I was induced with Cervadil and Pitocin. I also had an epidural. It was a very tough experience, made even worse by the fact that I was in an unfamiliar environment - a hospital. To make the situation worse, my care providers that I had chosen during that pregnancy completely abandoned me. I was terrified and my husband and I had to face the situation alone.

When we began trying to conceive again, I knew that I wanted a homebirth. I wanted to find a midwife who would support me throughout my entire pregnancy and who would be sensitive to the circumstances surrounding my last birth. Ginger was the second midwife I interviewed and we hit it off immediately. I knew that she would be the best choice for us. I made my decision in October. I didn't find out that I was pregnant until March. Ginger was one of the first people I called as soon as I got a positive pregnancy test!

My pregnancy was very smooth. Ginger made sure that she spent ample time at all of my prenatal visits. She really helped me work through a lot of the fears I had in relation to the birth of my first baby. Most of all, I knew that Ginger was someone I could trust and someone that I could depend on. She was very loving and caring throughout my entire pregnancy. I knew that she would stick with me no matter what happened. I don't think that I could have made it without her.

Friday, November 8, 2002 (5 days after my due date), I woke up with contractions. I had been having contractions for the last month, so I didn't take them too seriously at first. Ginger had been over the night before to check me out because I had been hurting pretty bad. As of Thursday night, the baby was lower and my cervix had thinned out a little more. I hung around and told Kirk (my husband) that he might ought to stay home just in case.

The contractions were getting a little worse, but were still not regular. They were anywhere between 3 and 6 minutes apart. I called Ginger just to let her know and she said to call her back when they got regular. She said that it would probably be okay for Kirk to go see one of his clients on the other side of town. Kirk got ready to leave and we called my mom to come over and stay with me. The contractions started picking up a bit, but they still weren't getting regular.

Since the contractions were getting stronger, I called Kirk and told him that he should probably head back home soon. I decided that this was probably the real thing. Kirk got home and I decided to get in the tub. He called Ginger and asked her to come over. While I was sitting in the tub, Kirk and I were making our predictions as to how much I would be dilated. I was being pessimistic and said I was probably still only 4. Kirk guessed 6.

Ginger showed up thinking she was coming just to check me. She didn't bring any of her stuff in because she thought she would be able to go back home for awhile. She checked me and I was at 5. She decided to stay. My sister and her fiance' came over and I labored away for awhile. I got back in the tub and started hurting pretty bad. When I got out, Ginger checked me again and I was at 6. She went ahead and called the assisting midwife, Bonnie, and told her to come on over when she got ready. I decided to go ahead and call my friend Amy (an apprentice midwife) and tell her to come on over whenever she could since she lives so far away.

I labored and labored some more and could tell that the baby had moved down more. Ginger checked me and I was at 8. While she was checking me, my water broke. I wandered around for awhile and finally got a bunch of pillows and labored on the floor in between my kitchen and dining room. While I was down there, Amy and my dad showed up. I was having to really concentrate to get through the contractions and was starting to be in a lot of pain. Amy helped out a lot by holding the rice sock on my back and rubbing my back. She was great and I was so glad to have her there.

I got up and went in to the bathroom and sat on the toilet so I could go pee. I peed and sat there for a few contractions and then felt something fall out of me. I called Ginger into the bathroom and we saw that there was a lot of meconium. I started getting really scared at that point. I was very worried, since I had always heard that meconium was a bad sign. (Too much Baby Story and Birth Day on the Discovery Channel!) I was so afraid that I would lose another baby.

They calmed me down and got me off the toilet and onto the bed so they could see what was going on. Laying on the bed was so painful! It hurt so bad to be on my back. They listened to the baby's heart tones and everything still sounded good. Ginger checked me and I was at 9 with a little bit of cervix left. I was still really upset by the meconium and apparently that affected my progress. While Ginger was checking me, she felt my cervix close back to a 5. It's called emotional dystocia. When you have an intense emotional response such as fear, it can cause your labor to stall.

(This was around 8:00.) The contractions were still coming hard and fast, but I had pretty much closed back up. They decided to get me into a knee-chest position and see if they could work some Evening Primrose Oil onto my cervix. I had never been in so much pain in my life and I felt like I had no control over what was going on with my body (Hello, transition!). My body wanted to push, but I couldn't because my cervix wasn't ready. It was very difficult. At some point I changed positions and it made me throw up. I got onto my side and Ginger and Bonnie helped me to calm down. They helped me relax and control my breathing so I wouldn't push. They talked to me about my fears surrounding my first birth and reassured me that they weren't going to leave me.

Eventually, it got to the point that my body was just pushing anyway, so they let me go with it. I never knew the urge to push would be so strong! Every single muscle in my body felt like it was working to get the baby out. I was on my side and Amy and Bonnie helped me hold my leg back. There was still a tiny bit of cervix left, so Ginger held it back for me. Actually, I didn't even notice that part. I just started pushing with everything I had. It didn't seem like it took long at all before they said that I could touch her head. I felt it, but it didn't really feel like a head. They even held up a mirror so I could see, but it didn't look like a head.

Then I was pushing again and it felt like she flew out of me. I'm sure she just slipped out, but it felt like I shot her out. Lily Brighid Connaway was born at 9:00 p.m. She was out, but she didn't breathe and she didn't cry right away. She was floppy and not pink, but her heart was beating just fine. They left the cord intact and suctioned a lot of meconium out of her stomach.

They were trying to get her to wake up and cry. Ginger told me to talk to her. I started talking to the baby and Ginger said that she immediately started pinking up. She finally let out a little cry and she sounded like a little kitten. I was never worried at all once she was out because I knew that since she was still attached to me, she was still getting blood through her cord. Kirk said that he was a little concerned that she took so long to take her first breath, but it didn't bother me. I knew that she was ok.

They handed her to me while she was still attached. I remember her back being all sticky and cheesy. I couldn't believe that I finally had my baby. The rest was really a blur. I pushed out my placenta not long at all after she was born. Kirk cut her cord. I held her and tried to nurse her, but she wasn't ready to latch on yet. I felt great after she was out.

Her one minute APGAR was a little low (6). She was totally fine once she got going, though. We thought she'd be bigger and were surprised that she was only 7lb 1oz and 19 inches long. We took an herb bath together and I got a chance to wash some of the blood and meconium off of me. Ginger told me that this was one of the messiest births she had ever attended. Looking back at my pictures from after the birth, you can see smears of meconium on my arm!

I did not have any tears at all. I felt wonderful after her birth, although I was a little tired! Lily is perfect and healthy. I healed very well and didn't bleed much after the birth. I was a little surprised at the intensity of the afterpains, but Tylenol was a tremendous help. After the birth, we relaxed and spent time with our family. My parents, my sister and brother-in-law, my grandparents, the midwives, and Kirk and I all had a champagne toast with a special bottle of champagne we bought just for the occasion.

Lily was absolutely beautiful. She had my eyes and nose and Kirk's mouth and hands. She had long monkey toes like me and red hair. I could not believe how much she looked like me. I can't believe how much I love her and I never thought it would be possible to love Kirk more than I already did. It's sad though, because I am finally seeing exactly what I missed out on with Trinity.

I am so glad that we were able to have a homebirth. It is the best decision we have ever made. I cannot imagine birth any other way. I could not have done it without the loving support of Ginger and the rest of her team. I am very proud of myself for being able to do this. I had no idea what my body could do. I made and grew and birthed a perfect, live baby! Lily's birth was an incredibly empowering and healing experience for me.

A Waterbirth Chronicle
by Celeste G., Haltom City, TX
Mother of Ethan Austin (10/01/09)

On October 1, the day finally arrived and it was wonderful! I’m going to document the experience for my own memory’s sake in this birth story too, so it will be long and very detailed. If you don’t want all that info, just fast forward to the bottom. So, as I sit on my donut to relieve the pressure on my lower half, here’s how the home birth went:

12:30 a.m. – got up to pee as I so often did when I was pregnant, but when I went back to bed, I was having some cramping really low down like we learned in our Bradley class. So, I just waited a while to see if it continued and tried to move around to see if I could alleviate it. It continued. So, I breathed through it and tried to go back to sleep because that was what we learned to do in the Bradley class if labor started in the middle of the night. I tried all the relaxation techniques and positions to get back to sleep, but I had a million things on my brain…should I be timing these? Will I have time to take a good shower before this all starts? When do I wake David up? I’m going to miss pregnancy so much (except for the heartburn). Oh my gosh, I need to vacuum!!!

2:00 a.m. – felt a “pop” inside and then some discharge, so I got up to pee again and found the mucus plug in the toilet – oh my gosh, this it officially it!!! Time to wake David…we weren’t planning on using the timer at the beginning because we thought the contractions would be so far apart that we would be able to just look at the clock. But they were coming every 5 minutes or less apart and we were getting scared that we had fast forwarded through the early labor and wouldn’t have time to contact those that lived farthest away (Raynee – the sister-in-law that took pics – lives in Killeen about three hours away) . We got up and took showers and started getting things ready. We started getting things out of the box that we assembled all of the home birth kit stuff in (towels, plastic sheeting, sign for door to let everyone know what all the noise was, bulb syringe, peri bottle, Hibiclens solution, 1st diaper and outfit for baby, outfits for me and David that Mom made for this occasion, etc.).

4:00 a.m. – David started calling Raynee, Mom, and Ginger to let them know things started. I laid in bed for the most part to deal with the labor pains and they were still coming so close together – I guess we won’t be playing games and watching movies like we thought!!!

5:30 a.m.– Mom and Dad arrived and brought breakfast with them. I switched to the birthing ball and David found a sweet spot on my back to help relieve the back labor pains. That same spot worked really well while I was standing, too. Dad also brought cigars to hand out when the baby finally arrives. Dad came to drop off Mom, give me a hug and take the car back home, so he left around 6:00.

8:00 a.m. – Raynee arrived and my contractions were so intense that I didn’t even greet her!!! She brought some great kolaches with her (from the Czech Stop in West) along with banana bread and just quietly started setting the camera equipment up.

8:30 a.m. – David called the midwife to let her know to go ahead and come over. Mom and Raynee brought the tub into the living room area (we had already inflated the week before) and continued getting things set up. I moved between couch, birth ball, and standing to deal with the contractions.

10:00 a.m. – Ginger (midwife) arrived and she checked my cervix to find that I was 6 centimeters, 100% effaced, and the baby was already coming down into the pelvis (I could’ve told you that based on the bone pain I was having!!!). I was really relieved that things were going so smoothly and that we were farther along than I thought we would be – the contractions were getting so intense and overwhelming that I was getting really focused and started ignoring people so I could breathe and cope. I can’t tell you how many times I yelled “David squeeze!!!” and then he would use the counter pressure on my lower back to help me cope – without him I would have been a wreck and not have handled the pain as well. Finally, we filled the tub and changed the course of events. The tub truly is the “midwife’s epidural”. I went from contractions that were about a 7 or 8 on my pain scale back to contractions of an intensity of around 4 or 5 when I climbed in the water, and it was so easy to move around and change positions in the water!!! Everyone was offering me water and food – boy the banana bread was great!!! They were trying all sorts of things to help me cope and breathe and relax between contractions (warm compresses, cool rags on my head and neck, stroking my hair). All the while Ginger is checking my blood pressure and heart rate as well as using the water Doppler to periodically check the baby’s heart rate – everything was right on target and perfectly normal.

12:00 p.m. – I started standing to get the contractions more intense to keep things moving along. The best position in the water to cope with the pain was me on my back, but the baby was moving to posterior position, so we got me out of the water and moved me to the bed to flip the baby to anterior (baby’s face toward my back). I assumed the “knees to chest” position and the baby flipped in about 20 minutes. Chandra (midwife’s assistant) arrived and she is a certified chiropractor so we moved to the bed and she used some positions that helped with the back pain. She and David made the pain go once again from a 7 or 8 to a 4 or 5 – I love chiropractic!!! I moved to the birth ball to help keep the baby in the correct position and Ginger checked me again to see that I was 7 centimeters.

3:00 p.m. – The midwives suggested that I try to sleep between contractions to conserve energy because I was getting really tired and I still had the pushing ahead. I laid on the bed and slept for about 30 minutes and the contractions just kind of stopped for that time to let me gather my wits. Mom and Raynee left to get dinner for everyone while I took a break.

4:30 p.m. - We moved me back to the tub so that I could keep relaxing and deal with the intensity of the contractions. Mom and Raynee got back with the food just in time to hear that I was now at 9 centimeters. For the next 30 minutes I breathed through the contractions and just had to wait for the urge to push to arrive – what a long wait that seemed like.

5:45 p.m. – I finally felt the urge to push and what an overwhelming feeling!!! I pushed for about 30 minutes and out came our beautiful boy!!! Ethan Austin was born at 6:24pm and weighed 8 lbs., 6oz. He was 21.5 inches long and perfect in every way. He came out very calm and it took some time for him to aggressively cry. Babies born in the water are generally very calm and quiet and he was textbook. The placenta came about 5 minutes after he was placed on my tummy and I got up out of the water to go lie down in bed so the midwife could check my uterus to see that things were clamping down well. When I got out of the water, I was freezing and shivering, so they got me to the bed and covered me up. They brought Ethan to me and we tried to get him to breast feed, but he didn’t want to and didn’t know how yet. Since then, we have still been trying to master the art of breastfeeding and have had much success with the nipple shields. Everyone keeps reassuring me that he won’t need those “training wheels” soon and we will become accessory free!!! I have a couple of tears in different places and hemorrhoids, so I’ve been trying to stay horizontal and now I have a donut for when I sit. Ginger said she wanted to do stitches, but I just couldn’t imagine putting my body through that so soon after the trauma it suffered from labor, so I opted out of stitches. She said it wasn’t bad enough that I HAD to get stitches, just that she suggested I did, so I opted not to, but to keep the area extremely clean and keep my legs together so things would seal back up nicely. It’s working very well and David and Mom have been helping me take care of it so I’m healing up nicely.

We have already had our first visit to the doctor where he confirmed everything the midwife said and gave Ethan his first physical and again confirmed that he is strong and healthy and every measurement is textbook. It was a hard and wonderful week and I’m very grateful to my birth team for all the help and support they gave us. I couldn’t have done it without them and have plenty of pictures and memories that will last a lifetime. The Lord blessed us with a wonderful pregnancy and beautiful child, and we couldn’t be happier… :o) 

A Surprise Breech
by Robin M., Arlington, TX
Mother of  Melody (07/09/91), Adam (06/08/94), Olivia (05/13/01), and Sophia (09/08/09) and Stepmom of Brianna (04/28/99) 

My first baby was a hospital c-section, my second a hospital VBAC, and my third a homebirth. When I got pregnant the fourth time, I knew I wanted to have another homebirth, but it was a new marriage and something I had to talk my husband Bryan into. He’s an Emergency Room nurse, and because he sees so much crazy stuff going on in the ER, he was very reluctant and very much felt that birth needed to happen in the hospital. I’m also a nurse and knew that the hospital tends to be very rigid with procedures, and having experienced labor and delivery in both settings, I preferred the flexibility of a homebirth. Ginger was the first midwife we interviewed, and she made it clear to us that she would transfer to the hospital if necessary, and that made Bryan comfortable. I also took him to Bradley Method classes with me, so he would feel more prepared.

Then at around seven months, we found that Sophia was breech. My first baby had been breech, and I had to have a c-section. Bryan said he was against the homebirth if she was still breech closer to my due date, but I still wanted to try it. Ginger was confident in her experience, and I knew that if we went to the hospital, they would just do a c-section. I did all the exercises and techniques that we learned to get Sophia to turn into the optimal position, and we thought she had. A day or so before I went into labor, though, I felt her squirming a lot and I was very uncomfortable. I think that’s when she turned back into breech position, without any of us knowing.

About 4:30 in the morning, the day before Sophia was born, I was having a dream that we were down in a game room and my husband was playing ping pong. As a joke, he hit the ping pong ball right in my crotch, and when it hit me, I felt something go “pop”, and I jumped up out of the dream and said, “Why’d you do that?!” Bryan woke up, like, “What?” My water had just broke. I was in labor all day long, and ironically it was the Labor Day holiday.

We watched a marathon of “Dirty Jobs”, and I was text messaging with Ginger back and forth. Since this was my fourth actual delivery, I told her I could wait a while before she came. At around 5 p.m., I go up and started walking around to try to get things moving along, and it worked. The contractions started getting stronger, and Ginger came at about six that evening. It had been 12 hours of labor at this point.

I remember thinking that this labor was a lot more intense than with my other children. And in the heat of labor, most women think it’s the worse, but even looking back now, this was definitely the most intense. Usually you have the head putting pressure fairly evenly and contractions that give you a break in between, but this was like the contraction wouldn’t stop, and it was forcing my bood pressure to go up because I was having a lot of discomfort. I tried the bathtub for about 30 minutes, but I felt like I didn’t have control in the bathtub and it’s hard to move around in there.

Finally we found out the reason for all this discomfort. I had fallen onto the bed in the knees-back position, and had given a couple pushes, when Ginger said she didn’t feel like the baby was in the right position. She told me to stand by the side of the bed and squat. She was examining me, and she said, “I think I just got a handful of meconium, what do you want to do?” My husband was getting very anxious. Then Ginger said, “This is a bottom that I’m feeling.” Surprise, Sophia was breech. Ginger had done a lot of breech deliveries and she said that if we wanted to try it, she thought it would be fine.

She also told us that we could call the paramedics, but that would delay things because they wouldn’t want to deliver the baby until they got us to the hospital. I felt like if the baby was already this close, it would be dangerous to wait, so I said I wanted to try. I felt very confident in Ginger’s skills, but I didn’t want to go against what Bryan wanted to do. He was in agreement that we should just try. So squatting by the bed, I gave one push, and her legs came down, then another hard push and Ginger was able to sweep the arms down. It felt like she put both hands in me, and I gave a third push and Sophia was out. The minute they’re out, all your fears are gone. She was just fine, bright-eyed, 7 lbs., 11 oz., which we thought was funny because we had spent a lot of late nights running to 7-11 getting junk food and whatever I wanted.

The first thing I wanted to do after holding my baby and kissing my husband was give Ginger a big hug. If it hadn’t been for her and her experience, I wouldn’t have been able to do the home birth. Our insurance didn’t cover any of Ginger’s care, but it was absolutely worth every penny out of pocket.

Finally, a Homebirth and a Boy!
by Beth B., Midlothian, TX
Mother of Katie Beth (07/14/99), Abbie (05/23/02), Anna (09/30/03), Jenna (08/22/07), and Bryce (08/23/09

We had our first four children in hospitals, but with our fifth we decided to hire a midwife, in the beginning because we didn’t have insurance and the cost difference was so great. But the more I learned about midwifery and home birth, the more I knew it was the way that I wanted to go. In the hospitals, I had always felt completely out of control, with someone telling me how I should lay and that I have to lay and telling me what I should be doing whether I felt like I should be doing it or not. I wanted to have the experience I wanted to have.

My husband’s coworker had recommended the homebirth experience with a midwife friend of Ginger’s. We interviewed a few different midwives in this area, and all of them were really nice, but I liked Ginger’s mothering nature.

After four daughters, I had decided that I wasn’t meant to have a boy and had already started looking at girl clothes, but my husband hadn’t given up hope. When we had a 3D-4D ultrasound, I thought the technician was kidding at first but he was very clearly a boy.

Around 9:30 p.m. on the night of our daughter’s second birthday when I was at 38 weeks, I went into labor. This was actually only the second time of our five that I went into labor by myself – the first three were induced and the last my water broke but by the time I got to the hospital, they felt they had to restart my labor. We had invited people over for dinner to have a little birthday party, and I had spent the whole day cooking and cleaning. The baby waited until everything was over, and everyone was gone, and as soon as I laid down, I knew he was coming.

Contractions gradually got stronger, and I didn’t call Ginger until midnight. Both sets of grandparents came out in the middle of the night, because they weren’t going to miss it. It took a lot longer than I had imagined it would, about 12 hours, everybody was awake but the kids, they did get woken up eventually b/c it was loud.

I labored some in the tub and some in the shower and some in the bed; it depended on how I was feeling at the time. I really enjoyed it. It hurt a lot more than my four daughters’ births in the hospital, there weren’t any drugs, but I did enjoy it more and I remember more of it, because I was awake for it. I had epidurals with a ll the other ones, and once you have the epidural they encourage you to sleep so you’re rested when it comes time to deliver.

Ginger was there but she wasn’t always right there, and she wasn’t checking me every 30 minutes or 45 minutes or even every hour; she just kind of let me do it. I knew pretty much what to expect, but she did explain some things to me that I hadn’t experienced before - like when it came time to push, what to expect it to feel like. Her care wasn’t intrusive, she just fit it in wherever she could, not jumping in in the middle of contractions. She was good about making suggestions of what might be better or more comfortable or would help it along, getting me to stand up, which was one of the last things I wanted to do, but it got things moving along a little better.

We had the bed all made up, but we delivered on the floor. Bryce, our first boy, was born at 9:38 in the morning, and my husband actually caught the baby in the floor with Ginger. Then our oldest got to cut the umbilical cord and put on his first diaper. My mother and my husband’s mother got to be there, and our kids got to come in right after the birth.

One of the things I liked the most was who you wanted to be there was who was there. In the hospital you’re limited to one or two people. This was really special for my mother-in-law, because she had all boys and this was the first time she was able to be in the room for the birth of a grandchild.

I would do it again in a heartbeat and I wish I had done it the times previously at home. It was hard, especially considering the day I had before with the cooking, cleaning, and party guests. After we weighed Bryce and he nursed a little bit, I was done, I was probably half asleep there. But at the same time I was proud of myself. I didn’t think I was going to make it, and there were times I was almost ready to call it off. I was ready to get up and go to the hospital. But at the end of it, I was proud of myself. It was probably the single most rewarding experience of my life, knowing that I did it and did it with the people I wanted to share it with. And Ginger, I can’t imagine having done it with anybody else.

This is only the second time in the entire time I’ve known my husband that I’ve ever seen him cry – not only did he finally get a boy, but he even got to catch him! He is loving every minute of it.

My First Homebirth
by Summer B., Dallas, TX
Mother of Aviel Levi (02/26/10)

I don't remember when or why I decided to have a homebirth, except that I had met several women who I respected who shared their stories, and I have a strong cynicism toward the medical industry as a whole. I imagined myself hooked up to equipment, trapped to a bed, wearing a white flimsy robe, under fluorescent lights, with masks and stainless steel around me and it all felt a little too science-fiction to me. Instead I wanted a calm, quiet, dark environment with candles and guitar music and aromatherapy and a big pool of water and just a few other women I trusted there to help me. My husband Jerome, quite the naturopath, supported my vision wholeheartedly.

When I got pregnant with our first, I immediately started researching midwives in the area, looking at their websites online, making phone calls, and scheduling interviews.  Since my mother lives out of state and wouldn't be close to support me through my prenatal care, I wanted someone motherly with a lot of experience who had children of her own.  Something about Ginger's picture made me so comfortable - her sweet spirit and sense of humor and down-to-earth nature came through, and I had a feeling from the start that she was the one.

At our first interview when I was around 12 or 13 weeks, she immediately asked me - "Have you heard the heartbeat yet?" I had not, and she pulled out her Doppler and let my husband and I hear our baby for the first time.  I found this gesture to be so thoughtful for her to do for someone who wasn't even her client yet - and yes, it was a good sales tactic on her part!  We clicked with her on a personal level as well.  

Through the process, my husband Jerome (who loves cereal) came up with a way of classifying the midwives - Multi-grain Cheerios, Kashi, or Wheat from the Ground. These categories told us "how natural" we felt each midwife's philosophy was. (We even met with one midwife who he called a Fruit Loop!)  Ginger was somewhere between Kashi and Wheat from the Ground, which matches us perfectly.

My pregnancy was awesome, with the only problems being a bit of nausea and lots of heartburn. (Some people believe the heartburn happens when the baby has a lot of hair, and seeing my baby's head-full for the first time, I believe it!) The prenatal visits were comfortable in my living room, with us sharing tea and chit-chatting.  I felt completely at ease and able to ask Ginger anything, my husband was able to be there for most of the appointments, the three of us laughed a lot, and not having to leave the house was a huge perk because we only had one car at the time!

When I got closer to full-term, Ginger gave me what I think must be her "New Mom Don't Do Anything Stupid" speech.  She warned me that first-time labor could be up to 36 hours, to not get too excited, to eat and drink, to get lots of rest, that she would come when I couldn't speak during contractions and that if I wasn't dilated enough when she got here, she would leave so I wouldn't be a "watched pot."

My own mother had a nightmare story from my birth, which ended in a C-section after 22 hours of unbearable pain and the doctor telling her she was the type of woman who would have died in childbirth before modern advances in medical technology.  So I was really psyching myself up that this would not be easy, fast, pain-free, etc.

A book that really helped me prepare for natural childbirth was "Labor of Love" by X.  It emphasized the importance of positive affirmations during your birth, and I made a list of all the things I planned to think and say out loud during labor like "This feeling is normal.  I'm okay. I'm helping my baby. My baby will be here soon. My husband loves me. God is here with me. I'm safe. This is normal." Etc. 

I also had the beautiful privilege of being at a friend's homebirth when I was five months pregnant. My friend emphasized relaxation throughout her contractions, and made having a baby without meds look very possible if not easy! I so wish that more young women had the opportunity to witness normal women giving birth at home under natural circumstances. It gave me so much strength and preparation for my first time!

I went to Sam's Club and other errands with that same friend the day before I went into labor (three days before my due date), and I felt my body doing interesting things as we walked a lot.  More tired, more crampy.  I hadn't really had Braxton-Hicks with this pregnancy and I wouldn't say that I was having them then, I just felt like something was going to happen soon.  I came home exhausted and told my husband I was skipping our Wednesday night class and went to bed at 8:30 ("just in case I go into labor tonight"). I took Ginger's advice seriously, partly out of fear of the unknown, partly because I tend to be an overachieving student.

I got wonderful sleep and woke up around 6:45am (much earlier than I usually do) and found some pink in the toilet. Mucus plug?  Yay!  Something is happening!  I was so excited, but forced myself to lay back down until my husband got home from his morning prayers at synagogue. When he got home, I told him that I was having come-and-go cramps and had lost my mucus plug, so he suggested we go to Wal-Mart and "just act normal".  This was more of Ginger's advice to just go about your day and do what you need to do to help the time pass.

In Walmart and throughout the rest of the day I felt a little whoozy, like I was on drugs of some kind, and I think it was my body's natural hormones getting me ready. We got home and I tried to take a nap, but was way too excited (and not tired after my ten hours of amazing sleep the night before).  My husband said, "Why don't you get up and do something, then maybe you'll get tired enough to take a nap?"  So I decided to go to the library and check out some movies to watch while I was in labor (yeah right!).  I rented a whole pile of flicks, thinking we'd watch any leftovers in the days after the baby came with family who was visiting (yeah right again - nobody wants to watch movies when there's a new baby in the room).  But it gave me something to do.  I then went to TJ Maxx to buy holiday gifts for our friends for the Jewish holiday of Purim, which was scheduled for Sunday.

By this time it was around 3:30 in the afternoon, and as I was walking to my car feeling more whoozy than ever and a little bit crampy, a lady said, "That baby's coming soon!"  And I said, "Yeah, I think tonight!"  Back at our apartments, a neighbor asked me, "When are you due?" and I said, "I think I'm in labor right now!"

My husband works from home and he was steadily pounding at the computer when I walked in and needed me to find his college diploma for some kind of proof of insurance.  So, cramps and all, I dug through our guest room closet (the room where the baby would be born) pulling out box after box of stuff, getting more and more irritated, until I finally decided that it could wait until another day. Eight months later, we still haven't found that darn thing!

Then it hit me - are these contractions?  Should I be timing these?  They weren't what I expected contractions to feel like, but they were getting more and more regular.  It was around 5 pm.  I sat in the bathroom and timed them for a while.  Still not painful at all, still nothing to call Ginger about, but I wanted to see if they were any kind of regular.  They weren't.  Some were 4 minutes apart, some 20 seconds, and anything in between.

Jerome went to evening prayers and I began making a breakfast casserole for the birth team.  I figured it was happening tonight.  At one point, Jerome's sister, an ER nurse and my doula-at-a-distance, called from Baltimore, and when I told her I was pretty sure I was in labor, she started coaching me to "envision you're on a beach" during what I still refused to call contractions but was calling "cramps."  The pain was increasing by this point, but nothing unbearable just like hard period cramps. At one point, I was a hilarious picture to myself - I was holding the phone in one hand, oven mitt in the other, leaning my bare belly over the open oven for its comforting heat, with my uncomfortable pants waistband sagging down under my butt.  I told my sister-in-law on the phone and we laughed.

I guess it was around 6:30 when I called Ginger for the first time.  We live in Dallas, and she lives about an hour away, so I wanted her to at least know all this was going down. She told me to call her when I couldn't talk during contractions.

In the next couple of hours, all my plans for a hippy acoustic homebirth went out the window. Ginger had mentioned a client who birthed on the toilet, and I found that disgusting to have your baby on a toilet, but guess where I wanted to be at this point?  On the toilet. By myself.  Complete quiet.  No, honey, I do not want you to play the guitar or spritz me with frankincense.  I felt like I had to poop something massive, and I wanted the toilet to be there when I did.  I occasionally called my husband to bring me water or juice or a handful of almonds, but other than that I wanted him to stay back! I had read somewhere along the way about "unassisted childbirth" where the woman goes away by herself like a mama cat to birth her babies alone, and I began to see the beauty of what I had previously feared.  I kept saying my positive mantras to myself and breathing deeply.

Even though I could still talk during contractions if I made myself, I definitely didn't want to, so I told Jerome to call Ginger again.  We still hadn't filled the birth pool, because I didn't want to stall my labor by getting in there prematurely.  Jerome called her around 9, 9:30.  I had told him beforehand that I didn't want any clocks or mentions of time during my labor, because I didn't want to worry if things were going too slow or too fast.  I just wanted to be in the moment and go with the flow.  I also didn't really want to know how dilated I was until I was THERE. Jerome called Ginger, and after their conversation started filling up the pool.  "What did she say?"  "I don't know if you want me to tell you."  "Well I see you filling up the pool, and I'm not stupid, she must think I'm progressing a little bit!"  He said that she was sleeping in her truck because she had lost power at her house, and when I heard that I said, "Why didn't you tell her to come sleep here?!" "I didn't know if you wanted her to come yet." "Yes! If she's sleeping in her truck, she might as well come sleep here and be warm and comfortable, because she's going to have to come sometime tonight anyway."

Thank G-d Ginger lost electricity, because I don't know if she would have gotten here on time otherwise.  I probably wouldn't have told her to come until it was too late. In some ways, though, my first-time, clueless status played in my favor, as I had absolutely no idea how far along I was or how much worse it could get. So it helped me keep psyching myself up mentally like, "hey it might get a lot worse, so deal with this and relax."  Jerome suggested I get in the shower and labor a bit.  In there, I finally spritzed myself with some of the aromatherapy scents I had purchased for pain relief.  They were refreshing, but at this point the pain was pretty bad and I was way past calling them contractions. I am so proud of how calm I remained during all of this.  I was groaning and breathing hard, but I felt completely in control and at ease.  I was not fearful or worried or psychotic in any way.

When I got out of the shower, I freaked for a moment that things were getting intense and Ginger still wasn't here yet.  I yelled out for Jerome, "I need you to call Ginger NOW!"  As soon as he called her, she was literally walking up to my door.  She came into my bedroom, where I was having a contraction, leaning over my sink.  She entered gently, scoping out the situation, and waited for me to finish the contraction before asking if I wanted her to check me.  Her presence was so comforting, but I was afraid that all of this might just be pre-labor and I might only be dilated to a 2 or something.  It really hadn't been horrible yet, and I was expecting hell.  She said, "You're at 8 centimeters."  Oh my gosh, this was the best news I have ever heard in my life before or since, almost including my baby's birth itself!  I was so relieved to know that all I had gone through was real labor, I had progressed well, and I was nearing the end.  There would be no 22-hour or 36-hour labor for me.  It was 11pm.  Ginger said I could get in the pool.

I have to say that having the midwife there, and her assistant Ame who arrived shortly thereafter, made me a bit more of a big crybaby.  I mean, yeah, the pain of transition was definitely worse, but I think I may have handled it better if I was still alone.  Having someone there to hear you scream and cry kind of gives you the liberty to scream and cry. They're there to take care of you.  I don't know if this makes sense, and I definitely wanted and needed them there, I just let my wimp come out a little more with them there. So at this point there were a few screams and louder groans and fish-flails around the birth pool, but still nothing worthy of an Oscar.

My husband Jerome was in the other room making phone calls or home videos or something when Ginger said I could start pushing.  I never wanted my husband in the pool with me, as I felt like I needed space to do this myself, but at that point I got a little scared like - Oh My God, I'm about to push out a baby, and I've never done this before. So I called for him to come in - "I need you to sit here and say something and I don't care what it is, I just need to hear your voice."  I have no clue what he said but it was soothing and sweet and reassuring and his presence helped me gain the strength to start pushing.

He said later that he was never really sure if we would "actually" have a home birth or if we would transfer to the hospital at some point. He has seen two sides of me - the big baby side and the stubborn mule side - and he didn't know which would win out.  At the point of pushing, I said, "I can do this, I'm going to do this! This baby is coming out soon!" (Thank you, mantras.)  And at that point, he said he knew it was actually going to happen.  Later I watched the home video he made in the living room unbeknownst to me, where he filmed the candles and the quiet (he was having a hippy homebirth while I was on the toilet evidently), and where he whispered into the camera, "She's doing AWESOME!" and I was so happy to see the reverence in his eyes and know that I had made him proud too.

Pushing was frustrating because the baby's head kept slipping back up in there, which Ginger had told me would happen, but in the moment seems so annoying when you've worked so hard to get it there. Ginger was encouraging me to push a certain way, and it helped a lot. I was on all fours in the birth pool and my head would go under water every time I pushed and breathed out through my nose, which felt kind of good, like an escape. Then she said, "I see your baby's head." She told me to feel down there, and I did but was a little too preoccupied to care or take my time with it.  Ame said, "Your baby has blond curly hair, I love your baby!"

The weirdest feeling was when the head was out and everything else was in - just a huge plug in you.  The shoulders and everything else came out pretty easily and the baby was born at 2:09am, just three hours after Ginger arrived.  I will brag and say they called me a Super Mom and told me how great I did for a first-time mom.  Listen, this is a huge accomplishment and I'm proud of myself!  And I'm so happy I did it the way I wanted, at home, with no meeds or interventions. The stubborn mule won.

I was sitting there still on all-fours, breathing, in a bit of shock that it just happened, and my first words were - "Is it a boy or a girl?"  They showed my husband behind my back and whispered, "Do you want to tell her?"  Jerome said, "We have a beautiful baby boy." He was a whopping 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and 22 inches long!

I turned around and they handed him to me, and I noticed his huge beautiful hands and his full head of hair and his little bird-face, and I fell in love. I nursed him for the first time, which was a little awkward and slippery leaning up against the pool walls, so I wanted to get out pretty soon.

Ginger and Ame stayed for another 3-4 hours and helped me get washed up, fed, and in bed. I also had to be stitched up, because I tore.  I think it happened because I let my mind get ahead of my body and I decided that I wanted him to come out right then for various reasons and I just made it happen, instead of taking my time with it a bit more and letting my body stretch more.  Ame gave me a tour of my placenta, which was very interesting. And a bit gross. 

No one really told me that you'd feel like you got hit by a truck in the days after the birth.  Ginger gave me a postpartum instructions sheet, but I guess I didn't put two-and-two together.  Thank God, my mother arrived from South Carolina at 9pm that night, less than 24 hours after the birth of her grandson, and was able to stay for 2 whole weeks to help me get adjusted.

We finally settled on the name Aviel, which means God is my father, and I call him Avi for short (pronounced "AH-vee").  It has taken me eight months to make myself write this birth story, and he is now crawling and chewing on everything with his 7 teeth, and wearing blue jeans and corduroys and starting to look like a little boy instead of a baby. I am so deeply joyful to have him in our lives, and Ginger will always be a special part of our lives for the role she played in helping me have a successful homebirth as a first-time mom.