Ethan Michael

My son Lucas was born on March 18, 1999. He was born at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Although the result of my experience was taking home my beautiful son, there were several things that happened that made me really want to try a home/water birth with my second child. We chose Lorri Walker to be our midwife. We also rented an Aqua Doula, which is a portable birthing tub that maintains a warm water temperature (it was great!). My friend Christina Grace attended the birth with us. Besides being a close and trusted friend, Christina is a massage therapist and has gone through doula training. The plan was to have her and my incredible husband Jeff both there to support me and help take care of Lucas as needed.

On February 28, 2002, I woke up and felt a sort of a pop in my cervix. I remembered this feeling from when Lucas was born and wasn't surprised to see that I had lost my mucus plug when I went to the bathroom. I figured I might still have a long way to go (it was two days later that I delivered Lucas after I lost the mucus plug) but was pretty close. I had a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions during the day but in the early evening I had some contractions that were a bit deeper and stronger but not really painful. Throughout the night I woke up to several more fairly strong contractions but they weren't really close together. When I woke up in the morning Lucas wanted to nurse. After he nursed I began to have some really strong contractions and they were getting a lot closer together. After about an hour of contractions that were between 5 and 7 minutes apart I decided to call Lorri. She lives right around the corner from me and I thought I should give her the heads up in case she decided she needed to come by before she went into the office. She asked a few questions and said to just keep track of things and let her know when the contractions got a little closer and more intense. This was about 7am or so. At this point I decided to call Christina. She arrived around 9 o¹clock. The contractions were getting stronger. I rode each one of them out with lots of moans and I rested in between. My feeling during this time was that I just wanted to be left alone to labor. I felt like a cat that just wants to find a box in a closet to have her kittens. I wanted to be alone and not to be touched, but I was grateful to look up and see a trusted face when I needed reassurance. Christina and Jeff took turns between watching Lucas and being with me. I talked to Lorri again at one point and she suggested a shower. She told me not to get in the birth tub too soon as it might slow down labor. After I took a shower Christina massaged my back for a brief time but then I really wanted to be left alone again. Around 11am that I decided I wanted to get in the tub. For some reason, I knew it was time. It was a real relief to get in there. It was really warm and felt good just to let my body relax and float. My labor slowed for a few contractions and then was back to every five minutes or so. I told Christina to call Lorri again and see what she thought. I felt as if she should get there. As we talked to her on the phone she heard me experience several contractions about 3 or 4 minutes apart and she decided she should come.

Lorri and her assistants Kris and Shawn arrived around 12:20pm. Lorri walked in and said hi and then she went to wash her hands. I had gotten out of the tub for a bit and was on the bed. Right at that moment I experienced a contraction and let out sort of a grunting noise. Lorri poked her head out of the bathroom and said,² That sounded like you wanted to push.² I said that I did. Lorri said she thought I was ready and told Christina that we should call Jeff to come home. (He had taken Lucas to the park). Christina said she wanted to make sure I was ready for her to call them back because I had told her I wanted Lucas out of the house for a while. Lorri said that if I want him here for the birth she should call now. It amazed me that Lorri guessed just by listening to the sounds that I was making that I was ready and I knew she was right. Christina didn¹t really realize how ready I was. Later she told me it was because I seemed to be handling things so well she didn¹t realize the birth was so close. At this point I asked Lorri to check me just to be sure and I was indeed fully dilated. I was. Christina called Jeff to come home and I got back in the tub and started to push. It started to get a bit intense and there was one moment where I felt a little panicky. When this happened Lorri moved toward me and let me know that she was there and everything would be all right. I looked around and saw her face and Kris, Shawn and Christina and was reassured that all was fine.

When Jeff got home Christina came up and said he was going to stay downstairs with Lucas for a while. They both figured it would still be awhile before the baby came. Lorri said he better get upstairs if he wanted to be there for the birth. I alternated between leaning backwards, leaning forward on my knees and being on my hands and knees while I was pushing. I was on my knees for the last few pushes reached down and felt the head during a push and said something I may never live down: I think this baby is going to come out of my butt! (It sure felt like it.) After I was reassured that it wouldn¹t I pushed another time and my bag of waters burst like a water balloon. Immediately after that the baby¹s head popped out and then his body pretty much shot out after. Jeff and I both caught him and then I leaned back into the pool, intensely relieved, and held my new baby in the warm water.

He was born at 1:18 pm, less than an hour after the midwife and her assistants arrived. He weighed 7lbs 13 oz. Lucas and Christina walked in seconds later. Lucas came over to the pool and met his baby brother. He touched his head and felt the cord pulsating. He thought it was pretty cool. We stayed in the water for a little bit and then got out so they could cut the cord because we were collecting cord blood for storage. The placenta came out soon after with no problem. Lorri, Kris and Shawn stayed for a few more hours and it was such a warm and comforting environment to be in. They did their thing (paperwork, making sure the baby and I were both fine, cleaning up). We were all just hanging around the bedroom. It was sort of like being at a slumber party or something. The baby started nursing with no problem. Then Lorri and her team packed up and were on their way. Christina stayed for a bit and made sure I ate something and everything was cleaned up and then she left. And there we were with our new baby, safe and sound and comfortable in our own home.

It was all a really amazing experience.

By Wendy Erikson

If you had a baby with the midwives at South Coast Women's Health Care, we'd love to include your birth story here! You can submit photos and the story to: info@southcoastmidwifery.com

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