Exploring Homebirth : Part Two

Yesterday Hannah shared her beautiful birth story, along with facts to support homebirth. Today Kash takes us on the journey that led her to choose an unassisted homebirth, and stresses the importance of Mom's comfort during labor. Like homebirthing itself, an unassisted homebirth is controversial and not for everyone. But for those with low risk pregnancies it is an option, one worth educating ourselves about. As I stated yesterday, please don't take the information shared here as medical advice. These are simply mothers sharing what worked for them, beautiful experiences which may broaden your horizons. So please join me in welcoming Kash.

I'm a huge fan of certain birth authors, but two that I love who write extensively about the physiology of birth are Michel Odent and Sarah Buckley, who are also both physicians. One of the things that both their writing emphasize is the importance of the birthing woman being unimpeded and unstressed. Most women have heard of the fear-tension-pain cycle in childbirth; their work goes farther and analyzes how environment effects each of these as well as the birthing woman's physiology, specifically her hormones. One thing that I have taken away from their work is that birth is safest when the woman feels safest. Birth is safest when the process is uninterrupted, and it proceeds quickly.

Michel Odent described and named what he calls the Fetal Ejection Reflex. It happens, he writes, when the mother feels truly safe. Sarah Buckley, in a Mothering magazine article, described the results of a hormonal surge: "The mother experiences a sudden rush of energy; she will be upright and alert, with a dry mouth and shallow breathing and perhaps the urge to grasp something. She may express fear, anger, or excitement, and the CA rush will cause several very strong contractions, which will birth the baby quickly and easily."

There is, of course, much supporting detail, but their work helped reframe my thoughts about birth. I knew I wanted an unhindered, safe birth; I had to figure out what would get myself & my baby there.

Homebirth was something that had intrigued and interested me from the time of my first pregnancy, but I was uncomfortable pursuing it with our living circumstances at the time. When I become pregnant for a second time, there was no other option in my mind.

My son's birth was quick and joyous. I had no stress due to deciding when to leave the house, nor to less than supportive nurses, people I had never met. I'm an introvert, and knowing everyone who would be present was a balm to my soul. There was still stress introduced, however, and unfortunately, it was introduced just as I entered and left transition, and began to have the urge to push.

I believe that stress, which was in fact related to the midwife we had chosen to attend the birth, impeded the fetal ejection reflex somewhat. I had not prepared for a birth before she arrived, and her delayed arrival, combined with her inability to maintain a copy of directions to our house, definitely initiated the fear-tension-pain cycle, albeit beginning at tension, rather than fear.

And so I continued my quest, chasing the fetal ejection reflex. How would I feel safest, and what was the best way to have an unhindered birth. Years before I had a positive pregnancy test for my third child, I had my answer. Freebirth. Unassisted, unattended birth.

I felt it was the safest way to birth my baby, for me.

Throughout my pregnancy, I listened to the song "Defying Gravity," from the musical Wicked. One line asserts, "It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes, and leap;" when my daughter's due date arrived and then ended, I truly leapt. I waited, and her due date became "a week ago." When labor arrived, a week and two days after her (very accurate) due date, it was even faster than my son's had been. Just around the three hour mark, I suddenly felt myself grabbing my husband and my mother, and standing. Even as I stood, my rational brain was asking how I had done it. I was alert, excited, and down she came - fast. Born quickly, born with the fetal ejection reflex I had instinctively felt was safest and also necessary.

Sometimes I sing to her now, a different line from "Defying Gravity;" "And if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free."

Hailing from the biggest state east of the Mississippi River, Kash is a homebirthing & homeschooling all-around crunchy mama to three little clones. In her spare time (ha!), she blogs, reads, and collaborates with others on local birth advocacy work. Stop by and visit her at A Little Rebellion.