Around 2:30am my husband gets into bed. He was on the computer. I was a good girl. I went to bed at 10pm. To give him space, I move over. POP! "I think my water broke!" Never mind, perhaps it is my imagination. I start to lay back down. Wetness. My water did break! We lay down a shower curtain on the carpet of our bedroom.
I am having contractions. Labor can take hours. I had four hours of sleep. My husband had none. We decide to go back to bed. He will try to sleep on the floor, while I labor in bed. The contraction get stronger. So strong that I hope they will not get any more stronger. I am still expecting hours of labor left. I had to go to the bathroom. I waddle to the toilet. Once I am in front of the toilet, I get the sudden urge to vomit. (If I had the urge sooner I would have RAN, not walk, to the bathroom.) Of course, I vomit into the toilet. I sit on the toilet. I pee and poop. I get the sudden desire for needing my husband to be near me.
I call for my husband. He does not come. I crawl back to the bedroom and shout for him to wake up. He wakes up with a start. I have an involuntary pushing urge. The baby's head crowns. My husbands takes a few picture and catches the baby. 5:13am.
I pick up my new daughter. I try to nurse her. The contractions hurt too much to be just a placenta in me. Something is not right. I complain to my husband. He cuts the cord to the baby. I move back into the bathroom. I am in a kneeling squat, using the edge of the bathtub for support. I give strong voluntary pushes. The "placenta" feels hard and bony.
My husband sees a bulge coming out. He prepares to deliver the "placenta". He see an awfully big and featureless bag full of icky juice. He spies an ear. This is not a placenta. It is another baby still in her caul. I give a huge push. The bag breaks. Husband catches baby B.
Baby B is not breathing. I tell my husband to start rescue breathing. (Reminding him to use only the air in his cheeks.) My husband gives only two breaths and gives up. I take baby B from him and tell him to get my Heart and Hands book. I continue rescue breaths. My husband fails to notice that I put post-it notes to mark places in the book that might be needed in a hurry. He looks up "Infant Resuscitation" in the index. I notice a pulse in the her cord. (DAH, my high school CPR class did not tell me to check for a pulse there.) Baby B starts to take breaths on her own. My husband instructs me to talk to Baby B and keep her warm. I tell her to "Keep breathing!".
Baby B's breathing and color improves. Things are stable. We should have baby B checked out by our family Ped. After arranging childcare for our sons, we take the girls to the Ped. Both girls are fine.
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Comments (49)
Uh, what? You didn't know you were having two kids at once, when you already have at least 4 others?
Wow! Congratulations on unexpected Baby B. I hope you and the cuties are doing well! They are so precious!
While I understand this new fad of "trusting birth" and "OB's are evil".. this is very dangerous. And I am someone who had a home birth.. but with the care of a midwife and all the usual tests an OB does.. and even that is super dangerous. To go unassisted, especially with twins (though can't fault you for not knowing.. or can I?).. it's a huge risk.
Thanks for sharing your story and I am so happy you had healthy babies, but please know you got lucky- not everyone is :( And yes, babies die in hospitals too blah blah blah- yeah they do, but not at the rate that they die at home, especially unassisted births. I don't even want to comment this for I am a "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all" type of person, but I want to give a heads up to anyone reading this story and thinking "Hm, I can go unassisted too!" Not every unassisted birth is like this- go to MDC and check out their unassisted birth section and there are MANY losses.. and most of them try to justify "Oh the baby would've died in the hospital too", most likely not- not with continuous fetal monitoring to detect something going wrong. And not with a NICU to save a baby hanging on the edge. Do you research and make a truly educated decision (watching business of being born and reading biased birth blogs is NOT research).@Nina1981@xanga - This is not a fad, nor is birth dangerous, even with twins. You really, really need to watch the documentary The Business of Being Born. It is not as biased as you think.
I think I may accidentally have stopped breathing while reading this..
@a12906@xanga - if you read my comment all the way through it ends with "watching the business of being born is not research" (paraphrased lol). Women in developing countries would love to have access to the medical care we have here... we should use it. Trust birth, but do it in a hospital or at least with a competent midwife (but still live close to a hospital just in case)... many women who have trusted birth have lost babies :( I am thinking about the babies life here, not just a "birth experience".
@a12906@xanga - and it is biased because one of the BIGGEST things they fail to mention is when they compare midwives in European countries to the midwives here... those midwives attending homebirths are equivalent to the CNM's here in this country.. not many CNM's in this country attend homebirths- they are in the hospitals. The homebirth midwives in this country are typically LM's or CPM's, basically they don't have a bachelors degree or much education beyond reading some books, writing some papers, and attending births. Not knocking them, I had a homebirth with an LM and I love her- but please, let's recognize the facts here.
@SeeBeeWrite@xanga - The twins were baby #4 and baby #5. The twins were my fourth pregnancy. So I had three previous pregnancies before the twins. Because the ultrasound (around 22 weeks since LMP) with my third pregnancy was way off on calculating EDD, I decided to not to do any ultrasounds with my fourth pregnancy.
@Helena_Zita@xanga - I've been pregnant quite a few times, and with the twins I could definitely tell, even without an ultrasound.
@Nina1981@xanga - Actually, compared with intermittent fetal monitoring,routine continuous electronic fetal monitoring doesn't improve outcome. It is better to have the full attention of the healthcare professional at each check (once every 30 min ) than a machine continuously tracking.
"Routine continuous EFM provides no benefit for babies and increases the risk of cesarean for mothers.The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)
recommends that for healthy, low-risk women (almost all women), fetal
heart rate be monitored with a fetoscope or Doppler every 30 minutes in
active labor and every 15 minutes during pushing.
The World Heath Organization (WHO) encourages intermittent manual listening and warns that EFM is often used inappropriately." Comfort Birth
Eh, people had twins years before all this medical technology. I personally much rather have a water birth with my children, but I still would get medical care. I'm sort of on the fence.
Amazing. Best surprise ever! Congratulations!
In one of my childbirth education classes (can't remember if it was the one I took when I was pregnant, or for my doula certification) we watched a video a video of an unexpected unassisted homebirth of twins (the couple had a midwife, but it was a fast labor and she didn't make it on time. They did know they were having twins, though.) Pretty much one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.
If #2's birth hospital is near my home then I am NOT going anywhere near the hospital until after my water breaks. I was high risk because of my lungs so my old obgyn shipped me off to the city to continue my pregnancy. All they did was charge me $150 on the many ultrasounds that I needed until my insurance kicked in. Next time I am only coming in to confirm my pregnancy, confirming the gender, and the last month of pregnany when you have to come in every week. All those blood tests is a waste. They didnt even tell my anything. I want the have the full pregnancy experience with the doctors but I may refuse afew stuff because of their BS. I will not be talked into an induction again because my specialists were not even present. I will tell the nurse "Unless you can garantee my doctor will be there, I am not coming in at that time!" I may just come in after my water breaks .Anything the doctor tried to do for the 13 hours I came in before I finally gave birth did not work. I would totally try to do a home birth if I wasnt sure how to do the whole birth certificate and testing the baby needs right after.
Wait... How did you not know you were having twins? :/ Wouldnt you know when you go to the doctors office and they give you an ultrasound?.. Ive never had a baby but when my boyfriends sister was prego she had to go to the doctors every 3 weeks for check ups (she only have one though)
for all those who claim its impossible to not know you are having twins, I can tell you it is totally possible. My best friend and his wife had twins, and they did not know they were twins until she was 8 months along.
@Nina1981@xanga - Thank you for your sanity! This blogger.... sheesh.
@a12906@xanga - Oh good, you watched a documentary. Now you know everything. Let me tell you that as a vocational nurse with two years of training even I am not licensed to assist at a birth. Giving birth is a damned complicated maneuvre and there is a very good reason why childbirth was the leading cause of death for women for up to only eighty years ago. I don't care how "low-risk" the birth is. This woman didn't even know enough about her own pregnancy to be aware that she had twins (!!!!) ... and as a result one of the babies suffered respiratory arrest for an unspecified period of time and may very well have developmental complications down the road because of oxygen starvation to the brain.... though I really hope that does not happen.
No, we should not be lauding this woman or even excusing her.
And btw, "It's not as biased as you think" is a huge red flag for any documentary if even the proponents of the film cannot truthfully say more than that in its favor.
@anchoredreams@xanga - People were also LOSING twins years before "all this medical technology." Losing them in far greater numbers than they do today. Just sayin'....
@Helena_Zita@xanga - Yeah, I agree with that assessment.
But you didn't have a medical professional check on you every thirty minutes. You didn't have a medical professional check on you AT ALL... and judging from the times you gave you had a good eight hours between labor onset and birth to get to a hospital. Instead you had your husband flipping through a resuscitation handbook and going on high school CPR class memories while your daughter was losing brain-response time by the second as she continued to not breathe. An obstetrical RN would have used a suction bulb to get Baby B breathing almost immediately after she was born. Why did you take such a risk?
@phoebester@xanga - I simply see childbirth as a normal and natural process. I personally see even intermittent fetal monitoring as not needed. At least, I was sure that my baby (well this case babies) and I would be fine without it.
Since most have professionally assisted births, I wanted to point out that continuous electronic fetal monitoring doesn't improve outcome. Intermittent fetal monitoring is an option that is just as safe.
@phoebester@xanga - Yeah, but still babies survived and thus we have an overpopulated society. I'm having my baby at home with a midwife or a dula. I really don't do well in hospitals and with people pointing out every potential thing that could be wrong. I'd put the baby into stress if I'm worrying about doctors and nurses telling me things I don't want to hear.
Other than The Business of Being Born I suggest:
Pushed by Jennifer Block
The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer
A Guide to Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth by Murray Enkin, Marc J.N.C. Keirse, James Neilson, Caroline Crowther, Lelia Duley, Ellen Hodnett and Justus Hofmey
You can read this for free at www.childbirthconnection.org . I suggest you start at Chapter 50. Effective Care in pregnancy and childbirth: a synopsis. This will give you a good summary.
There is the documentary Pregnant in America. It covers mostly the same issues as The Business of Being Born.
I almost forgot: Orgasmic Birth DVD
I also recommend Hearts and Hands by Elizabeth Davis
@phoebester@xanga - Have you ever given birth? It's not "damned complicated," in fact, it's pretty darn simple.
You labor, transition, and suddenly have the urge to push. The baby descends into the birth canal, turns slightly, pops their head out, and then turns around to slide out and greet the world. It may be painful but it's not complicated and the majority of births need no medical intervention at all. Did you know that mother and baby deaths are actually higher here than in other parts of the world where homebirths are more common? Doctors and hospitals may be helpful in some situations but as far as birth in general...they aren't doing us any favors. I wouldn't have an unassisted homebirth but I truly believe that midwives with experience are just as good as doctors when it comes to a low-risk birth. I had numerous unnecessary interventions with my three hospital births and I am never going back again!
That is a truly incredible story. I'm glad that they are both healthy, even after that the breathing incident. I would have been upset and inconsolable; I'm glad you were able to be strong enough to go through this experience. Home births are incredible and I hope that I may have one in the future. My first was too risky to consider a home birth. Congratulations.
@a12906@xanga - I don't recall
The Business of Being Bornadvocating
unassistedhome births...
@averyswife@xanga - Extremely well put. : )