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It's a boy
Message #82
Date: Dec 08 1999 01:02:18 EST
From: "Sterling D. Allan" <sterlingda@greaterthings.com>
Subject: [Greater_Things] It's a boy
Hello Family and Friends,
After 50+ hours of labor which began Saturday evening late, my wife gave
birth this Dec. 7 morning at 9:10 to a healthy boy. Though coming just a
few days prior to the Dec. 10 due date, he's a little guy, weighing in at 5
lbs. 8 oz., with a staggering height of 18.5 inches.
Cheri did an amazing job in this very difficult labor. The cervix was off
center, making it difficult for the contractions to have any progressive
effect in dilation.
We labored here in our apartment, spending much of the last 24 hours of hard
labor in a large tub of water provided by our excellent midwife, Cassandra
Westra, and kept up to temperature by Cheri's Mom, Susan Carter.
The Husband assisted childbirth class that we took paid off in a big way, if
anything enabling me to feel like an integral part of the birth, helping
Cheri through each one of her 300-some contractions.
By the time Cheri finally approached full dilation early this morning after
a most exhausting night, the Doppler instrument used by the midwives was
indicating that the baby was in distress during contractions, perhaps
because of the umbilical chord position. Different positions of the mother
did not alleviate the problem.
Because we did not know how long Cheri would take to push the baby out, and
because prolonged distress could jeopardize the baby's well-being and even
its life, we unitedly decided that professional support of hospital
facilities was in order so we transported Cheri in her mom's van to Gunnison
Valley Hospital, with Cheri in the very difficult knee-chest position and
Cassandra pushing the baby away from the birth canal, as Cheri was now fully
dilated and would want to start pushing if the baby began descending.
The hospital staff was very efficient, professional, and understanding of
our desire to have the birth naturally if at all possible.
A monitor on the baby's head indicated that his heartbeats were stopping
altogether during some contractions, but they would come back to normal
within a few seconds.
The window of time was short. I told Cheri that if she didn't push the baby
out that they would have to pull it out. Her understanding of the risks of
these interventions was additional motivation for her to get the baby out as
quickly as she could.
After 30 minutes of pushing, the baby was delivered. The only intervention
we opted for was an episiotomy to speed delivery. After the cut, on the
next contraction the baby was half way out and we had to tell Cheri to hold
off on pushing while the doctor cleared the elbows. One more push and the
baby was all the way out, having great color and a pouty cry as if to say,
"Boy, I'm sure glad that is over."
He was immediately handed up to his glowing mother.
It was a glorious ending to an arduous labor.
Though in retrospect we see that the midwifes could have done what the
doctor did,
we feel that the course we chose was the best one nonetheless.
The adrenaline from decision to transport gave Cheri an added energy boost
to help push the baby out so that no major intervention was required.
Had we stayed at home, the exhaustion of prolonged first stage labor could
have been overcome by the adrenaline rush that would have come from fear for
the baby's life, not having a back-up alternative at hand in case second
stage took too long.
I believe that hospitals have their place. At the same time, so few people
actually need the high-tec interventions of the hospital. I still maintain
that giving routine births at the hospital is like driving around in an
ambulance in case you get in an accident.
We are grateful for the skill and training of our midwives as well as of the
hospital staff who assisted us in the birth of this our first baby. And
thanks to all our friends and family who have made this a glorious event.
Sincerely,
Sterling and Cheri Allan
(name pending for our boy)
(photos pending as well, and will be posted to
www.greaterthings.com/Bio/Baby/
