We are proud to announce the birth of Amy Elizabeth Steward. This was my third home birth. I've never given birth in a hospital. Each of my three daughter's births were different. The first labor was the longest, lasting fourteen hours. The second labor was only forty-five minutes long, after having a lot of false labor during the end of pregnancy. Possibly drinking raspberry leaf tea during the second pregnancy contributed to the false labors? I didn't use the tea this time and so anticipated a longer labor.

As the labor of Amy's birth established itself as being the real thing (by the appearance of the mucous plug), I decided which room I would give birth in and set my supplies in there. My husband helped by taking care of our fourteen-month-old in the other rooms of the house. I preferred to labor alone this time. Though the contractions weren't particularly painful, I was uncomfortable during them, and didn't feel that having company would aid the situation. My five-year-old was in and out of the room, but eventually got tired of waiting. She helped by telling my husband to bring me the things I needed.

My contractions were irregular at first. I timed only a few here and there. They were never too painful and the ones near the end felt about the same as the ones at the beginning. So my main problem with this labor was to determine transition of when I was in second stage. When I felt hot flashes, I thought that was indicative of being rather far along. By the way, I went through the contractions standing and squatting with disposable diapers spread out underneath me. I sat down a few times when I felt tired.

Suddenly I started to feel as if I was going to have a bowel movement, and then thought it might be the pressure of the baby's head. I gave an experimental push, then squatted and leaned into the next contraction, which brought forth the baby, all at once. It happened so fast that I was utterly speechless. I told my husband and older daughter that I would call them when the baby crowned, but as the baby came in about three seconds, I was incommunicado.

I remembered hearing that by giving the perineum support, you could prevent tearing, so I supported my own. I also broke the baby's fall. She didn't shoot out and hit the floor, but did end up on the floor, all blue, wrinkled and covered with vernix. She cried before I had a chance to wonder if she would. Then I yelled for my husband who came running in followed by my daughter. He wanted to know why I hadn't called him. I just said, "I couldn't!" He then covered the baby over.

My husband asked if I wanted to sit on the bed...I said I didn't feel like moving from that spot, so he overturned a dresser drawer, put a pad on it, and I sat there for an hour until we cut the cord. My placentas take almost three hours to be birthed, and this one took two and a half hours. I didn't consider this a complication, just what is normal for me.

The baby stopped crying very soon and didn't want to nurse right away, though she nursed later on. She is a very content baby and sleeps for hours between feedings. One week after her birth she weighed seven pounds, with her clothes and diapers on. She was six and a quarter pounds at birth. My second daughter was the largest at seven and three-quarter pounds. I am a small woman.

I didn't bleed much, even immediately after the placenta. I got back to my normal activities pretty fast. Unfortunately I lift my fourteen-month-old quite a bit, yet there have been no ill effects.

I hear more stories about various complications that people have, but I don't think it's my karma to have those kind of physical problems.