I have 4 daughters...the first three born in hospital and as "natural" as one can birth in that setting. My fourth child I decided to have at home with a midwife and was very excited about the freedom it was going to offer me. No stir-ups, no monitors, no busy nurses jabbing their fingers into me to see if my birth was going to coincide with their coffee break.

On the day of Jaymee's birth I went for a lovely walk in a wooded area near our home and came home with an urge to bake. I spied some extra ripe bananas on the kitchen table and decided to make a banana bread. Half way through I realized that I had no baking powder so I yelled for hubby to please run to my mom's for some (she lives 5 minutes away).

While he was gone I got the first of my contractions. I looked at the clock and saw that it was 6:15. I gave the midwife (Leslie) a call to let her know I thought things had started. It went relatively quickly with my last 3 (aprox. 3 hours) so the plan was to let her know as soon as any sign of labour started.

Just as she was telling me that she would eat her dinner and be right over, hubby walked in the door with my baking powder. I had to sit in a chair because I had the most ridiculous feeling......it felt like a basketball between my legs! As you might guess, Leslie skipped her dinner and stayed on the phone with me while she paged another midwife to head over to our home right away.

I instructed hubby not to let the banana bread go to waste...please mix the rest of it up and throw it in the oven for me. I reached down, as Leslie instructed, and removed my panties from under my skirt and lo and behold I could feel the baby's head bulging at the perinium! I did a semi-squat, pushed just a wee bit and Jaymee slid right out into my hands! Her eyes were wide open and she was the most peaceful serene looking little thing I had ever seen! Hubby was so shocked he still had a spatula in his hand and I had to yell for him to go get some blankets until the midwife arrived.

When Gabrielle and Leslie arrived, they helped get me cleaned up, checked the baby over and then we all had tea and "Birthing Bread" (it's also been dubbed "Labour Loaf") hehe.

Now every year on Jaymee's birthday, the poor kid gets banana bread or cake instead of chocolate like most kids....just so we can relive the story of her incredible birth!