March is a good time to have a baby.  Christmas is over and spring is coming and the weather is fairly mild, in this part of VA.  I was 32 and expecting my 3rd child, after an 8 year period of trying.  I had been going to the county health department for prenatal care, cuz my husband did not have insurance on his job.  Even so, I had a very good home birth before and expected to do the same.  All my church people thought I was nuts, even though they hadn't known me that long.

I did a lot of scouting in the south central part of VA, but could not find a midwife anywhere (it turns out there was one an hour away, but I didn't meet her until 2 years later).  All the people we knew there just went to the hospital and let the doctors do whatever, and I was too independent for that.  Besides, they were still knocking women out in 1989.  My only recourse was an unassisted homebirth.  I am glad I did, but I wish there were a midwife.  Anyway, I had a birth plan ready and since I had attended two other births in our area in the preceding year, I figured I would have my assistant at those births help me, and my husband would catch the baby. 

When labor finally started, I wasn't sure, since I wasn't expecting the baby for another week, and I had always been over a week or so.  The contractions started at church while I was running the soundboard for our Easter production.  I sent my oldest daughter to get the lady that was helping me, and to let the two girls who were going to be learning about natural birth know I was in labor.  All this was very discreet, however, because we had a large anti-homebirth contingent in our congregation.  So I kept quiet.

When we got home, the contractions intensified, and it was more difficult to stay loose.  I got up several times to go to the bathroom, and when I moved I didn't want to move!  I got on my hands and knees at one point, because my assistant felt it would help the baby change position a little.  I had posterior position with my second child, and because we were at home, the baby was able to do a complete flip to anterior about 15 minutes before she was born.  After changing position, I felt the need to push,and so I did.  This labor was longer (11 hrs) than my other two (4,and 2 1/2 hrs) because the baby was bigger.  It felt like pushing out a Mack Truck!  He was so long!  My husband's hands were shaking a little, but he caught his only son.  I did have some trouble getting the placenta out, cuz I nursed the baby before the placenta came out and the cervix closed up!  My mistake, cuz I should have known better.  That is why I would have liked a midwife to be there.  We went to the hospital after 2 hours and it only took 5 minutes for them to get it out.  It was ready, but I had closed up.  We wouldn't let anyone take the baby anywhere, and they wanted to keep him for observation, but we said no.  His apgar score was 9 and 10, so there was no need, except to pad the hospital's pockets.  He had his pediatric check at the house 2 days later, and things have been fine ever since.  He nursed for 19 mo, and then he decided he was too grown.  Now he is 9 and going into the 5th grade, and is an honor student at the Church School.