Testimonials
Child Birth Education, Home Birth Doula Services, Postpartum Doula Services, Breastfeeding, Infant Massage Education
Jenna, Jeremy & Ivy July 4th 2008, 7:07pm
Thanks for making our home birth dreams come true. We could never have had the same experience in a hospital.
My Decision to Give Birth at Home by Jenna M.
At the beginning of my pregnancy I went to a hospital and to a medical doctor for my prenatal appointments. I didn't know how far along I was in my pregnancy and just wanted to make sure that everything was developing correctly and there were no problems. So at the first prenatal appointment in December they did an ultrasound and Ivy was 3 inches long, not even close to a pound, but her heart was there pumping beautifully and everything was fine and I was given the due date of June 28.
In February, they did another ultrasound and we found out IT was a GIRL! There was something very special about knowing I was going to have a little daughter and I grew very attached to her and started thinking about her future and what she was going to be like. I felt even more responsible, for I was affecting her reality as she was developing from my own blood ; the chemicals of my thoughts and emotions were being passed to her. It felt like such an honor to be given that responsibility of guiding her brand new life and soul. I realized that I was being given a gift from God and definitely was not going to give it up or take it very lightly. But still at this point I hadn't done very much thinking about labor and delivery and the way she would arrive into the world.
In March, Jeremy's Aunt Diane sent me a DVD called Birth As We Know It. It was about conscious birth and it was about water birth in Russia, and these women going into the Black Sea to give birth. Until then I had never seen a peaceful birth. I had only seen the media exploits of the drama surrounding birth. In all of those TV shows birth is shown as an emergency, the mom in excruciating pain, and the baby most often ending up in an operating room being pulled from the womb screaming and crying. In the conscious births I saw, I was amazed at how wide-eyed, relaxed, and calm the babies were at birth. To think about the moment in which a baby is born, as it takes its first breath; takes in its first sight, touch, listen, taste is something very spiritual. And to think of the way it's greeted in the world as something medical rather than spiritual is something I can't do. So I definitely started wanting to explore alternatives to the hospital birth, but I couldn't go to Russia to the Black Sea, and I didn't really know what my insurance would allow me to afford. I did some reading about birth, and I just decided I would wait as long as possible to go to the hospital and I wouldn't let them give me any drugs.
Then all of the probabilities changed the day of her baby shower. May 4, I stopped in to a local place to get a prenatal massage. It turned out that the masseuse Erin, was a doula and was training to be a midwife, so she asked me if I was interested in natural birth and alternatives to hospital birth. I told her I was but I didn't really know where to look, and she said she needed some volunteer hours so she'd be willing to come over and talk with me and Jeremy about many of our options. So Erin came over a few times and talked with Jeremy and me.
In early June she told us that one of her teachers would be willing to assist with my delivery at home for a very reasonable fee, and she would also buy a birthing pool so I could try and have a water birth. She also brought this movie The Business of Being Born, which is a documentary about all the fear society instills in women about childbirth and how doctors and hospitals are capitalizing on it by taking away women's choices in childbirth, without any real benefit to the mother & baby and instead may actually be causing harm. The drugs given & procedures done in the hospital usually result in a standard cascade of interventions which over half the time results in the baby being delivered by cesarean.
So, I thought, I've had the easiest, most peaceful pregnancy; I don't want a doctor to decide it should end by surgery. If I want to allow for the spiritual moment of holding my brand new daughter and feeling her brand new skin on my skin the moment she's born the best place to give birth is at home. If I want me and my baby to be safest, the best place to give birth is at home. I decided to meet with the midwife, loved her, and had my last three prenatal appointments with her. Not to say I wasn't afraid about the pain and what it was going to be like, and the fears of something going wrong and being transported to the hospital. I talked with the midwife and she was very reassuring: I had total trust in nature, my body, the training of my midwife and birth attendants. So I just decided I need to hand it over to faith and prayed that everything would be alright.
The days & weeks before Ivy was born my mind was completely pre-occupied with what labor would be like and how the contractions would feel. I kept feeling anticipation like I had before I went skydiving. I knew giving birth was going to be crazy and wonderful all at once.
I had my first contractions on July 2. I couldn't even call them contractions because all it really felt like was having a bad period cramp, and that's not such a big deal. I had these tiny contractions all day on the 2nd and 3rd of July. On July 2nd Patti came over and we cooked a delicious burrito lunch and Jeremy cooked corn on the grill and we watched movies at the condo. On July 3rd , I was really ready for things to start happening so I went out for a drive with Patti and Jeremy. They say that a bumpy car rides help with labor and I wanted to see if it was true. It really did, while I was in the car my contractions got a lot more difficult to deal with, I had to do a little bit of concentrating to get through them, but they were very short, maybe 20 seconds long.
We got back to our condo and I took a nap, this relaxing seemed to slow and weaken the contractions again. So then I called my mom and dad over to go for a walk. I knew something was happening during the walk, but it still felt like I was very far away from actually giving birth.
The rest of the night I could tell something was happening very slowly. I figured I would eventually need energy so I lay in bed relaxing and every time I'd have a contraction I'd tell myself, "I'm okay, I'm not being injured, I'm just having a baby" I had contractions like this all night long. Jenny the midwife, Pam, her assistant and Erin, my doula , Patti and Jeremy were all there. It was in the middle of the night my contractions were just staying the same and not really progressing very much so they were trying to have me move around and try different positions so that things could get moving. It definitely worked. By the time six in the morning came around on July 4th I was ready to get in the birth pool. Jenny said I was about 6 cm dilated and she wanted me to walk up and down the stairs two times and then walk around the pond before I got in the pool.
This was my favorite part of labor. I felt so peaceful walking around with Jeremy, watching the sunrise, watching the birds in the morning, feeling a wonderful breeze; talking about how this gorgeous day was our daughter's birthday. I would stop and hold onto Jeremy every time I had a contraction about every minute/45seconds.
I got into the birth pool and totally relaxed. The water felt wonderful. But for some reason again labor slowed down. In retrospect, I think it was because the water made my body relax too much and this made my mind start thinking. There were 5 pairs of eyes all on me. I trusted all the people & didn't care that they could see me naked. I don't know why I felt like I was boring them, like I needed to entertain them. Then I thought maybe they were waiting for me to push, and I started to think about pushing. I didn't really feel that urge to push so I thought maybe I didn't know how to push and I thought maybe something might be wrong. That might have slowed down labor as well. It was a bad idea to try and think.
So eventually Jenny made me get out of the pool and go take another walk to get the contractions going again. I was about 8 or 9 cm dilated and the contractions on the walk got really intense and I started to feel this pressure that would make me squat to open up and I had an uncontrollable urge to push. I couldn't believe I was afraid I wouldn't know how to push because it became so hard not to push. Jeremy and Erin, God bless them, they held me up for almost 12 hours of these contractions so that I could try my best to relax and not push, but still I could feel my muscles involuntarily pushing. Everyone kept saying they could see Ivy's head and that she had lots of hair, but she wasn't really coming out.
My water broke around noon and they got everything ready to deliver, and I was pushing my hardest but still I didn't feel anything really moving inside. Eventually I went back into the birth pool because I needed to relax, my cervix was swelling a little bit and we really needed to get the inflammation down.
This was my least favorite part of labor. It was about 3 in the afternoon, all of my assistants and labor support looked very tired I thought, and I started to doubt that everything was okay. Still, Jeremy sat right by my side at the birth pool and, Jenny coached me while she lay on the couch resting. Pam moaned with me, low moans in super low tones I never even thought I was capable of. Patti fed me a banana with peanut butter. My mom was telling me I could do it; I was doing it.
I think I was in the pool for about an hour and a half "taking a nap" like Jenny told me. I got out determined to push my baby out. Still though, I pushed for another two hours and Ivy really didn't feel like she was moving down very far. Pam , Erin, Patti, Jeremy, my mom, they were all putting ice packs on me, I was extremely hot and sweaty and this was the point where I wanted to give up but finally, I heard Jenny say, "there's the culprit"… and what she meant was Ivy's hand was on her head right by her ear, making things a lot wider and difficult to move through. So she told me later that she gently had to hold her hand still while I pushed, so that the head could progress without the hand. Shortly after I could feel her head crowning, which burned for a few seconds, and was really the only pain I felt throughout the entire process. It was welcomed however, because I knew it meant that I would see my daughter in moments. And at 7:07 she was born and Jenny placed her slippery little body on my chest and I fell in love with Ivy Elaine. She was perfect.
I really, cannot even explain how much having all the support during labor helps. I was kind of skeptical of how having someone say, "It's OK" would make the pain go away, but the truth for me was that just having someone remind me that Everything was OK kept my mind from really ever registering any pain until the very end. The other thing is that Jenny kept monitoring Ivy's heartbeat. I would be resting in between contractions and I would hear her little heart beating so strong. The way her heart never wavered calmed me and assured me that everything was okay.
If I had been at a hospital, I wouldn't have had that support. I'm sure a doctor would have happily called my case "maternal exhaustion" or "failure to progress" and c-sectioned me so that he wouldn't have to wait until prime time to deliver a baby on the 4th of July.
It's funny and beautiful how it all worked out, how I met Erin, and how Ivy and I were blessed with such wonderful, generous and patient women who took care of us and really saved us from surgery.
I guess I have to say to any woman who is thinking about having her baby at home, is to trust nature, take care of your self and go for it. Don't let doctors or anyone else intimidate you or make you think that the body God gave you isn't capable of doing what that God designed it to do.
Postpartum / Breastfeeding, Infant Massage Education
Daryl July 2008
Baby Nathan
Thanks for all your research & your encouragement to continue breastfeeding. You helped us continue our beautiful breastfeeding relationship untill we mutually weaned, despite the efforts of our health care provider to get us to formula feed.
Prenatal Massage
Alexine Margaret Perfetto February 2008
The baby who came 3 hours after my Prenatal Massage with Erin. Thank you!
-Angela Perfetto
Birth Doula & Child Birth Education, Infant Massage Education, Postpartum Consultation:
London McMinn September 2007
Erin helped me throughout my entire pregnancy. Although my pregnancy and birth were very medical due to pre existing health concerns, Erin was there at every turn educating me and offering me alternative choices. This birth was so much different than my previous medical birth because I was so informed. Erin helped me understand the reasons for, benefits and risks of every medical procedure brought up by my doctors. I was amazed at how my body worked to birth London. I was very much empowered by this birth experience and I believe partly because Erin helped me be an active participant in my care, my birth and the care of London. -Gabi McMinn
Postpartum Support
Cayman Kercheval October 2000
Mercier Therapy for Conception & Child Birth Education
Holly P. August 2008-2009
Erin’s style of educating & sharing information without judgment, brings a sense of openness, peace and loving energy to her consultations. She answered all questions with an open mind. She definitely helped me prepare for conception & childbirth in many ways. She opened my eyes to my role in child birthing and claiming birth back from the medical community. Erin educated us in preparing for conception, labor, and she educated us about the benefits and risks of IVF. She had a lot of knowledge in pregnancy massage, infant massage, and energy work. Erin delivered all material with research to support it. There was plenty of time for questions and discussion. Erin brings her personal experience with conception & childbirth to her work. She gave me a great deal of resources and was always quick to share if she felt she needed to do a little research before answering the question. She was always willing to customize information based on my needs and help me on my journey with love and light! Erin has been amazingly helpful in my journey through conception & pregnancy. Erin continues to check in and share her experiences and passion for natural health with us. I would refer Erin to anyone; she is a gift in my life!
Childbirth Education / Home Birth Doula Services
Holly 2008-January 2009
Mercier Therapy for Pelvic Health / Holistic Health Bio Identical Hormone Consulting
S.V.
Mercier Therapy for Pelvic Health
J.V.
Childbirth Education / Infant Massage Parent Education
C.L.
