Alida Bowles Home Birth
Thanks so much to Alida for sharing her birth story! It’s just beautiful. Be patient while this page loads, the pictures are large, but worth the wait.
Alida Bowles
I can hardly believe that I had a baby at home! On my bedroom floor! Not at all how I expected it to be. Its such an amazing experience to bring new life into the world. If only I had known how miraculous it would be I don’t think I ever would have had a hospital birth for my other three children. As I sit here with tears welling up in my eyes I think of the emotions I felt while I brought my daughter into this world at home and nothing could ever top the feeling. It was one of the most beautiful and spiritual moments I have ever had. The act of making love and conceiving a child is so personal, private and spiritual and birth should be too.
After experiencing pre-labor contractions for over 2 weeks I finally went into true labor on Wednesday, Sept 28, 2005. At 4:30pm I attended a prenatal appointment with Kaye Bullock, my midwife. She checked me and confirmed that I was fully effaced and nearing 5 cm. I had been having erratic contractions through out the day but nothing really “timeable.” My midwife felt that the birth was imminent and she told me to call her when the contractions got closer or when my water broke. So I went home to “wait it out.”
Around 7:30pm the contractions started coming every 4-5 minutes. My husband Jeremiah, my children, and I were watching the movie ROBOTS while I was laboring. I rocked back and forth in my recliner to ease the pain of each contraction. I finally felt that it was getting closer so I spoke with my midwife and let her know about my progress. The conversation was going great and then she gave me some news that made me panic a little bit, another mother had gone into labor and she was on her way over to her home to check her. She was going to call me again as soon as she could. Oh my! Did this mean I was gonna deliver alone?! Or with another midwife?! I was a little nervous but somehow I just knew that everything was gonna work out just fine.
After awhile the rocking wasn’t helping much so I decided to go walk around my living room. I began to walk circles around the coffee table and with each contraction I would have to hold on to the edge of the coffee table and rock my body back and forth to ease the pain. Well….when that stopped working I decided to get on the computer and try timing the frequency and duration with the contraction timer. I timed them from 9:19pm to about 10:20pm. They were coming steadily at 2-3 minutes apart and lasting 60+ seconds. I was doing a lot of breathing and rocking but they were increasing in intensity and I decided to get up and move around a bit.
My dad had come over to help tend the kids (who were still awake) and I could see that it was kind of freaking him out because I would hold on to the walls or drop down in a squatting position with each contraction I had.
I started to feel major pressure and I knew it was time. I kept moaning but my moans became lower and as I moaned I began to push my daughter out. It was a very interesting experience different from a hospital birth in that I felt like my body did the pushing for me, no holding and counting, she just kind of flowed out. As soon as her head was out I got really scared and I wanted to suck her back up into my body, I thought to myself, I can’t do this!
But sure enough with the next push my daughter was born. They placed her on my chest and I held her close to my heart. I did it! At 1:25am just 45 minutes after my water broke I delivered a 7lb 5oz baby girl into this world. Naturally, drug-free, and it was birth the way I know birth was intended to be. Julianna Kate born at 1:25 am on September 29th.
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