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Freebirth With Twins
by Marie Nelson

My freebirth with twins story is about an unassisted (or assisted by my husband) homebirth of unexpected twins!  I say unexpected because my husband and I feel that the benefit of ultrasounds do not outweigh the possible harm so we didn't have any done for this pregnancy. I finally found a midwife at my 7th month of pregnancy and I wouldn't let her use the Doppler fetal heart monitors (also ultrasound).  I insisted she use a fetoscope instead. Here is my story...

Bathtub Babies - A Freebirth with Twins Story

It all started on the morning of January 10th, 2008 at about 7:16 AM.  I was conversing with my husband while sitting in my recliner and I noticed the familiar cramping sensation.  I didn't say anything to my husband at that moment.  He kept talking while I was watching the clock.  From the very beginning, my contractions were EXACTLY 6 minutes apart; so exact that I was able to predict the next few contractions.  After I predicted the next 4 or 5, I said to my honey, "Uh Oh, guess what! You may need to reschedule your patients today (He runs his Chiropractic through our home office)."  In shock, my honey reschedules all of his afternoon appointments (thinking that we would have all morning to labor) and I was scrambling to do last minute things like dishes and such.  Since I didn't know about the twins, we were both surprised that I went into labor so soon!  My due date was originally the 20th and then it was moved up to around the 15th or so...

Within 1/2 hour or so, they distinctly became much closer together (2-3 minutes apart).  They became VERY STRONG VERY FAST!!!  I couldn't believe how much stronger they were in comparison to the previous births of each of my sons!  I couldn't even finish the dishes.  My husband kept asking me, "Do you want me to run your bath?" – We were planning on definitely doing the labor in water.  I wasn't sure I would have enough room in the tub to birth there. So, I crawled in the tub and found myself laboring on my hands and knees.  My contractions were SO STRONG then (only about 1 1/2 hour or so after they began) that I felt the uncanny desire to start pushing.  I actually tried not to because I thought that this was unusually too soon and I didn't want to cause damage.

Well, my body decided for me that it was definitely time to push!!!  I just couldn't even help myself.  So, you maybe asking, "Where's the husband??" My poor honey is rummaging through the birth kit looking for cord clamps, etc. I shout, "Don't worry about the clamps and get back in here, the baby's head is coming out!  Sure enough, by the time he comes in the bathroom, I was in between contractions so the baby receded and all that was visible to my husband was some of the sack hanging out.  He says, "Don't worry honey; it's just some of the birth sack coming out." As I could feel another contraction coming on and felt the urge to push with it, I shouted, "LOOK  A-G-AAAAAA-I-N!!" Pushing as I say this...

The next thing I know, I hear, "WHOA!  That's a head!!!" says my honey... Immediately, he comes running to the bathtub to catch the baby as she comes down from between my legs. 

Now that I have my baby, I lay down in the warm water with her and start trying to get her to nurse.  I look at the clock and it says 9:23am.  She hadn't even latched on yet when I went into strong contractions again!  I shout to my husband (who left the room STILL searching for cord clamps), "Get in here! I'm contracting again!"  I was clearly feeling not just contractions, but that very distinct bone splitting feeling of another skull passing by my pubic bone... I believe some refer to it as "the ring of fire". His responds from in the hallway, "It's okay honey, it's just the placenta." I'm thinking there's NO WAY this is a placenta... Placentas feel like jelly!  They don't hurt to pass them...So, I shout, "Get in here NOW!!!"

In one big push, out comes what I think is supposed to be a placenta, but just as he walks back in with the cord clamps I hear, "Oh my God!!!!!  That's NOT a placenta!!!  THAT'S A BABY"!  (9:27am) She apparently was just floating in the bath water in her sack and didn't even realize what had happened to her. I say this because (Cliff tells me now that his heart stopped when) he noticed that she wasn't moving around. He runs over and rescues her out of the water still in her sack. She springs to life just as soon as he touches her and she helps him break open the sack and you hear the joyous sounds of a baby crying!

Then, the absolute scary part starts!  She was blue as could be!  I couldn't believe how quickly a person could go from joy to absolute fear of a dying baby!  When I say blue, I MEAN DARK DENIM BLUE!!!  After my husband frantically checks the cord, he suddenly remembered that color doesn't necessarily dictate a problem.  She was crying strongly so she was clearly breathing, she was very active (more so than the first baby – she was mellow) so she had great muscle tone, AND she latched on to my breast right away (even before the first baby).  We just couldn't figure out WHY she was bluuuuuue and getting bluuuuuuER!!  We kept rubbing her all over thinking it was circulation and then ever-so-slowly, she finally started pinking up at the ears and then blotches of pink would start appearing.  Turns out, after consulting my midwife via phone (she was at another birth), because I was leaning back (sitting up against the back of the tub) holding my (first) baby to my breast, the unexpected baby was below the placenta, my heart, and the other baby, so a ton of blood was siphoned right into my little surprise.  WHEW!!!

I still can't get over how many different emotions can wash over a person in just a moment of time!  I couldn't have done it without God Almighty watching right over us!!  This experience was definitely a gift straight from heaven!  AND definitely PRICELESS!!!  Absolutely NO HOSPITAL birth could ever come close to this adventure!! All this is less than 2 ½ hrs and I was able to lie on my couch gazing at my precious girls when the first patient of the day showed up at 10:00am. My only regret... NOT HAVING THE VIDEO CAMERA PREPPED TO GO!!!

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