I became pregnant on New Years weekend 2000. My
partner Jody and I married in May of 2001 and started planning for
our homebirth for our baby nicknamed "shoebaby". The baby
was due around Autumn Equinox and we did not find out if the
baby was a boy or girl. Images of the sun kept
coming up over and over, so I often sang the sunshine song to
the baby as I felt the baby move.
I loved being pregnant! I
started reading some wonderful books, took pre-natal yoga and
started planning a blessingway, and preparing for birth.
Around 6 months I started to have some swelling that we started to
watch and I increased my protein in my diet. My swelling
continued to increase as well as my blood pressure in the 8th month
of pregnancy. I started to take calcium/magnesium suppliments,
increase my protein again, and began first period of bed rest.
My blood pressure continued to rise and at week 37-38 I went on
full-time bed rest. My blood pressure readings were hitting
the range of 156/98. At a check-up appointment at the end of
that week traces of protein started to show in my urine and my
doctor recommended we go to the hospital and induce labor as soon as
possible. With many tears in my eyes we cancelled my
blessingway that was to happen that night, packed a bag
and went to the hospital and said goodbye to our
homebirth.
We entered the hospital on Friday
September 7, 2001 and I was immediately put on a magnesium IV to
prevent seizures and another treatment was given to my cervix to
rippen it as my body was not really ready to give birth. My
husband set up our birth altar and I began to deal with the
incredible headache that was a side affect of the magnesium. I
remember the rain, and also the loss of time. I got very
little sleep as I was having some slight contractions and still the
incredible headaches. Some time during the night I requested
something for the headache which then made me sick for quite a few
hours in the morning. Sometime around 9 or 10 on Saturday
morning my cervix tape was removed and pitocin was started to induce
labor.
I actually fell asleep for about an
hour but then the contractions came on like a freight train. I
had alot of trouble finding focus in the beginning and could not
give into the pain. This went on for a while and we only
dialted 1 cm. Our back up doula arrived and gave us a pain
relief technique of opening my eyes, finding my husbands eyes,
opening my throat and moaning. This worked great, we were
able to do this technique till transition at roughly 8 or 9 that
night with our doula and ourselves. I remember finally ripping
off my hospital gown to get naked and how good this felt. At
transition my blood pressure peaked out from the pitocin labor
without medication and we got our highest reading of around
190/110 and we had to do something quickly to lower the blood
pressure, so we got an epidureal and I rested for about an
hour.
We started pushing around 10:00
that night but I could never get vertical either during labor or
pushing because my blood pressure would rise again. We pushed
and pushed, sometimes just myself, my husband, and our doula.
At 2:30 a.m. we were checked and the baby had not moved at all, we
were told we had 20 more minutes to push the baby out. I
begged for a squatting bar which I used, but my blood pressure rose
again and the babies heartrate dropped. At this time we
decided to do an emergency cesarean. Everything became blurry
and fast. I remember the nurse kind of freaking out and trying
to quickly get me into the surgical room. Once in the room she
dropped the tools and could not get my arms secured to the
table. One of the attendants that was controlling the epidural
told me his name was Sav (like safe) and I just remember feeling sad
and in shock. I kept telling them not to cut until my husband
and our original doctor (who was to be the babies doctor) came in
the room. I later found out that they had already started
cutting. I felt lots of pressure and tugging. Jody, my
husband watched the whole birth and quickly I felt a huge push on my
tummy and then Jody told me that he was here, Jasper was here.
Jody and our doctor quickly wrapped Jasper up and Jody cut the
remaining cord and they brought Jasper over and as I looked up at
him he touched my face-
Jody and our doctor quickly went
and did as minimal stuff as was needed and I remember Jasper being
brought to my chest in the recovery room and our doula helped Jasper
and I nurse. Jasper Willow Schomaker was born on September 9,
2001 at 3:55 a.m. and was 6 pounds 19 inches. We stayed in the
hospital, all in the same room until Wednesday and then we went home
to start to recover and learn about this new little life and soul as
the country was in shock and sadness over events that occurred on
that Tuesday.
Jasper has continued to grow into a
beautiful child and continually amazes both me and Jody
everyday. I feel blessed to be able to share my world with
him. I would like to say that I healed quickly and easily from
the birth, but the truth is that the physical recovery was intense
but a piece of cake compared to the emotional healing that I will be
doing for the rest of my life. I have done lots of soul work,
including journals, a placenta burial, a healing ceremony with my
circle of women, created a healing quilt, and a healing bracelet
from that ceremony but I know that I am still learning things about
that birth.
I know that my birth has put me in
touch with some incredible people, has enabled me to do one of my
dreams; to be a mama, has led me to my humble company mamaroots, and
has allowed me the courage to look at my soul and try and meet some
of its challenges. Thank you for reading and sharing my story
and essentially the soil that mamaroots grows from!
Jasper August 2003
Jasper with womb chime
listening to baby March 2005
Jasper kissing new baby
brother Silas April 2005
photography by Anastasia
Pottinger www.anastasiapottingerphotography.com
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