from Sierra Miller – Kansas, USA

The unassisted pregnancy and birth of Krueger Isaac

As soon as I gave birth to our 4th child in September 2019, I was immediately eager to have another baby soon and told my husband my desires for a free birth. Being the person he is he didn’t have much of an opinion knowing that when my mind is made on something there is not much that can change it. I wanted my pregnancy to be what nature intended so after stopping preventing pregnancy I never tracked anything or took even so much took a pregnancy test. Over the next couple months I had a couple subtle symptoms that would make me wonder if I was pregnant but nothing in your face like my other pregnancies. In the beginning of July I remember laying on my bed trying to belly map and see if I could feel anything “different”, and nothing so I preceded as usual and didn’t really think of it again. Then at the end of July while getting into bed I felt what is all too familiar as round ligament pain. I knew the only reason I would be experiencing round ligament pain is if my body was adapting and supporting a growing uterus, so I quickly laid down and felt for my uterus and to my surprise felt the top of my fundus. I knew this meant I either had a uterine growth or that I was at least 10+ weeks pregnant and since we hadn’t been preventing for a few months at this point I figured it was probably the latter. The next morning all the kids were still asleep, and my husband went out to mow the yard so I decided to take advantage of the quiet and solitude and get out my Doppler to see what I could find. I immediately found a perfect little heartbeat and although I knew it was fetal heart tones took a video and posted in a birtkeeper group because I just needed other people to tell me what I already knew just for reassurance. I never had any anxiety or worry about the pregnancy because I literally found out by growth and heart tones which made it a seemingly healthy baby. I felt bonded right away because I didn’t have to wait several weeks wondering if it was a viable pregnancy. I knew I had to be between 10 and 14 weeks pregnant due to fundal height and being able to find fetal heart tones. I was able to schedule a dating scan for 2 days later and found out I was estimated at 14weeks 3 days. My husband was adamant on not being team green again, so they were also able to tell us we were pregnant with our 4th boy! I did all my own prenatal care and was always in tune with my baby and my body. This was hands down by far my best pregnancy. Not only did it go so quickly but I didn’t have any of the unpleasant pregnancy symptoms I normally get. Little to no heartburn, no back pain, no crazy hormonal dreams, no leg cramps or sciatic pain, and obviously no morning sickness in the first trimester. I did opt to have an anatomy scan at 20 weeks because if my seemingly healthy baby was not compatible with life or had some structural abnormality I wanted to know prior to birth. I was given a due date of One, Twenty, Twenty-one which I thought sounded like a perfect birth day and hoped for him to be born on his due date even though I never made it to my due date with any of the other 4. The days leading up to his guess date came and went and on the morning of 1-20 I noticed I was having light contractions. I have never had prodromal labor and have never had contractions until its go time, so as soon as I had the second one, I realized and started timing them. My husband got home very shortly after and I told him I had had three contractions, which is laughable since some women contract the last several weeks of their pregnancies, but he started getting the other kids taken care of helping get our birth stuff together anyways and I gave our photographer a heads up because it’s not usual for or me. Much to my surprise I continued to contract throughout the day. My 4th labor was about 4 hours from start to finish and obviously much more intense during that duration, so I was expecting another fast labor, if not faster. But instead I slowly labored throughout the whole day, which was fine because the pain was completely manageable. We watched our favorite shows, slowly gathered birthing supplies and rearranged our birth space to fit the pool. Then at 6pm Kevius went to get subway and go to the store and at 6:08 I called him and told him to go to the store quickly and come home. In just that few minutes contractions turned more intense and while I was waiting for him to get home, I was thinking by the time I was in this much pain with Kreed he was born within an hour. I text my mom and sister and told them I was in labor and as soon as Kevius got home he started feeding the kids and started eating, but quickly stopped eating and started blowing up and filling the pool after a few contractions. By 7:30 I was finally able to get in the pool and the kids were sent upstairs to watch a movie. After a few contractions I let my photographer know to head this way and she got here about 9 but it felt like forever because contractions were so intense by this point. We had the chromecast home screen on our TV and looking back it didn’t help at all to be able to look up and see the time staring at me. I remember looking up at my husband saying, “why is this taking so long?”. I checked baby’s heart rate a few times throughout labor and it was always 140s which was his very consistent heart rate throughout pregnancy, so I wasn’t worried about either of us even though it was taking longer than I expected. But it really wasn’t long at all, it had only been a couple hours of intense contractions and I was still getting 2-3-minute breaks in between contractions, but it felt like the contractions were no longer making progress as his head was only a couple inches in and not coming down any further with the last several contractions. I could feel his amniotic sac bulging over his head and broke it with my finger and he immediately transcended down more and on the very next contraction fer took over. He was born in one contraction, 22 seconds from the start of crowning to his first breath of air at 10:13pm. 3 minutes after he was born, I noticed what I assumed to be a separation gush from the placenta but wanted to get out of the pool to monitor bleeding and as soon as I went to stand up the placenta delivered. We moved to the couch, called the other kids to see the baby, nursed, admired baby, and after about an hour cut his cord. We all got in bed together and woke up the next morning to start our life as a family of 7. That’s it. Made at home, grew at home, born at home. With no interventions, no disturbances, no strangers, no unnecessary testing, no cervical checks. Just birth allowed to take place as the natural occurrence that it is, with only me and daddy (and our photographer!). *Baby was born with his cord wrapped tightly around his neck twice. This is not an emergency as it’s made to seem at the hospital. (You can’t strangle someone who is yet to breathe oxygen.) Simply unwrap the cord once the baby is born. *AFTER I got my birth pictures back, I realized he was born with meconium-stained fluid, also not an emergency most of the time. I’m so glad I was home safe and not in the hospital where they would have pumped my tiny baby full of antibiotics. Born simply, born safely, born at home.