Malachi’s Birth
Parents: Josh and Courtney
Date of Birth: January 18th 2010
Baby Info: 9 lbs. | 23 inches
Birthplace: Home
Women who had done it before told me that after this experience, having a baby naturally and of my own strength, I would feel like a Goddess. I would find the wall named impossible and I would cross it, and I would never ever be the same.
I have to admit, without trying to minimize the miracle that took place in my bathtub 6 months ago, I feel like nothing more or less holy than a woman. I only did, after all, what every woman is designed, specifically, wonderfully, to do. Don’t get me wrong, it was a miracle indeed. It was beautiful, and it was transforming, and it was one of the most hallowed things I have ever done or seen…one of the most hallowed things you CAN ever do or see. But it was the kind of everyday miracle, like breathing, like being in love, that you can’t really take any pride in. You can only be thankful.
And I am. So thankful. Not only for a healthy baby (the ultimate goal) but for the opportunity to experience this…to be able to birth my son.
My older son’s birth was a medical procedure, without trying to minimize the miracle that took place in that hospital room two years ago, that is what it was…a medical procedure. Malachi’s…without the beeping machines and the metal instruments and the plastic bags of IV fluids…Malachi’s birth was an act of nature. It was earthly and it was otherwordly and it was the most natural thing you could ever imagine.
I first woke up at 4 am with a strong contraction but quickly decided to go back to sleep. It had happened so much over the last few months that I didn’t think one thing or another about it. Just another braxton-hicks. But then at 5 am I had another, just as strong. I realized these were different.
From 5 to 6 am the contractions were 5-7 minutes apart and I was becoming uncomfortable in bed. I decided to call Cathy, my midwife, and tell her that I was in labor. “No rush” I told her, the contractions were still fairly far apart, and not that intense yet. She said she’d wash her face and be on her way, though. I jumped in the shower, but after 15 or so minutes the water wasn’t helping as much as I had hoped it would and I headed to my husband, listening to my moans to record the contractions, to let him know I thought the baby might be coming fast and he should start filling the birthing tub.
I only made it to the hallway before my water broke. And it was only 10 minutes after that before I had to admit that I was pushing.
At first I tried to fight it. My midwife was still not there! My labor tub wasn’t set up, let alone filled! But when a baby wants to come, a baby is going to come. I quickly found that there is no stopping it. So I moved back into the bathroom, my husband filled the tub full of water, and then he delivered our sweet second born, with Cathy on the phone line almost the entire time.
She arrived probably 10 minutes after the birth and said “thanks for waiting for me!” But she delivered the placenta, as my husband says “the only hard part,” and checked on Malachi and me. Filling out paperwork she asked “what time was he born?” But neither Josh or I had had the presence of mind to look. She checked her phone and said we called at 7:06 the last time, to ask her what to do now. We wrote that as the birth time.
