This is Clara’s birth story with some extra details. She was born unexpectedly fast on Sunday, March 13, 2016, at 5:30 AM in the bathroom of the apartment we are staying in while in Bangkok.

Birth Plan: Two months before Clara was born my doula (Mandy Smith) asked if I had a birth plan. I was a bit stumped. Writing a birth plan was new to me. With our first three children, labor and birth just sort of happened to me, but never as I had expected: Becca’s premature birth at 27 weeks, Isaiah’s scheduled C-section instead of the VBAC I’d hoped for, Anna’s unexpected VBAC instead of the scheduled C-section. My initial thoughts were this:

• Most Important: A healthy baby—whether it’s a VBAC or not.
• Would LOVE:  A VBAC delivery without pain medications. (My body does not respond well to pain meds. They usually make me nauseated.)
• Ideally: We hope to check into a hotel near the hospital and try to do most of my laboring there. I’d love to have a birth without pain medications. I’d love to hold the baby as soon as possible after he/she is born. I’ve never had immediate skin to skin contact with any of our children after they were born.

The top picture in the collage below shows the beautiful labor and delivery room I was planning to have Clara in. The bottom picture shows the tiny bathroom where it all actually took place.

Doula or Not? When we arrived in Bangkok, I met with my doula to discuss labor and delivery. I was supposed to write out a birth plan to discuss with my doctor, but I never had the heart to do it. I should back up and say it took me about four months to decide if I wanted to have a doula or not. I went back and forth on whether I really wanted someone extra, someone I didn’t know, to assist with my labor. After reading Ina May’s Guide to Natural Childbirth and considering that it would be nice to have someone who knew the Thai hospital system already that could advocate for us, I decided to ask Mandy Smith to be my doula when we arrived in Bangkok. I’m so glad we did, since Mandy was who we called when I was in labor and she was the one who helped me when we arrived at the hospital after the birth.

StrepB One other detail: At my second appointment with my doctor in Bangkok, I found out that I had strepB and would have to have IV antibiotics at least four hours before Clara was delivered. If I didn’t start the antibiotics in time (four hours before delivery), the doctors would immediately take Clara away for observation. This was crushing to me because I really wanted to hold Clara right after she was born. My doctor put me on oral antibiotics so that if I went another week without delivering she could retest me to see if the bacteria had cleared up. I was torn—wanting to deliver soon, while our friend was here to watch the kids and before the Embassy appointment we’d made—and wanting to wait until I could be retested so wouldn’t have to worry about timing the antibiotics and lose the chance to hold Clara as soon as she was born.

Saturday: The day before Clara came I had some contractions in the morning, but nothing in the afternoon or evening. I took a 40-minute walk with Becca in the afternoon and did an 45-minute walk with Josh that evening to eat ice cream at Swenson’s, all with no contractions. Right before we went to bed I told Josh I had meant to show him a video of what to do if the baby was born in the taxi…oh well, maybe tomorrow.

Sunday Morning: I started having contractions sometime after 3AM, though I didn’t look at the time until 3:35AM. I wasn’t sure if this was similar to the contractions I’d had earlier in the week, so I tried to ignore them and sleep.  I was up and down several time to use the bathroom and finally left the bedroom not to return around 4:45 since I found that laying down kept the contractions coming. After a few more good contractions I decided I’d better start putting our toiletries together to head to the hospital. Again, I didn’t think there was a big rush, since the timing was very similar to Anna’s birth, and it had been hours from the time that contractions started until Anna was finally born. However, I also didn’t know how bad the pain would get, since with Anna the doctor put me on an epidural once I arrived at the hospital.

Getting ready  was slow going, since I had to stop for contractions, and I also stopped to pluck a few eyebrow hairs (hey—I wanted to be put together for the labor!). I decided before waking Josh up I would take a shower, since I was extremely sweaty. Around 5:07 AM I heard the bathroom door open and hoped desperately it was Josh and not one of the kids. It was Josh.

When Josh found me contracting, he started getting ready to go while I tried to do things between contractions. I did my laboring on my hands and knees while Josh rubbed my back. Josh called our doula at 5:14 and started to time contractions. I was having contractions lasting about a minute with less than a minute break between. I told Josh I didn’t think I could have a baby. (I expected the pain to get much, much worse and go on for hours and didn’t know how I could do it…little did I know I was almost done!) Mandy (our doula) told us over the phone to get in a taxi and head to the hospital. Josh called our apartment managers (who just happened to be awake with their grandchildren) and asked them to call a taxi for us.

So there I was contracting on my hands and knees, while Josh was telling me I had to walk and get into a taxi. I felt that burning I’d read about and pressure. I was trying to decide when it would be appropriate to tell Josh that I was not going anywhere and that we were not going to make it to the hospital. Josh, for his part, could only think one thing: We need to get in a taxi soon! I did apologize to him several times after telling him we were not going to make it to the hospital. I noticed blood dripping and saw my mucus plug come out.  A few moments later my water broke. It had meconium in it and my first thought was: I just went to the bathroom all over my husband. I looked and saw what looked to me like my entire insides coming out of me—this was not a comforting sight. My first worry was that the placenta was coming out first. I gave about 3-4 pushes (I hardly knew what I was doing—it was all just instinct) before Clara’s head appeared. Both Josh and I caught her as she came out and then she was in my arms. It was 5:30 AM.

Josh rushed out to get our apartment manager’s wife (Kerri) who is a nurse. I held Clara. She was completely blue. Though it was only seconds, it seemed forever as I worried about her breathing. I checked to make sure the cord wasn’t wrapped around her neck and began hitting her back (a technique I learned from watching Sarah Plain and Tall when I was a kid). She let out a little squeak and began to turn pink. Then I checked to see if we had a boy or girl. Surprise! GIRL! Then I held her—talk about skin to skin contact right at birth. She nursed right away.

By now, Josh had returned with Kerri. We cleaned Clara up a bit (she had the meconium on her) and prepared to get into the taxi. Josh held Clara while I tried to wash off a bit, which was a little tricky  since the placenta was still inside and the cord was short. Josh called our doula again, and she told us to leave the cord alone, since it was still pulsing; so I carried Clara, who was still attached, and walked to the taxi to go to the nearest hospital.

Mandy (our doula) met us at the hospital. This was not the hospital we were planning to deliver at, but the closest one to our guest home apartment. At first the emergency room staff did not realize I was holding a newborn still attached. Once they saw her cord they moved into action. I ended up having to spend a lot of time in the delivery room while the placenta came out. (Also receiving IV antibiotics and a tetanus shot because of where I delivered Clara.)  Mandy stayed with me while Josh went with Clara for evaluation in the nursery. Mandy was a great help. Even though she doesn’t speak Thai, she was able to tell me what was going on while they worked to get some extra pieces of the placenta out and did a small repair. I compare my time in the delivery room to being in a torture chamber—it was painful and seemed so long and the staff did not speak English. I cannot imagine how awful it would have been if Mandy hadn’t been there to explain things for me. She held my hand, encouraged me, and kept in contact with Josh so we could know what was happening to Clara.

It took a few hours before we were settled in a hospital room. All was well. And every once in awhile I would start smiling really big to think I’d just had a baby in our bathroom.

So I had my ideal  birth: a surgery-free, intervention free birth. AND I got to hold Clara right away. God answered our specific prayer requests in an unexpected way and we’re thankful for His protection.  Very thankful that I was able to finish the antibiotics before Clara was born so that StrepB was not an issue with her being born at home. Thanks be to God.

Endnotes:

Josh wonders what I would have done if he hadn’t woken up on his own. I was planning to get him. If I had to shout, I might have woken up the kids who were sleeping in the room right next to the bathroom. Thankfully, the kids slept through the whole things and didn’t wake up until after we left. They were banned from the bathroom until it was cleaned up.

Josh says that next time I must wake him up right away and that we will buy doubles of everything so there will be no need to pack toiletries or snacks—they’ll all be ready ahead of time.

So I had another unexpected delivery. I didn’t get to use my Labor and Delivery music playlist during labor or my oils. Didn’t use the beautiful labor room room at the hospital or get to hang out in a hotel during the early stages of labor with Josh.  Didn’t get to eat all my snacks (the doctor said I could eat and drink during labor—so different from U.S. hospitals). Clara just popped out!

I had been drinking raspberry leaf tea to help with the labor. It’s supposed to strengthen contractions and speed up the labor process. Maybe next time I won’t……

Later in the week I went back to my original doctor for a check-up. She did an ultrasound and said everything looked great. I also found out that my StrepB test had come back negative—thanks be to God.

I wasn’t planning to deliver at home. I really thought, based on Anna’s birth, that I had several more hours before Clara would come. I expected the pain to get much worse—yikes! So glad it didn’t.

Of all my deliveries, Clara’s has been the easiest to recover from. No side effects from pain medications and minimal stitches. I was up out of bed faster than with any of our other kids.

When recounting to our kids their birth stories, I realized that all our girls have had exciting, unplanned deliveries in one way or other. There wasn’t much to tell Isaiah.

I too was born at home. My parents couldn’t get to the hospital fast enough and hoped the the rescue squad would take my mom to the hospital. The rescue squad arrived and delivered me in our living room.