Chapter 3: A Christmas Baby

It was Christmas. My husband and I had gone to the midnight service extra early to hear the special hymns and carol singing. It was beautiful and inspiring. The crèche at the church was stunning; it was close to life-size, camels and all. Christmas has always been a special time for me.

When we finally got home and crawled into bed at 2:00 a.m., I gave thanks for all that was well with the world, especially our deliciously cozy featherbed, and was quickly sound asleep. Soon I was dreaming that the phone was ringing. Why didn’t it stop? It just kept ringing. My husband nudged me. I rolled over and looked at the clock: 4:00 a.m. The phone continued to ring.

Why would someone call me now? Oh, duh. I am a doula. But none of my moms-to-be was due for two more weeks at the earliest.

I picked up the phone. “Hello?”

The caller was laughing! I didn’t like this joke. “Isn’t this funny?” the voice giggled.

“Um, not really,” I answered.

“I’m gonna have a Christmas baby!”

“Who is this?” I demanded, still half-asleep and thinking it was a prank call.

“It’s Shannon, and our baby decided today is The Day. I don’t believe this! We’re on our way to the hospital.”

“When did it start?” I asked as I leaped out of bed with a sudden spurt of adrenaline and ripped a clean outfit from the closet.

Usually I have my clothes laid out on a chair in the order I would put them on during the general time of any upcoming births. I’d have my bag by the door with my ID tag on top and a sticky note above the lock on the front door reminding me to bring a snack, my watch, my cell phone, charger cord, and purse. I have arrived at too many middle-of-the-night births missing one of these essentials.

I asked which hospital they were going to. A pencil and notepad live under the phone by my bed to write it down immediately. I don’t trust my brain to register correctly, especially when I’ve had little sleep, and this night was definitely one of those.

Sleep or no sleep, it is always an honor to be invited into a family’s most intimate moments and witness the miracle of birth once again. And this miracle would be happening on Christmas!

This was Shannon’s third baby, so there was no time to waste. I tugged my clothes on with one hand while still holding the phone with the other, the usual litany running through my brain at the same time: coffee, filter, mug, lid, creamer, sweetener, spoon . . .

Shannon, her husband Aaron, Eloise, their toddler, and sometimes her older sister Lilli were always early for our appointments. Shannon even brought her mom along once. I enjoyed our visits and looked forward to their birth. Her two previous births had been plagued by high blood pressure. Combined with that, Shannon was living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which complicates not only pregnancy but daily life. A side effect is hypermobility, when joints over-extend. People with joint hypermobility syndrome may experience many difficulties. For example, their joints may be easily injured, be more prone to complete dislocation due to the weakly stabilized joint and they may develop problems from muscle fatigue as muscles must work harder to compensate for the excessive weakness in the ligaments that support the joints. Hypermobility syndrome can also lead to chronic pain and disability. As her pregnancy progressed Shannon needed to use crutches just to walk. Her pain continued, growing worse in the final two months. A scrupulous organic diet helped to stave off the worst complications. Shannon had thoroughly researched everything that is known about this disability and the benefits of the right diet and certain supplements.

Shannon was dealing with the contractions quite well when I got to the hospital forty minutes later. She was up and walking around the room with Aaron’s support, but she didn’t feel she could go further, not even down the halls. A birth ball also helped since she could be upright, letting gravity move her baby down. During the next hours, as she steadily dilated, she ate and drank and combined short rests on the bed with time up on the ball or in a chair. While she rested we used a peanut ball, which is like a birth ball but shaped like a giant peanut. When she lay on her side, I would put the peanut ball between her knees. It is large enough that the upper leg that is draped over the top of the peanut can hang up and out over the side of the bed. The lower leg is brought up, bent at the knee as high as is comfortable. This position opens the pelvis as wide as possible in a lying position to facilitate the baby’s continuous descent. Every half hour or so, Shannon would roll over to her other side and we would replace the peanut again. Her blood pressure was creeping up during this time, possibly because of the added pain she was experiencing in her expanding joints, along with the contractions of labor, so her nurses suggested staying in bed if possible to help keep the blood pressure from rising any higher without medications.

Shannon began dilating quickly and by 10:30 a.m. she was able to push. Nora Jane was born after a short second stage with perfect Apgar scores. We didn’t really need those numbers to tell us she was finally, happily, here, though she seemed to register otherwise with her lusty cries. And then, before she was weighed or the cord even cut, she held up one pudgy little hand, thumb up, seemed to contemplate it for just a second, and then popped it in her mouth, sucking contentedly. That was a first for me.

I stayed long enough to celebrate this very special baby (who turned out to weigh nine pounds, eleven ounces) with her parents and made sure she was nursing well. There was no problem there. She had already made up her mind that today she was going to feast.

 

 

 

“Many western doctors hold the belief that we can improve everything, even natural childbirth in a healthy woman. This philosophy is the philosophy of people who think it deplorable that they were not consulted at the creation of Eve, because they would have done a better job.”

~Dr. Kloosterman