Some Fun Facts About Ruth’s Birth

Ruth is one month old today and I wish I could tell you where the past four weeks went or where my oldest two children are or how many months ago I washed my hair. Just kidding, the boys are doing a chore for Daddy.

Anyways, I had thought about writing out a full birth story for Ruth; I love a good birth story myself. (While pregnant I really enjoyed all of the birth stories in The Baby Catcher and The Birth Next Door, by the way.) I decided, though, to spare the .05% of the readership that is male here from having to skip this post and stick to just the most interesting facts.

Because, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from riding in a car with my two brothers while discussing the topic of birth with my sister-in-law, it’s that the word placenta throws a man over the edge.

Fun Facts About Ruth’s Birth

She was “42 weeks + 3 days old”, according to some calculations, and though she showed signs of being a well-developed baby, there were no signs of anything breaking down, dieing, or being “dangerously old”. All of her brothers and sisters were 41+ weeks, by the way.

The midwives didn’t make it in time… again. And I think that we can all agree that you can’t believe a word I say when I’m in labor. I think I talked Stewart out of letting the midwives come at least a couple of times. This is his second “catch” and thankfully our dear friend Tracy, a midwife-in-training was a tremendous sport and came over within a couple of minutes of Stewart calling for help. She’s definitely got midwife in her bones, that girl.

She was born en-caul. Apparently there are a lot of weird superstitions surrounding this. I don’t know about any of that, but I do know that all of our babies had waters that didn’t break until well into labor or during the pushing phase. I was really thankful as it probably helped with this next fun fact.

She was born posterior. Despite the many hours spent inverted or on my hands and knees in some fashion, Ruth still came to us sunny side up, or not “ideal” positioning. I definitely noticed a difference, but I am so grateful to the Lord that this was my fourth baby and not my first. The pushing phase was still only 5-10 minutes.

Labor didn’t seem to be progressing as it should until I did a side-lying release. I think anyone and everyone involved in the birthing world could greatly benefit from knowing about this and all of the other baby positioning information from the Spinning Babies site. Up until that point contractions had been very intense (from the get-go, actually), but didn’t seem to be getting much longer or closer together. After that one move, Ruth engaged, I only wanted to stay upright, and she was born in less than two hours.

Random, Ridiculous Things I Said During Labor

“I Smell Smoke.” This was during transition and I, in my inability to cope, could not discern that it was coming from the wood stove.

“I can’t, I can’t. Okay I think I can… nope, I can’t.” This was also during transition when I was trying to go from upright in some fashion to crawling onto the bed.

“Maybe it’s not real labor; maybe it’s just a urinary tract infection.” This was Stewart’s personal favorite and brought back a look and reaction that was akin to saying, “Are you crazy?”  After many weeks of prodromal labor and “you’re overdue” and “when’s that baby coming?” and “gosh, you’re huge” and “aren’t you worried?”, I tend to go into complete denial when I truly go into labor. I do not wish to be the girl who cried baby, you see.

So, those are the highlights from our fourth homebirth where we welcomed little Ruth Adelaide. She is beautiful and sweet and loves to be held and rocked, which is what I am up to these days. Once again we are in awe of the Lord’s mercies and work in our lives, and we are thankful for the gift that these little ones are every day.