...we were at the hospital having a non-stress test done, because I was showing signs of pregnancy-induced high blood pressure. As they were finishing up the test, I felt what would turn out to be the beginnings of labor.
Most people go to the hospital when they are in labor, right? Us? We walk out.
After confirming with our midwife that yes, indeed, we were in labor, we drove the hour long drive back to our house, hoping to give birth in our own home, but with the agreement that if my blood pressure went above a certain level, we would drive the hour back to the hospital in Whitefish.
Awhile later, the midwives, a friend, and C's sister all showed up at our house but unfortunately my blood pressure was too high. We called a doctor/friend of ours to tell him that we were going to our midwife's house to labor a little longer, and we asked him if he would meet us later at the hospital to deliver* our child. He said, "No," he wouldn't meet us there, but that he would come to the midwife's house, a few minutes from the hospital, and be on hand through the labor just in case we needed to transfer to the hospital.
Never did he, or our midwife, feel the need to transfer, although my blood pressure remained a bit high throughout the labor. Neither I, nor the baby, ever showed any unusual signs of stress. He stood by only as back up, and as moral support for us, all evening and into the middle of the night. When R was born at 1:35 a.m., he pulled out his fiddle and played for us.
So, no, we did not give birth in our own home, but we did have a home birth, in the house pictured above, with the help and support of friends and family, a professional, confident, caring midwife and assistant, and a doctor who believes in home births although he cannot, himself, practice them. He's the one who referred us to our midwife in the first place.
Today, I had some last-minute birthday shopping to do for tomorrow's party, in and around Whitefish, and in so doing, I unintentionally drove right by that house and the hospital, too. It brought me right back to that amazing day, 6 years ago. Only, there is/was snow on the roof and all around on the ground, unlike this picture taken on a sunny September day a few years ago.
*deliver a baby: I cannot stand that phrase. It sounds too much like you're going to remove a vital organ, as in de-liver.