After a 14-year decline, home birth increased by 29%, according to National Center for Health Statistics on January 26.   We still have a long way to go to meet the statistics of other industrialized countries. 

In 2009, 1 in every 90 births for non-Hispanic white women were home births

• 90% of the total increase in home births from 2004-2009 was due to the increase among non-Hispanic white women
• By contrast, the percentage of home births declined from 1990 to 2004, and remained the same from 2004-2009, for non-Hispanic black women and women of other racial minorities
• Large differences in the % of home births by race and ethnicity have widened over time
• Montana has the highest rate of home birth at 2.6%
• Louisiana and Washington, DC have the lowest rate of home birth at 0.2%
• Tennessee sits at a home-birth rate of 0.64%.  That is an increase of .08% in five years.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db84.htm

Check out this site.  It makes it very real that the other organs are “smashed” as the baby grows. 

http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/you/the-exhibit/your-beginning/make-room-for-baby/interactive/

The State of Tennessee has adopted a law that requires health care providers inform their patients about cord blood donations.  Unfortunately,   I haven’t been able to find a facility that will accept cord blood from a home birth for the purpose of donation.   Of course there are cord blood banks that will take your money to store the cord blood. 

 Umbilical Cord Blood Banking

In accordance with state law (TCA 68‐32‐105) health care professionals who provide health care services that are directly related to a woman’s pregnancy are encouraged to provide a woman with information on umbilical cord blood banking by the end of her second trimester. Pregnant women should consider contacting the organizations below for more information that will be helpful in deciding to participate in an umbilical cord blood banking program.

American Academy of Pediatrics (www.aap.org)

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (www.acog.org)

March of Dimes (www.marchofdimes.com)

National Cord Blood Program (www.nationalcordbloodprogram.org)

National Marrow Donor Program (www.marrow.org)

US Department of Health and Human Services (http://bloodcell.transplant.hrsa.gov)

As I sit at my desk, the office quiet with the occasional bark of a dog, preparing the books for the end of the year,   I can’t help to think about the events of the year.   I have been blessed with the privilege to attend MANY births and work with my fantastic apprentices. 

We as a practice celebrate the holidays with an annual Christmas party.   My husband exhibits his gratitude to the staff by preparing PRIME RIB!  Good job Kemp!   We all enjoy the joy of the season together.  

I am so very thankful for:

My lord and Savior who gives me strength,

the support of my family, 

the clients who invite me into their homes, life and the most blessed event,… their births, 

the doctors and nurses who work with us,

And last but not least my staff.

Ezra Jonathan Bartos was born on Saturday morning, during one of the most memorable experiences that we as a family have ever had. He is a healthy boy and a joyful addition to our overwhelmingly blessed family.

Ezra was born at home. He didn’t come before we could get to the hospital, like you see in so many movies. No, we chose to take a more natural approach to birthing and have a home water birth.

When we found out that Laura was pregnant with our fourth child, she started reading a few books about alternative birthing methods, and soon decided she wanted to have a water birth at home.

I, on the other hand, was terrified at the thought of having a baby at home, just like people used to have them hundreds of years ago, before they figured out how to take pictures or use an iPhone. And then there was the water part… once I did the math, I figured that we were going to have to put the pool right in the living/dining room where I usually enjoy a generous portion of dessert after every meal. Yes, a pool! And not just a pretty pool with pretty fish and half dressed mermaids on the side, but a giant inflatable pool that looked more like an oversized tractor inner tube.

In any case, the wife won and we started looking for a midwife that would facilitate the home water birth. Since her sister had her baby with the midwifes at Tender Beginnings, we met with Mary Anne. Before I could speak my fears, distress, and anxiety, Laura had me sign a contract and pay the deposit.

The weird thing about going to a midwife’s house for regular checkups, is that it doesn’t feel as dramatic as the hospital visit. When you go to the hospital, there is blood everywhere, screaming patients, panicked nurses, police officers at high-profile convict patients’ doors, etc. But when we went to Mary Anne’s house, the only drama that we saw was on Shakespeare’s part (one of the dogs), who wasn’t allowed in the consultation room. That, and the fact that there wasn’t a single trace of dessert or even cheap candy at the house.

And then came the actual birth. When the other three kids were born, I was pumped – Laura had all of them naturally, without any medication or drugs, except the time when they induced her. So there were a lot of nurses or student nurses that wanted to witness an actual natural birth, which added to the excitement and drama of having a new baby being born. The more people in the room, the better, I think. That, the multitude of IVs and needles, the audible monitoring of contractions and heart beats, the screaming, and the obvious pain, made the arrival of our other children so much more dramatic and exciting than our home birth experience.

You see, when Laura woke me up at 3AM to tell me that she was going to have the baby that morning, I got up, made coffee, checked my email, and put on my swimming trunks. When Mary Anne came at 5AM, she brought me the most wonderful prime rib steak (part of our barter), and we enjoyed a few cups of coffee and shared birthing stories. Later, when her assistant, Lindsey, arrived, we sent Laura to rest for about an hour, and I cooked breakfast for everyone (special eggs and bacon).

Once the kids woke up and went to our friends’ house around 8AM, we set up the pool, and filled it up with hot water. Laura got in the pool, and relaxed in warm water in between contractions. About two hours later, I finally thought I was going to witness some drama when her contractions intensified, but to my disappointment, all she wanted was someone to massage her back, and then resumed the chilling in hot water routine.

Around 11AM, things got serious. I made fresh coffee, rolled up my sleeves, and was prepared for some intense baby-birth-drama. 10 minutes later, Laura took a deep breath, pushed against the pool, and a purple baby came out swimming like a scuba diver. No screaming from Laura, no crying from the baby, and I had all my knuckles intact. Laura took a hold of the baby, held him close, delivered the other stuff that comes out after the baby, got up, and walked to the bed, where she started nursing him. Within one hour, the midwives were gone, the house was clean, and all there was left to prove that something had happened at our house that night, was a quiet, calm, and hungry baby, and the leftovers from my prime rib.

Another note about the midwifes. I’m the type of guy that in situations like this, I would much rather get a free overdose of sleeping pills and wake up with a tax cut in one hand and a lolly pop in the other. But Laura wanted to understand every aspect of the birth – from the actual birth process, to the vaccinations, shots, and to the medical procedures that were going to be done. And that’s what our midwife did best – she took the time to explain everything, she asked our opinion or permission on a ton of stuff, and gave us a list with a variety of teas, herbal tinctures, and other natural remedies that would make the labor less painful, and healing process faster.

Whether the teas and tinctures were worth it, I cannot tell, I just know that none of them tasted even remotely sweet. With prescription drugs you can at least take them with chocolate milk, and you get the bonus of the tipsy feeling that leads to extra sleep.

So, to sum it all up: if you enjoy hospitals, IVs, fancy medical language, needles, lots of screaming, free babysitting, checkups every 2 hours for 3 days, gourmet hospital food, and best of all – free lolly pops, home birth is certainly out of your comfort zone.

However, if you’re into the calm, quiet, and peaceful birth thing, then by all means, do it, and do it all the way. Since we had the baby, I met other folks that had the baby at home, except they didn’t get the pool. That, to me, sounds like hypocrisy – the water is the real deal. And plus, if you don’t have the water, nor the lolly pops, why bother in the first place?

And before I end this, I feel that I should make sure to express my gratitude to Mary Anne and her crew for making the birth of Ezra such a peaceful, calm, and rewarding experience. After Ezra was born, Laura and I couldn’t stop talking about how his birth was immeasurably easier on all levels – psychological, physical, moral, than the other three who were born in the hospital.

Kayla’s Tender Beginning…

To see a video of thier journey

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bT-SyfSbBJ76h0WcK2Q0EaIXZ0DIjobTEkmFegrG_lk?feat=directlink

It was Saturday, August 27^th 2011, and the day was like any other.  My husband David was working on the computer, and I was in the nursery putting the finishing details on the wooden letters that spelled “Kayla.”  David and I planned to run a few errands and enjoy a nice dinner that evening.

Several weeks prior, I had gone into pre-term labor twice.  That resulted in two separate hospital visits to have the contractions stopped.  Mary Anne was with us both times. She was very helpful in working with us to navigate the path that was the most effective to stop the contractions while impacting the Baby as little as possible.  There were several medications the hospital wanted to give us that were unnecessary and we were able to avoid them because of her help.  She had even called the hospital to let them know we were on our way, so we could go straight to Labor and Delivery.  After finding out that a Urinary Tract Infection was to blame, I was treated for it and put on bedrest until I hit the 37 week mark.  While I was on bedrest, I had several contraction patterns that went away on their own.  So when I started having contractions again, I didn’t pay too much attention to them since they felt the same as the ones I had before.

I was 37 weeks and 1 day, so I was happy to finally get out of bed and finish up a few things that needed to be done before Kayla made her entrance into the world.  After David finished his work on the computer, he helped me hang the wooden letters above her crib.  We were thinking we still had 2 or 3 weeks before the big day so we had a list of places to go and things to get done.

One of the things on my to-do list was to get a skirt that I could wear in the birth tub during delivery since we were going to video tape it and show it to family members later.  While we were in the store, the contractions were getting stronger.  With each contraction, I would stop for a second before carrying on.  Our next stop was the Japanese Steak House that I had been looking forward to going to.  I was still feeling pretty good, and I was definitely hungry.  At the restaurant, the contractions were even stronger, but I was still feeling ok.  Once they fired up the grill and started cooking the food in front of us, I started feeling nauseous and knew it was time to leave.  David had been in contact with Mary Anne off and on during this time.  She advised us to head home and she would meet us there, so we ended up getting our food to go.

On our drive home, I was having one contraction on top of another.  We pulled into our driveway, left the truck running with the doors open as David helped me up the stairs to our bedroom.  David thought he would have enough time to go back out to the truck, unload and turn it off, but the stairs seemed to make the contractions even more intense which made me stop and squat down with each one.  Once we finally made it to our bedroom, about 15 minutes later, I quickly changed into my birthing outfit.

Mary Anne arrived a few minutes later.  She noticed our truck was still running, so she turned it off for us (Thank You, Mary Anne!).  She came upstairs to check my cervix and announced that I was already 7-8 centimeters dilated. She then turned to David and said, “If you want a water birth, you better get that birth tub ready in a hurry!”  She left the room to call the doulas and make sure they came right away, and then she called our family members.

The birth tub was ready just in time.  The water felt so good, but before I had time to really enjoy it, I felt the uncontrollable urge to start pushing.   Mary Anne and her assistants, Becca and Heather, were able to give me pointers on how to push so that I was making the most progress possible.   We tried a couple different positions and found that squatting was the most comfortable for me and allowed me to make the most progress with each push.  As the pressure built with each push, I squeezed David’s hands harder and harder.  He ended up asking for his wedding ring to be taken off, since it was about to be permanently imprinted into his finger.

A few pushes later I heard Mary Anne announce that I was crowning.  I was happy to hear that, since I knew it would be over soon, and I would finally get to see our baby girl.  One more hard push, and Mary Anne announced that her head was out.  The contraction was still strong, so I went ahead and pushed again.  I heard Mary Anne say, “someone catch this baby!”  David grabbed Kayla and lifted her out of the water.  Mary Anne then had to tear the bag of waters open, since it never broke on it’s own, and unwrap the cord from around her neck.

David and I were in awe!  The team wrapped Kayla up in a warm towel before David had the honor of cutting the umbilical cord.  After bonding as a family, Mary Anne had me get into bed so she could stitch me up from tearing during delivery.  After that, Mary Anne, Becca and Heather did the routine check-up on Kayla and David got to weigh her and dress her in a Georgia Tech onesie.

From the time we arrived at our house to the time Kayla was born was 2hrs. 15min.  It was about an hour and a half of actual pushing.

Every detail of our experience with Tender Beginnings was wonderful.  Mary Anne was there for us whenever we needed her.  We really appreciated the personal care that we received even during the routine monthly appointments.  Both times I was in the hospital with pre-term labor, she was there, even though they both happened to fall on her days off.   During the delivery, the whole birth team was ready and knew exactly what to do and they were there to help us in any way we needed.   Mary Anne even fed me in bed after the delivery while I nursed Kayla!

I definitely plan to have another home water birth with Tender Beginnings again.  Thank you Mary Anne, Becca and Heather for a wonderful experience!

Check out the new staff pictures.   The Photographer Titus Bartos is the greatest!

Here is Mary Anne’s new picture.  Look at the website to see

Can you belive it,…………Tender Beginnings will be celebrating 15 years of catching babies in 2012!  We want to have a gala celebration.   Let’s celebrate Moms, Dads, Babies and  Birthing, during  Midwifery Month.   Put it on your calendars  Saturday, May 12^th  from 1:00 to 4:00.    We have booked a large space so we can have games, give aways, entertainment and reunite old friends. 

We will gladly take suggestions.  Some of the things we are thinking about are:  face painting, games, balloons, live music, and a screen flashing baby pictures (please send to us).   If you have any ideas or want to help with entertainment please let us know.

Birth story of Eliana Grace

March 7th 2010

If you had asked me a few years ago whether natural childbirth, let alone a home birth, was even possible you would have gotten a resounding “NO!” and “More power to those who do it natural” I had two children previously at a hospital with an OB/GYN and while my first experience was as great as it could be; I intended to have a natural birth, but I was induced and ended up with an epidural. The birth of my second child, also induced, left me wondering if I had made the right choice, since after all was said and done I felt I was powerless in the whole process. I know OB/GYNs have their role in birth but for my two uncomplicated pregnancies I don’t think they were the right for me.

When thinking about having another child and having friends who swore that natural childbirth was unbelievable and my eyes wide open, I began researching. Before I knew it, I wanted a home birth with a midwife and was 100% convinced that was the best answer.  I was just getting ready to interview midwives to find out more about home birth, and found out I was pregnant!

Enter Mary Anne, when she did our consultation she blew us away with her answers. We felt so comfortable in her presence that we decided she was the midwife for us! I have never been so comfortable with a care provider and I felt like my baby’s and my well being were her number one priority. Gone were the days of waiting rooms for 2hrs and only 15mins in a Drs office.  Instead, hour long appointments that discussed everything! Even though sometimes I felt overwhelmed with the choices and information, I was so glad to be informed of the choices and being involved in making a decision about my prenatal care.

Mary Anne and I discussed natural childbirth coping methods, because I knew that in every birthing story I had heard, there is always that point where you think you can’t do it and I wanted to be prepared. My body hadn’t experienced real natural labour, it only knew the kind from the inducements. I had settled on Hypnobabies since a friend told me how great it was for her labours, and the stories and info I read about it convinced me too. So I ordered the Hypnobabies CD’s and listened to them every night right before bed. I would usually fall asleep or as they refer to it “Hypnotic Amnesia.” I would be so relaxed before going to sleep, it was great!

Time flew by and before I knew it I was seeing Mary Anne every two weeks and before long it was every week! My due date came and it went. My body had been preparing since 36 weeks for the upcoming birth as I had been having practice sessions the first Superbowl Sunday. I’d asked Mary Anne how I would know if it was labour and she told me they would feel different. It was a Friday night and we were heading home and this time, the hugs felt different, I had to concentrate; I thought this may be it but didn’t utter a word. I woke up a time or two that night but with no progression. Saturday we headed to a friend’s house for their son’s birthday. I was having them again and they were about 10-15 minutes apart; different but not going anywhere. I went to bed with them about 10 minutes apart. I had planned on skipping church the next day to avoid the “Has that baby come yet?” questions; the kind that make you want to scream.

Sunday arrived and still no closer, so I didn’t pay them any mind since I had been having them for weeks now.  However, for some reason, I got the urge to go to church; it was if unconsciously I knew that it was going to be my last day out. I went to church and God let me know through a song, “Today is The Day!” With my contractions moving closer and closer, by the end of church they were 14 minutes apart.

We came home, I made lunch and then worked on my grocery list to go shopping. I wanted to get all of our groceries and get out of the house since I would be at home for awhile after baby arrived. I headed to the grocery store and my waves got to 7 minutes apart, getting closer to 5-6 minutes by the time I was done. As I was checking out the cashier asked how I was doing as I was having a pressure wave; I smiled and said, “Great!” No one had any idea what my body was doing or what was happening; most people would have called an ambulance or something! I got my groceries in the car and didn’t like the drive back at all I was so uncomfortable sitting, so I was relieved to get home and out of the car! I put the groceries away while every 5-7 minutes  I would stop to pace when the waves would come.  They weren’t painful, I just had to move! My husband had no idea up until this point that I had been in labor.  It didn’t hit him until he saw me timing them and then finally making the call to Mary Anne.

I paged Mary Anne around 6:45PM just letting her know to call me whenever. Then, not long after, I called her again because I felt I needed to talk to her. She called me back and she asked me about any changes; she noticed I was still talking through my waves. I told her we would get the kids taken care of by 8PM; she said she would arrive by then and that she was sure things would progress quickly once the kids left. She encouraged me to eat something and continue drinking water.

While Jason got the kids packed and off to the sitter, I made dinner between my waves. I wasn’t all that hungry but ate as much steak and veggies as I could. Jason cleaned up and I went upstairs and got the supplies out, the bed ready for birth and started filling the bath tub. I wasn’t ready for the water yet, but wanted it ready. With each wave I would dance or sway and then continue with my task. I got my Hypnobabies CD playing so I could have the reminder there.

Mary Anne and Lindsay arrived around 8pm, right on time! She came upstairs to see me and checked on baby and I. Everything looked good. I tried using a ball but it was just uncomfortable and returned to standing and swaying through each wave.

Mary Anne was great with the Hynobabies’ cues, reminding me to relax and got my hubby involved too.

I soon got to the point where I was ready for the water, instantly it felt so good. As each wave came, I would ride them, letting my body bear down.

I remember that I felt nauseous and I let Mary Anne know and then came time for me to have to get out and use the toilet (I hated the toilet, it was uncomfortable). Still continuing to ride the waves, I got out and after sitting down, I had the urge to bear down hard and as I did, my water broke.  I then felt that undeniable pressure and urge to push. I was so uncomfortable sitting and I didn’t think I could make it back to the tub that when Mary Anne asked me, “Do you want to birth here on the toilet or in the tub?”  I said “I don’t think I can make it.”

She assured me they would get me in the tub if that’s where I wanted to be. And I did! So my hubby, Mary Anne and Lindsay got me back in the tub.  It was time to birth baby!

Each wave would get stronger and stronger until finally my baby made her way out;