Isla May and Juniper Rose: Birth Story

This was the longest and hardest pregnancy I have had, and the fact that a baby finally coming and joining their family is termed "delivery" only fits my sentiments too well. As it does every time! Ha. But, this time even more so.

We found out we were having twins towards the end of January and in the middle of that horrible flu that it seems every person and their dog caught. My feeling more sick than in other pregnancies now made sense, and to say Karey and I felt overwhelmed with everything at the time is an understatement. But, it also MADE MY LIFE that I was going to get five kids out of four pregnancies. And, it still does :D

The doctor that I wanted to deliver with, Dr. Chalmers, shares his practice with another doctor, Dr. Walker. I delivered my last two babies with a midwife in a birthing suite and HAVE LOVED that experience because I HATE the hospital and the papers and how many people you have to talk to and how they basically just tell you what to do the entire time and that if you want anything to go different than their plans, you better have the character to back yourself up. Anyways, so when we found out we were having twins, I did want to deliver them in the hospital, but I was pretty dang sad I was giving up that great experience of delivering with my midwife again and how much less hectic and stressful and natural it all is. My midwife recommended Dr. Chalmers because he is basically the only doctor in my area who will deliver your baby breach instead of sending you into C-section. Dr. Walker on the other hand (who in character is a lovely and kind lady) doesn't feel comfortable with delivering breach because of the risk (I don't understand what risk, but I know there is some).Dr. Chalmers is also just more open minded and listens to you and what you want and doesn't act like every little thing you want is making their his life hard as an OBGYN.All of this is a long way of saying, I wanted Dr. Chalmers to do my delivery. I trusted him more to do what was best for my babies AND me. The doctors switch off every other week. So I was hoping my entire pregnancy to make it to my week 37 which is when Dr. Chalmers was on call. If I didn't go by week 37 he would induce me, still during his on week, once I hit week 38. Week 36 passed and then week 37 started too and I found he was going out of town IN THE MIDDLE of his on call week. So he would only be on call for about three days during my week 37.

So, my midwife swept me when I was 37.2 days in. Nothing happened. I walked and walked. Nothing happened. I called my doctor and got an extra appointment on Wednesday and he swept me again. He said "I bet you a nickle I'll see you in labor and delivery before 5 (I was 80% effaced and dilated to a five), and nothing happened. I went back in on Thursday morning at 8 at 37.5 days, and he swept me AGAIN. At this point I'm pretty darn sick of people sticking their hands up me, but it pales in comparison to the delivery. He said to walk around for a couple of hours and go back in so he can check me, because if I have moved to a 6 and have semi regular contractions, labor and delivery will keep me(since I have twins and live 30 minutes away). My other babies come incredibly fast and once labor starts, it starts and there is no stopping it. So it was funny to Karey and I that we were walking around a park trying to get my contractions to become more regular and strong. That had NEVER been a problem. But these girls sure wanted to chill in there as long as they could. My contractions would come and were semi-regular so we went back in. He said I was almost at a 6, so to go over to labor and delivery and he would break my water. HALLELUJAH. I had asked him to do that the day before but I wasn't dilated enough for it to be a "medical" reason for him to break my water. Karey and I went over and I put the not fun hospital robe on and they hooked me up to all the machines I dislike and gave me the good old i.v. that I hate, and then a few hours later Chalmers came and broke my water. My contractions had been about every four minutes up to that point and were just mildly uncomfortable. Within fifteen minutes of my water breaking they were coming on much stronger, but still not transition contractions. My midwife got there (she was acting as my doula) and started putting hot towels on my stomach and squeezing my feet (which for some reason feels awesome). I was breathing and relaxing through them pretty dang well. And then I felt transition hit. I was opening up pretty quickly, as usual. And the contractions that make your body feel like its a heat generator were now there. I was sweating like crazy through each one. And they were long, hard, "good" "progressive" contractions. The ones when you start thinking, "Should I get the epidural? Then I could just enjoy this." I delivered my first with an epidural and I knew what I liked and didn't like about it. The two after her were natural and I knew what I did and didn't like about that too. And the only thing any woman doesn't like about natural birth is the pain. HAHA! I told Karey and my midwife that I wanted the epidural and they looked at each other and me curiously. My midwife asked, "Do you want us to try to talk you out of it? Because I seriously don't think you even have time to get one." "NO. I don't want you to talk me out of it. I just want you to go get the guy." Well,she did, even though she didn't want to. For the epidural you have to sit up and hang your legs over the side of the bed and slump forward. Positions can do INSANE things to your birth progress or delay when in labor. Well as soon as I got in position my contractions got insanely intense and my body started trying to push. It feels like when you are heaving and about to throw up, except on the other end and your about to birth a human. There is no stopping it once you are opened up. I was trying to hold her in so badly because I just wanted that freaking epidural that I had decided on, regaurdless of the fact that she was going to come out any second. My midwife started saying to the epi guy, "She's pushing. She's pushing. You see her pushing!" karey was like "she's pushing!" I was like "are you done yet?! He said "I have to re-do it I hit a blood vessel." I was like holy freaking MOTHERRRRR ( in my mind).I was trying as hard as I could to hold my pushing back but when you're open YOU'RE OPEN and the baby is coming. THANK GOODNESS the needle had come out of my back because I shot back and the epi guy caught me, and with a couple of throat tearing good screams baby A (Isla) SHOT OUT and Karey caught her. There was no doctor in the room, and up to that point I had been pretty quiet through my contractions. Then fifty million people ran in, and Dr. Chalmers ran in a few minutes later. Isla was BEATUFIL. She looked perfect. But I still had one more baby to deliver. AND, the epi guy had never taped the tube into my back and so it had slipped out when I shot back on top of him. So, no epidural for me.Chalmers checked me and said Baby B (Juniper) had flipped breach. Surprise surprise (not.). Isla was born at 2:56 and Juniper was delivered breach at 3:06. He reached up and grabbed her by the feet and pulled her down and broke her water and I pushed her out in about four pushes. It's kind of different delivering the head last. Either way, there is NO BETTER FEELING than finally pushing the baby out and the contractions and pressure stopping. Two beautiful babies. Isla May at 6.2 pounds and Juniper Rose at 6.12 pounds. AND I didn't have a c-section!!!! Which I would have, had I delivered them after 5:00 that day. Ha ha.

This part feels weird to write about because it is just so weird to write facts about something so traumatic at the time it is happening. But, in the end it is just facts and I am just happy for, say what? Yes. HOSPITALS and people that take care of you when things go wrong.
I started bleeding too much and my contractions WERE KILLER. They had put me on pitocin without telling me hoping it would slow my bleeding. I had major clots building up inside of my uterus, which was making it so the uterus couldn't contract back down to size and stop the bleeding. It's horrible to have non stop labor contractions and no baby coming out, just blood. They had to call Chalmers back (he has to leave at 5 to catch a flight). All of a sudden I'm freezing and they are stacking hot blankets all of my body and around my head and I have an oxygen mask. They give me more pitocin which does nothing, then they give me a shot in my inner thigh to make me contract more which doesn't work, then they stick a bunch of pills up in me, and those don't do anything. The goal of all the medications is to get my contractions strong enough to push out the clots and harden the uterus. But the clots weren't coming. So Chalmers reached up in me and cleaned it all out. I am pretty sure I traumatized every other woman on that floor with first my couple of delivery screams and then even more so with how badly I was yelling. Karey said the biggest clot he pulled out was like the size of a cantaloupe. But, there were plenty of other smaller ones he got out, too. Then Chalmers came to me and said " We don't let people bleed to death anymore. So if that doesn't get you to stop bleeding we will need to take you into the O.R. and open you up and clean you out, and possible do a hysterectomy." Then he turns to Karey and says "Were you guys planning on having anymore kids?" In my head I'm like "No" but I still couldn't stop crying. But I had been crying the whole time. My bleeding slowed! In the end they said a normal person loses about 500 SOMETHING of blood in delivery and that they start to get worried if they lose 1000 Something. I lost 2,700 of that something. And, in other words, they told me I lost 2.5 liters of blood when for my body type you have on average 4.5 liters of blood. So I lost a lot.

They wanted to see if my blood would start to build up over night, but my red blood cell count wouldn't go up and either would my blood pressure. So early Friday morning they gave me two bags of blood (GO BLOOD DONORS!!!) and it helped me feel much better. I was at the hospital for two days and two night, which I still don't consider bad at all. My two baby girls are beautifully healthy!And my parents are here helping for two weeks while my blood volume builds back up which they said takes about two weeks.

I am SO grateful for everyone that helped at the hospital. SO grateful to my midwife for staying there through the WHOLE thing.And for Chalmers keeping me alive and not giving me a c-section!!!!! He's the best. And I'm thankful for the the best huband ever, Karey, for shedding a few tears during the whole ordeal just to remind me that he DOES have feelings and loves me like crazy!!!! HA HA. I will add some pictures later.

Birth Story: Dahlia Summer Klein

The whole two weeks before her due date, I was so anxious and nervous I was going to go into labor in the middle of the night that I couldn't sleep good and I had to go to the bathroom ALL  of the time. I said that kind of wrong. It wasn't that I cared really when I went into labor (though, I did prefer daytime over nighttime), I just was not wanting to go through labor! Ha ha. She came about a week early, I think. I am not one of those people that remember the time they were born and I do okay remembering their weight (because two of them weighed the exact same) and I have no idea how long any of them were (except for maybe a round about idea for my oldest). So, yeah, she came about a week early, I think.
I woke up about 1 in the morning to a contraction, and my first thought was, "O my goshhhhh, I so don't want to do this. That felt awful." I think every woman tries to remember how a contraction feels, just so you can prepare yourself for a next kid of you're going to have one. But, each time you go into labor, you quickly remember how much you actually didn't remember what it really felt like.

I'll say this upfront. My labor was like a few minutes shy of three hours. LUCKY ME. I know, I know. I am lucky. My last baby came out in just short of four hours. My first baby was about thirteen hours (thank you, epidural). I blogged about those two deliveries in the same entry (delivery with an epidural in the hospital v. without one with a midwife in a birthing center), and if you want to, you can read about them here. Back to the story, so yes, my deliveries are short. But, they are also intense. I open up pretty quickly.

We had set up for the girlies to go to my brother-in-laws house, and so we got the girls bags of things loaded up and got them out of bed and headed to my brother-in-laws. We were in the car about 15 minutes after my first contraction. We wanted to get to the birthing suite as fast as we could because my last labor had been so short AND I had delivered the baby posterior, which generally slows down the labor and delivery. So, my midwife had warned me that this one might go much faster. I did NOT want to deliver on the side of the road.... :D
 After we dropped off the girls, it was about 2 in the morning. So we got to the birth suite at about 2 :15 or around there, because it is not far from my in-laws home. I was still doing pretty good and handling the softer contractions, but it wasn't long until they started becoming transition contractions. I decided to get in the tub (I had been laying on the bed), and that slowed and relaxed my contractions a lot, which once I realized I was finally getting a break, I wondered whether or not I should tell anyone, fearing that they might tell me to get out and do some squats or something to get things moving again, haha! But, by the time I had actually realized that my contractions had calmed, they already started coming back strong. My midwife helped me focus my mind on what I should be doing with my body during each contraction. Opening up and curving my body around my belly (which helps your pelvic bone be in the right position). The contractions were creating so much pressure that I thought I had to go....you know...number 2! So, I moved to the toilet, and nothing. The contractions were still extremely hard at this point. Oh and just FYI, this whole entire time I was whining to my midwife, "Tell me why I decided to do this again!? Why didn't I just go to the hospital? This is so not fun." etc etc. I'm not a quiet sufferer at all.
With each contraction I could feel myself opening up and the baby bearing down. We moved to the bedroom where I laid on my back (I deliver so fast while laying on my back!) and then the contraction were so hard I was having a hard time relaxing. Each time I would contract, I would try to think about opening up and relaxing my body, and for the most part I did, but my breathing was completely off and my arms started tingling and going numb and I started getting dizzy. I kept telling my midwife, "I think I'm about to pass out." She just kept telling me to calm my breathing and that it was fine if I passed out for a little---I wouldn't feel pain! Haha. I told her it wasn't worth the break if I was going to just wake back up to it. Luckily, I was able to get it enough under control that I didn't pass out. For the next part, I don't really know what happened. I don't know if I was seriously so tired and delirious and in the zone that my contractions just really calmed, but the next contraction came and it was like I was in another realm only just feeling a little bit of the contraction and totally not caring---I started falling asleep. My midwife asked me if I was just really relaxed or if my contractions were calming,  and I told her I didn't know. Then BAM. Pushing. My whole body contracts when I am pushing that baby out, there is not even a CHANCE for a break. It's push push push, no rest between contractions. I had completely forgotten about my water, which had apparently never broken. So there my husband is getting ready to catch the baby, and him and my midwife are like "Hey! There is the head and the water!"
Pop. It burst and Dahlia's lovely little head popped out all at once, and in my husband's face :) the water missed him though ha ha. Within the next push her whole chubby little body was out :) She was 7lbs 9oz, our biggest baby yet! I couldn't believe that. My first two were so tiny, so I was pretty surprised I didn't tear. After that I got to feed and cuddle my baby the WHOLE time, and sleep with her. My midwife made us breakfast and we did a bit of paper work (filling stuff out for the state) just before heading home. And, I showered :)

I can honestly say that I strongly strongly dislike labor and delivery, but I sure do love the outcome. Our third little girl is an angel. My first two were so hard in such different ways, and the third has been so so easy and enjoyable. Now, I can understand when people have an easy baby and say they just want to enjoy them, or they fearlessly get pregnant so soon afterwards only to have a baby with such an opposite personality ;) Ha! I'm just glad my hardest was first and it has gotten easier from there.

Whew, if you made it through that whole past, you will now be rewarded with sleeping baby pics :D my favoooriiteeee!!!

well....except for this one. Right after the delivery.

One day, she wore a headband.

She opened up those beauties every once in a while!

Q&A With A Midwife: Exclusive Interview!

Here is the interview I did with my midwife that I promised! Sorry, it kind of took longer than planned because I've been so busy! There is going to be a Part 2 hopefully soon that will be my experience with midwives and my last delivery, and my thoughts on her responses. Thanks Liz, for doing this! 

My amazing midwife Liz(to the right) and her amazing assistant(left)! Birth of our Dahli Mama.Picture taken four hours after the delivery.

Utter happiness doesn't get rid of the exhaustion afterwards.


Sleepin' with my lovey. Both work hard.


Our beautiful flower girl.

Elizabeth Smith is a Certified Professional Midwife as well as a State Licensed Midwife and has

been practicing for thirty years. She began her apprenticeship in 1985. She has delivered 1,432

babies.

Information that is good to know (not a part of the interview):

What different types of midwives are out there​? There are CNM’s (Certified Nurse

Midwives), Certified Professional Midwives, State Licensed Midwives and Direct Entry

Midwives (Lay Midwives).

What is the difference between them?​Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM) are registered nurses

in midwifery. Because of that reason, they are most commonly found practicing under a doctor

in a practice. A Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) is an independent midwife that has

received their certification from NARM (North American Registry of Midwives). A state

licensed midwife is a midwife that has a license to practice midwifery within a specific state. A

Direct Entry Midwife (aka lay midwife, traditional midwife) is a midwife who learned the

practice most likely through self­-study and apprenticeship. CNM’s, CPM’s and State Licensed

Midwives all have to take tests to receive the title. There are no requirements for Lay/Direct

Entry midwives.

Both Certified Nurse Midwives and Certified Professional Midwives are able to administer

medications under certain circumstances (i.e. I.V’s, pitocin in the case of hemorrhaging,

numbing medicine for stitches).

Interview:

How do you think midwives compare to OB’s?
​It really depends on the midwife and it

depends on the OB. But, the main difference is that an OB is taught about abnormal birth. They

are skilled in dealing with complications and a lot of the times they interfere in the natural birth

process.

How many transfers have you had?
​I don’t have the exact answer for that. I probably transfer

about 4­-5%. I’ve dealt with just about every complication imaginable in childbirth. If you ask

me, “have you dealt with this?”, the answer is probably yes. But, I have never lost a mom or

baby during home birth or with transport.

Do you think that your perception of what is an emergency differs than that of a doctor? If

so, why? 
​Let’s rephrase the question. Is my perception of high risk different than a doctor’s?

Yes, definitely. Is my definition of an emergency different? No, not a whole lot. Sometimes I

think doctors are more nonchalant about an emergency than I am. If a heart beat is dropping

during contractions, I think I react more than they do. We do differ but I don’t exactly know how

to explain it because sometimes I think they overreact and sometimes I think they under react. It

depends upon the doctor.

Would you recommend delivering with one type of a midwife over another?
​I don’t because I’ve seen good and poor in each category. My own midwife is not licensed but I wouldn’t want anyone else. I don’t think that the license or certification means that you have the “gift.”

Do midwives ever double as doulas?​
Yes, I provide doula services sometimes.

Is getting an epidural actually bad for you or the baby? Why would you recommend

against it?
Danger of epidurals?​Google it. There are physical dangers and psychological

dangers. An epidural is mostly safe but there are risks they don’t tell you ranging from

headaches to death. It lowers the oxygen to the baby by lowering your blood pressure. Because

of this the baby is more likely to go into distress with an epidural. Epidurals make logical sense

to most people. Why feel pain if you don’t have to? BUT, there is a lot you give up when you

get an epidural; and I’m not talking about money. Rather than be an active participator in the

birth of your baby, you are a spectator of it. That baby is going through the birth by himself, not

with mother. It affects imprinting and bonding, because it interferes with the flow of oxytocin.

You will still “Love” your baby, that comes natural, but you will not “Know” your baby like you

would if you had left natural imprinting alone. You’re also giving up that euphoria, the most

wonderful, beautiful feeling a mother feels after delivering drug free that comes as a result of

endorphin releases during natural labor. Labor is very bearable, and shouldn’t be feared, and the

more pain you go through, the greater the euphoria when it’s over. It is the most painful and

hard, yet beautiful and wonderful experiencing a woman will ever experience in life. When you

give up that brief period of pain (only the final moments of dilation seem unbearable), you give

up the fullness of joy that awaits you, as well as complete imprinting and bonding. Sometimes I

compare it to running a marathon even though it’s very different. Why would somebody run 26

miles if they didn’t have to? What’s in it for them? A medal? Bragging rights? From what I

have been told, having a baby naturally is easier than running a marathon. So why do you get

patted on the back when you run a marathon but get told you’re crazy when you deliver drug

free? With the right support, having a baby naturally can be a very, very beautiful experience. If

you’re just allowed to scream and then have nurses tell you, “We have epidurals for that,” it can

be a horrible experience.

Do you deliver twins? Triplets?
​Definitely not triplets. I used to deliver twins, I have delivered

at least 14 sets of twins but State regulation in Utah doesn’t allow Licensed Midwives to deliver

twins. I had to trade twins for the privileges received with licensing. Otherwise I’d love to

deliver twins, but only after careful and prayerful consideration.

In what ways does natural delivery with a midwife benefit the baby and mother more than

delivering with a doctor in a hospital?​
There are multiple benefits. There are some doctors that

are very natural minded and some that aren’t. The main way it differs is the time you will get

from the midwife as opposed to a doctor. The midwife knows you personally because she has

spent a lot of time with you during your pregnancy. You will receive customized care that is

personal for your needs and your wants. That is a huge factor when it comes to safety. Doctors

put everyone in the same category and follow protocols assuming the worst until proven

otherwise. A midwife can eliminate the worse, until proven otherwise, because I know my

clients, I have better intuition in helping and caring for them during labor and postpartum. You

also don’t have to wait in doctor’s offices for hours just to see the doc for three minutes. All your

questions are answered. Sometimes during the prenatal period that time spent one on one can be

crucial. For example, sometimes I don’t catch a serious problem until the end of the appointment because it

has taken the woman that long to feel comfortable enough to ask me that embarrassing question.

With a doctor, she just wouldn’t have mentioned it. Everyone gets at least half an hour at each

appointment, but appointments can take up to an hour if needed.I listen to the mom and I take every complaint seriously and investigate it until I have ruled

out anything serious as a possibility. In reality, doctors can’t compete

with midwives on the quality of care. They just don’t have the time because it’s impossible to spend that much time with you and be that available for you. When

you go into labor the midwife is there with you throughout the duration of the labor. Not coming

in at the last minute to catch it. You’re paying for the obstetrician but the nurse is the one that

delivers you. If you get a rooky nurse who doesn’t know what she’s doing, it can be dangerous.

At least with your midwife, you should know what you should be getting.

(Liz) I listen to the mom and I take every complaint seriously and investigate it until I have ruled

out anything serious as a possibility.

What do you think about babies lost during home birth?
​It’s sad because home birth can be done so safely. When I was training, back in the 80’s, you never heard of bad home birth

experiences because midwives were skilled, careful and prayerful. In my opinion, losing one

baby is too many. There is no excuse. If done properly, mortality and morbidity in home birth

should be very very rare. Safety needs to be the number one priority, not the quality of the

experience. The quality of the experience is a close second to safety but not number one, because

if the safety goes down the train, the quality of the experience goes down the drain. To get a

quality experience, sometimes people ignore safety. Why take a chance with a baby’s life? I’d

just never do it. I couldn’t do it. Once that birth becomes more risky at home than it would be in


the hospital, then it’s time to take her there.

Social Media Questions:

Have you found your career peers declining? Are they being pushed out by insurance? (or

who?)

No they are increasing. I think that one of the reasons is that there is a higher demand for them

and another reason is it is easier to become a midwife now. But, not all of them are adequately

trained, in my opinion, because many are not learning the hands on skills and they are not getting

the birth experience they need prior to setting out on their own. There are more private midwife

schools now, and some of them encourage apprenticeship after the students leave the classroom,

but they aren’t all getting that essential part of the training. It is a hands-on profession yet fewer

and fewer midwives know HOW to complement the birthing experience so they just stay out of it

and say that is the best way to do it. The result is longer labors, with resultant increased

cases of maternal exhaustion, hospital transports, postpartum depression, etc. Let’s take vaginal

exams, for example:. It took me at least 50 exams to begin to figure out what I was feeling up

there and several years to becoming refined at reading cervixes. Pregnant women’s vaginas are

just a bunch of mush to a novice. Many midwives, who don’t have that refined skill, will say

that vaginal exams are bad, but I have had cases where a vaginal exam was life-­saving and MANY

cases where vaginal exams gave us knowledge that enabled us to prevent or correct problems in

labor. The girls coming out of those schools know birth by the book very well, and how to take a

test, but they don’t know the hands-­on aspect of it as well as those who completed lengthy

apprenticeships. Having those hands on skills and knowing how and when to get involved is

even more important than the book knowledge, but having both, is best of course. Remember

that a “hands on” midwife can be “hands off” when necessary, but a “hands off” midwife, cannot

be “hands on” because she doesn’t know how. “Hands on” is learned by doing.

What do you recommend for women that want to support this career or are interested in

this career?
​I actually have an eleven page booklet I wrote to answer that question. I am

accustomed to getting many phone calls from women saying they want to be midwives. I’ve

learned that that phone call takes about two hours of my time, so instead, I wrote a booklet on

becoming a midwife and the different aspects of it all that I will email to them. In this booklet, I

initially try to talk them out of it by being truthful as to the drawbacks of the profession, so that

they don’t waste their time and money pursuing midwifery, only to realize that it’s not for them.

I have trained so many apprentices and only one is currently practicing. Most women don’t

survive the first 50 births before they are done with this crazy life­style. It takes a long time and

lots of work to become a midwife. You need to study and train until you can say that someone is

as safe or safer with you as with any other midwife or practitioner in your area. It’s not

something you just learn like CPR or a doula, this is something where you need to be an expert

in your field, which should take you years. You need all of the book knowledge, and also

experience before you go out on your own. You need to be equivalent in education in natural

birth and the early detection of problems as the obstetrician is in their knowledge of

complications. You need to be a “doctor” of natural birth. It took me eight years ­­­between

college self study and apprenticeship. It was an intense eight years. That’s how long it took me to

be able to say that people are safe with me, now. It’s not something to be taken lightly. And this

whole “trust birth” campaign is a bunch of baloney. Don’t trust birth, trust God. And “respect”

birth. In reality, birth is basically safe and most of the time babies will come out just fine, but

you need to be able to watch for signs of complications that can happen for reasons beyond our

controll­­­ and they do happen. For someone to say they don’t, they are living in a cloud. A good

midwife can handle those complications and risks sometimes better than a doctor can, but she

needs to know when it is beyond of her level of skill. That is what makes home birth safer than

hospital birth: If you have a good midwife who knows her limits, you are eliminating the risks of

the hospital but you are also eliminating most of the risks of home birth. Those risks are also

greatly minimized when there is a hospital nearby (within 20 minutes) and you have a midwife

who is willing to use that hospital. Any midwife that says bad things don’t happen, is a midwife

that hasn’t been practicing long enough and she shouldn’t be calling herself a midwife. I’m

worried about the way the “trust birth” movement is going and that it may eventually cause the

illegalization of all midwives.


Are there insurance companies that are more midwife friendly than others? If so, which or

how do we find out which?​
Yes there are. Clients need to ask to find out before they purchase

insurance. I can tell you some insurances that have covered me in the past and recently, but what

I find with insurance is that everyone has different plans. You might have Blue Cross Blue

Shield, however you have a different plan than somebody else so you have different coverage.

Ask the insurance company what type of midwife they cover and for how much.

How do I find a good midwife?
​Interview them. Talk to people randomly who have used

different midwives. Experience and her safety protocol should be what you look for first. She

needs to have at least a 3%­6% transport rate. If it is less than that, she’s taking too many risks,

and if it’s higher than that she might be too nervous and transporting too often. Another thing

that I would look for in a midwife personally is whether or not she prays. Obstetrics is a blind

profession even with the use of ultrasound. There are too many unseen factors and I don’t see

how anyone can do it properly without the help of the Lord. That is a scientific fact. There is a

spiritual side to bringing babies into the world; and anyone who denies that side or is unfamiliar

with it, is at a very big disadvantage. You can’t ignore the physical side either. We live in a

physical world where blood runs through our veins, and if we lose too much of it, we die. A

midwife who respects and acknowledges both the spiritual and physicals are the ones that can

deliver hundreds and hundreds of babies throughout their careers and never lose one. IMO, A

midwife needs to at least have 100 births under her belt that she actively participated in,

including the prenatal care of, to have the minimum of adequate experience.

How do they handle high risk pregnancies or complications with the pregnancy? When we

decide to have more kids I would like to have a midwife but I'm hesitant because of my

pregnancy history.

Usually people like her are the ones who most need midwives because a good midwife can take

many high risk situations and help them to become low risk with proper preventative care during

the pregnancy. I’ve had several women come to me who were labeled high risk and a lot of times

they were ​high risk but by the time they had the baby they were low risk because of healthy

eating and/or supplementation. I have a lot of women come to me because they are high risk and

they need that extra care that only a midwife has time to give them. Good examples of high risk

that can be treated are: history of high blood pressure, preeclampsia, premature delivery,

previous C­-section. In some situations a high risk woman will benefit by seeing a high risk

specialist OB and a midwife simultaneously.

What resources can I go to, to share with my medically and scientifically minded husband

to educate him about the safety of birth outside of the "normal" hospital setting?

Libraries and internet have much information and statistics that can be found on home birth. I

invite women to bring their skeptical husbands and have a personal consultation with me where

he can just shoot out whatever concerns or criticisms he has. Most of the time their skepticism

stems from lack of information. It’s also because they care and they feel protective. They don’t

like to shoulder the responsibility of the outcome, something possibly going wrong and failing as

an adequate protector. Most of the time it just takes a consultation with the midwife and some

reassurance that she’s not going to allow your wife to bleed to death. If he can feel comfortable

in her abilities to care for his family, that is usually all it takes, because home birth is favorable

to dads as well. We fear what we don’t understand. I provide free classes each month that are

specifically geared to provide that needed information to these couples. My own husband was

that way originally. Back then, I went to the library and researched the pros and cons of home

birth. I just read things to my husband, because he wouldn’t do it. He eventually became okay

with it over a course of time, but when our baby was born, he became totally converted!

NATURAL BIRTH W/ MIDWIFE v. EPIDURAL IN HOSPITAL

I hope this post is helpful to someone out there who is debating between a natural birth or a medicated one and who also might feel nervous about delivering with a midwife outside of a hospital. All I am going to do is tell my two birth experiences and you can take from them what you want or need.

First Labor and Birth: Aida Mariana Klein

A few hours after delivery

I wanted to do a natural birth for my first child. Everyone is my family does natural labor and are pros at it, so I thought I would naturally be good at it too. I also try to keep my body healthy and stay in shape which they say makes natural labor much easier and go a lot faster, so NATURALLY I thought I had it in the basket without much work. I signed up to take Hypnobirthing the Mongan Method because it was MUCH cheaper than the popular Hypnobabies classes and teaches much of the same thing.

Hypnosis Birthing Classes

These turned out much differently than I had originally thought they were going to be, and though there were a lot of things I really liked about the classes, I can honestly say they didn't help me at all in being able to deliver naturally. I know that for some people they work really great, but for me they didn't. It's kind of the same thing as when your at a show with a real hypnotist and random people go up on the stage. He goes through a series of things to find out who there is actually prone to hypnosis, the ones who aren't are asked to leave the stage. I think it is the same with women and birth. Some people can go into that deep hypnosis (an extreme state of relaxation and peace) when qued by their parenter or themselves, and some people might have a harder time. Some people feel more pain during labor and some people feel less. The things that I did like about hypnosis birthing classes were all informational lectures. They teach you about your body and about how labor and delivery work and about how it is a natural and perfect process and about how you can control yourself and your emotions and your pain to do it naturally. Today, labor and birth are talked about like you will never survive them without that oh so stealthy yet painful insertion of the plastic epidural tube into your spinal chord. But guess what? You can. Women have been doing it for ages and continue to do so around the world. Most women can give birth naturally without any life or death problems. But, the medical world has brainwashed us into thinking that our bodies either can't do it without problems, or that it is just to plain painful to go through and survive. At the same time, there are many people who are blessed regularly with the modern technologies of the medical world. Some people suffer from health problems that can't allow their bodies to work as they should and sometimes it is the baby that is having the problem. In those cases, a hospital is definitely the place to deliver a baby.Anyways, I was saying that what I loved about the classes is that they teach you the truth: your body was meant for this and you can do it. What I didn't love about the classes is all of the stories about the women who sneeze and their baby comes out (I didn't actually hear that in the classes, but a lot of the stories are like that) and the scripts and CDs given. They are just not my thing, but maybe they might be yours.

Now for the actual labor and birth story. Aida was due the 15^th and was two days late. I went into labor at midnight on the 17^th of May. I had eaten lentil bean soup for dinner (don't do that if your near your due date) and went to bed at about 11:45. Obviously I was NOT preparing to have my baby. After taking the courses I was convinced I would feel light contractions start and they would be ten minutes apart. I'd throw in my CD of birth affirmations that I got from my class and float pain free through my labor and delivery. That didn't happen. I laugh even thinking about the fact that I could have believed that. I felt my first contraction around midnight and woke up to what I like to call pain. It wasn't pressure. I didn't wake up from pressure, it was definitely pain. The next one came on just a few short minutes after. My contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and I was in very bad pain. I would try walking through them but would pretty much just collapse onto the thing nearest to me. The walking didn't help me that much. I stayed home until about two and then we decided to go to the hospital. Contractions were still 2-3 minutes apart (which is exhausting). We got to the hospital and right before going in I puked into the hospital's plants outside the door. Lentil soup straight up my nose. I couldn't get all the lentils out. Yeah......So I was admitted. They put the IV tip into my hand(I forget what it's called but you have to at least have that in your hand if you deliver in Provo, its annoying but still allows you to move around freely. My nurse was really nice at the beginning but it was the end of her shift. I sat there on the bed writhing in pain. She said, “so you took hypno-birthing classes I'm guessing because of the list of things you want and don't want? My sister did that. It worked for her but it didn't work for me.”

“Yeah. I took them” I said still writhing in pain.

“Well it looks like you aren't using the techniques right? I know you don't want anyone to ask you if you want it. But just so you know, you can ask for it whenever you want.”

She was talking about an epidural. It was two hours later that I asked for it. Contractions still 2 minutes apart and they stayed that way the entire labor. I finally got to go to sleep which was amazing. But I definitely couldn't move around anywhere and by that time I had more than one thing that I was plugged up to. My legs were so numb I could not feel ANYTHING from the waist down. When it came time to deliver my husband had to come hold my legs while the nurse sat there silent with us (she had been in a nasty mood the entire time) and right before my baby came out my doctor came in (who is so freakin' awesome....Shelly Savage in Provo. Go to her.) and caught the baby. I got to hold her right after they wiped her off and she pooped and peed all over my arms. I loved it! She immediately started sucking her little fist and cuddled me. Then they took her away for all of her cleaning and shots and tests. Staying in the hospital sucked. Husbands, don't plan on staying with your wives. It's really boring. I really wanted to get the needle tip out of my hand for the I.V. because it was aching. Something had hit it and moved it around my hand. It was aching bad! They told me they would take it out in an hour.....take it out when they switched my rooms....take it out after I take some medicine...etc....I had it in for probably four hours after I had delivered her. Super annoying. One really awesome pro of delivering in the hospital is the nursery. They take your baby away and let you sleep all you want and bring them back whenever you want or when they want to eat. The first couple of nights are always hard with a newborn. At least for me they are. The total labor and delivery was 13 hours and I don't regret getting that epidural at all. I was not prepared at all mentally for what labor and delivery actually was. I decided to get it because I decided I cared more about being happy throughout my laboring process and happy when my baby came instead of exhausted and depressed about everything that I had just gone through. I loved getting the epidural, even though there was still a lot of things I didn't like about that day (nurses, my hand, throwing up, the hospital in general,etc.)

Second Labor and Birth: Cypress Sky Klein

Cypress just born

0 birthdays are the best!

We moved south, so I was in St. George for this baby. I decided to deliver with a Certified Nurse Midwife, Liz Smith, who runs a birth suite with another Certified Nurse Midwife. Liz is awesome. I decided to go with them because they are literally 5 minutes away from the hospital AND as certified nurse midwives they are able to administer drugs that a traditional midwife can't in case of emergency (i.e. petocin in case of hemorrhaging...numbing meds for stitching if you tear badly). The big reason I chose Liz is because I told her I needed a lot of help throughout the laboring process with actively trying to move it along and help me through the pain. This time, I was going to be prepared. With my first baby I thought it was a lot like doing weights or running. You give it all you got and just push through the pain and give it more power. In movies when women are delivering naturally they are always beat red and screaming and same thing for going through labor. That's how I thought of it....push through power through. That does NOT work. Its quite the opposite. It's still very mental like any workout that is pushing you. But, you do the opposite, you are not supposed to exert at all...this is “hypnosis” for me. And it was still painful.

I wasn't due until the 23 of March and luckily I ended up going to St. George earlier than I had planned ( we had moved up North and I had planned on going up a week before my due date). Never think you can know when your baby is going to come.We got into Parowan on Saturday night and I woke up Monday morning a few times through the night thinking I had peed the bed. I changed pants. It happened again. I changed again. Then it happened while I was awake so I decided I definitely wasn't wetting the bed (haha. I was depressed when I thought I kept wetting the bed). I called my midwife and she was at a different delivery. She said to call her when I started feeling mild contractions and head to St. George. At that point I had no pain at all. Half an hour later the contractions started coming. They were 3-5 minutes apart each time and that was SOOOOOOO nice to have a little more time inbetween them. My husband got our little girl and everything loaded and ready into the car...and he heated it up (which is nice cause it sucks being cold and in labor). All the while I just laid on the bed and tried to relax completely and breathe through each contraction. No way I was trying to walk through them like the last time. I still felt the same but I wasn't falling all over everything. After a contraction would end I'd concentrate how there wasn't any pain. Id close my eyes and relax my head, my neck my shoulders, my chest, my arms my fingers, and everything else all the way down to the toes. Then another contraction would come. Same routine over and over, but boy did it help. I wasn't powering through anything, I was pretending that I was flubber melting onto the bed or something. The hour drive to St. George was a bit rough but overall pretty great. When I got to the birth suite the other midwife let us in and helped set me up because Liz was still at the other delivery. The other midwife was great and helped me as much as she could for the short time she was there. I laid on the floor. I laid on the bed. Throughout this my husband would massage my legs and arms (that helps take your mind off of the contractions while going through them). My midwife got there and I got into the bathtub with hot water. That is great. Some people call it a water-dural or aqua-dural. My sister told me when she was going through transition she got in the water and her contractions almost completely subsided. My didn't do that, but the warmth definitely helped me to relax. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT. If you hear a story, don't expect it will happen for you. It creates a lot of disappointment which makes it harder. My midwife thought I was going to drown cause I was getting water in my mouth while breathing through contractions. It felt so good in there. My husband would poor warm water over my belly the whole time. One of the things I was most grateful for was that when I would go through a hard contraction, my midwife would tell me what to do to make the best of that contraction....how to make the most progress. She would remind me verbally of what my body was doing and how that pain was good and it meant everything was right and productive. When in the hospital you are left by yourself. No one is there to talk you through it or help you. You end up on the bed writhing in pain just thinking you are going to die. You forget there is a whole purpose to the labor and to the pain. Having someone remind you that your baby is coming and that there is purpose to the pain is TREMENDOUSLY helpful. It gives you a huge mental break. I got out of the tub when I finally dilated to a ten and began to push, first squatting and then laying on my back on the bed. I delivered my baby perfectly posterior. It was amazing and fast and awesome and she bawled and bawled, but she didn't pee and poop on me. My midwife made us blueberry smoothies and egg croissant sandwiches and sat with us and talked with us while we all ate. My husband and her took the baby while I slept for a couple of hours. Bam! We left. Cypress Sky Klein attended her 0 birthday party with about 11 people at a house having a St. Patricks Day celebration. Music blasting, kids dancing around and holding her, and me feeling great, not groggy or drained.

I enjoyed both of my labor and deliveries. I enjoyed my first because I brought Aida into the world and she is one spunky, playful, loving, helpful, intense, dramamama, touchy little girl(does that make sense? She makes it work.) She blew my mind and my world into pieces and helped me realize I needed to shape a new one. And she is patient with me and my process in doing that every single day. She is amazing. I'm thankful for the modern medicine that helped me get through my lack of preparation and utter despair(that's what it was). I enjoyed my second labor because it was awesome! I love Cypress. She is so different than Aida. For starters she is mild. She is sensitive and cuddly and loving and a bit of a scaredy cat. She is smiley and happy.I loved that my labor was only four hours(due to her being posterior. My midwife said if she hadn't had been I would have delivered on the road...blessings in disguise). I loved everything that I went through for her and that I was able to do it. People make it seem impossible and it is completely possible. It is a gift from our Heavenly Father to deliver our babies. Labor and delivery is only the beginning of pains and trials we will experience in raising them and I don't want to numb myself through those experiences either. I think there are certain things in life that have to be experienced. Traveling to Paris or the Bahamas is not one of them. Delivering a child that you created from love and that is being lent to you to teach from your Heavenly Father definitely is one of those things. Harder things bring greater rewards. I have experienced natural labor and loved it and that I did it, but who knows. Maybe on number six I'll do the epidural as my celebration? Haha.

I also want to make it clear. I'm not anti-epidural. Even just the beginning of labor is hard. And even if I had known what labor was going to be like, no way I would want to go through that for 13 hours. I bet I'd still choose an epidural for my first one.That is some tough stuff. Four hours is a completely different story. But, I loved everything about a natural labor, more. I enjoyed it more and I bet you would too.

The Truth About Breastfeeding

Yes, let's talk about it. I want to get this out there. This post is one that is going to be very close to me. BREASTFEEDING. To new mother's and even seasoned ones, it can sound dreadful and bring on a panic session of crying. At least that is what it did to me after little Yogurt Drop was born.

There were always amazing women that would come to me once that they saw that I was pregnant and say, "I'm going to tell you what I wish someone had told me." Boy, am I forever grateful for all of that information. But, it turns out that the one thing no one ever told me about turned out to be my greatest struggle for the first few months of being a new mother.

After Yogurt Drop was born, they put her on my chest and said, "She needs to be fed, now. Feed her." And I did just that. I just stuck her on my chest and she sucked away! I didn't feel any pain in the hospital from feeding her, which I thought was odd because everyone told me that feeding makes you pretty sore. After my first feeding, they told me that a lactation specialist would be sent into my recovery room to help me learn how to feed her properly. I fed my baby a few times before the specialist actually came in, and luck would have it that I was feeding her just as she entered.

She watched me feed her for a little bit and said something about how her jaw was moving up and down so she knew I was doing it correctly and then she left.
                             

                                    but guess what? I WASN'T.I was not doing it correctly.

It was only a day later that I could not STAND anything touching my chest. It was too painful to wear a bra, even with the gel pads that the hospital had given me. So, I spent a few days walking around like a person with TERRIBLE posture just so that my shirt wouldn't touch my cracked bleeding nipples. After about a week, my girls looked like THE PLANET MARS!!! They had crevices and were swollen to like triple their size(ok, maybe not triple. That'd be weird). I had been doing what everyone said to. After every feeding I was LATHERING them up with Lanolin oil. Everyone said that stuff is magical and will keep anything bad from happening. That was a lie. If you are feeding wrong, Lanolin won't do anything for you. But, I kept telling myself the pain would go away and that it was normal, because everyone said that it is supposed to hurt at the beginning.

But, it wasn't getting easier as the days went on, only worse.One day, I was so desperate that I went to a friend for some help. I was literally going insane. Having to go through extreme pain every two hours to feed your baby is NO BUENO. My armpits would literally be dripping sweat while I fed her. I went to my friend in hopes of comfort. But, I kind of got the exact opposite. I thought my nipples were going to fall off. No joke. The cuts were so deep and it was so swollen with so much dead skin everywhere, I thought they were just going to fall off. So, I told her that. She then went on to tell me a story about how she actually has a friend that it happened to.

I kept a straight face and listened, but inside I was DYING. I didn't need a horror story about it. I just needed help and understanding.

I called my best friend the next day telling her all of my troubles and how I just couldn't do it anymore, and just her listening and relating to me helped me out a lot. I was 95% ready to call it quits and become a formula momma. I had never wanted to do that. I don't think that it is bad to use formula. Formula is great for those who can't produce enough milk or for children who spit up everything they drink, only to be starving 3 minutes after it all comes up. But, I had no problems with my milk supply. I wanted to nurse my baby because I heard it was amazing, not to mention pretty dang convenient. But, I was at my breaking point. It wasn't until around then that I remembered that a nurse had given me a discount coupon for a lactation specialist clinic.

I remember that I was so angry while sitting and waiting to go into my appointment. On every wall there were posters that showed pictures of a baby and its mother together, nursing. All of the posters made feeding look SO EASY, so natural, so calming, so loving. YEAH FREAKING RIGHT! Nursing was what caused me to have a complete mental and emotional break down, which really does not happen very often. Nursing is what made my husband think I was a psychopath(not really, though.) It was the bane of my existence. At that point, I hated it. I wanted to never try to feed again. I was then called into the back room.

The specialist was exactly what I needed. She listened to me and told me she knew it was hard and she told me that yes, the pain and severity of cracks that I was experiencing was NOT normal. She helped show me easier ways to latch for beginners and prescribed me medication called Newton's Nipple Ointment(heaven on earth!) and after the appointment I went straight to Target and bought the Lanolin brand double pump(best price for quality). After only like 3 days of using the prescription and the pump, my girls were looking like normal again. They were healed enough that I could handle the little bit of pain to try latching and feeding her correctly. I discovered that the cradle position works best for me.

About ten months down the road and I am remembering how I told myself I'd have her weened by one. WHAT!?!? It came up so fast. She did it beautifully though and was totally ready. Two weeks later and she was drinking two sippy cups of banana milk a day. AWESOME. The truth is, it was harder for me than for her to ween. I missed her and I missed cuddling her and I missed her needing me in a way that I would never be needed again. I wanted to cry when I could tell that she wanted to nurse and then be totally fine with a glass of milk. Now two months later and we're both doing awesome. I will always nurse my children. What a truly magnificent and unique our Father in heaven has given us as mothers to be able to feed our own children from our bodies. WHOA.

So here it is, the TRUTH about breastfeeding. It is definitely one of the hardest things that some mother's will ever have to go through, but in the end, it is also one of the biggest paybacks of motherhood.

This is kind of like the pictures in the lobby of the lactation specialist's office I went to.
My baby yogurt drop during our most difficult nursing experience. We made it through, together!