Birth Story of Andrew Ash

Early in the morning of April 29, 2001, almost a week after the baby's due date, Lana had mild contractions. When Gretchen checked Lana, she was making good progress, but something didn't feel right and Gretchen suspected that the baby may have flipped over at the last moment into a breech position.

Gretchen said, "Here's the plan: We'll go to the hospital and have an ultrasound. If the baby is head-down, we'll come home and push it out. Otherwise we'll have it there." So, we made a quick trip to the hospital. Deep inside, most of us knew we weren't coming back without a baby in our arms.

This was the birthing room. Gretchen had called ahead so the doctor, nurses, and ultrasound technician were ready and waiting.

Barbara, Lana's friend, arrived at the hospital at the same time.

"There's the head," announced the lady as she probed the TOP of Lana's belly.

"Shoot!" Gretchen exclaimed tersely. The baby was completely breech. No going home now!

After more probing we found the baby was in the Frank Breech position with its bottom down and legs jack-knifed up by its chest and head. At full term, only 3-4% of babies are in a breech position and only a few of those are delivered vaginally. Most doctors prefer the "safe" route of doing a C-section.

Dr. Karmy introduced herself and told us that the baby was in an optimal position for a vaginal breech birth. She gave us the choice of doing a C-section or going ahead and attempting a breech birth. "For us to work together you'll need to trust my judgment," she said.

"If you do a vaginal birth you must be committed," said Gretchen. "The delivery is different because you can't just push the baby right out. Your birth canal must be fully dilated before you start pushing, so the head (the biggest part of the baby), has room to come through without getting stuck. It's going to take lots of concentration and effort to keep from pushing."

"I don't know; I'm not sure if I have the energy for that. A C-section sounds appealing to me right now," said Lana.

We all were secretly hoping Lana would choose to have a natural birth, but it had to be her choice.

The contractions started becoming more intense and lasting longer.

After talking some more, the doctor and nurse left.

Gretchen commented, "You are very fortunate. Dr. Karmy just happened to be on call and she would have been my first choice. She is one of the only doctors around who would consider vaginal breech births as an option."

Gretchen answered some more of Lana's questions, then suggested that the two of us pray by ourselves for God's guidance.

As we prayed, we were reminded of God's promise: Ps 34:19 -- many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

We sensed God's leading so far and the little miracles that had already taken place. Lana finally said, "Let's do it the natural way."

The doctor and nurse were very accommodating. They kindly broke or bent much of the traditional hospital protocol to respect our wishes of a natural birth. For example:

• No IV (or even the start of one "just in case").
• Could drink juice (not just water and ice).
• Could labor in non-traditional places (bathroom) without being constantly hooked up to a monitor.
• Gretchen (non-staff) was permitted to help in many ways.

Gretchen said, "I'm in a gray area here... not on the hospital staff, but here to help."

Voni commented, "I've never seen someone use the Jacuzzi in quite that way before." She was very accommodating and went to great lengths to take Lana's blood pressure & pulse in the tub.

Lana told Gretchen, "I feel like I want to push..."

"Don't push. Breathe through your contractions." Gretchen was right with us the whole time. She was a great support.

Voni recorded Gretchen's readings. For the most part she was out of the room and just came in to write down updates to the stats.

While Lana was kneeling on the floor, her water broke, soaking her socks. Voni quickly came up with a pair of brown hospital socks to replace the wet ones.

Soon Lana's contractions started becoming more and more intense so Dr. Karmy asked Lana to get back in bed so she could check her. 9+ cm dilated (out of 10). Yeah!

Between contractions Lana rested. Sometimes it almost appeared as if she was asleep. This helped her conserve strength and work with her body.

Lana chose not to have any pain medicines. The more you interfere with nature, the more troubles you can encounter.

Soon the contractions almost became unbearable. Lana was breathing hard, telling herself, "Don't push, Don't push!"

In a pause between contractions, Dr. Karmy explained the birth procedure to us in detail. Right at the end, Gretchen would help hold the baby's body in a sling while Dr. Karmy maneuvered the baby out.

The stirrups were put in place, the bottom of the bed was taken away, the doctor put on a heavy "apron" and got ready for the delivery.

"Okay, now push," Gretchen and the doctor told Lana.

She didn't have to be told twice. She pushed and pushed. Soon she was yelling and screaming. I haven't heard my wife scream before. :)

When Lana's contractions slowed, we reminded her to try to relax. The contractions started again, intense as ever... and Lana resumed pushing.

Dr. Karmy kept helping the little body out. She cut an episiotomy to let the baby come easier and then things really started moving.

The bottom came out fully, the legs unfolded and the arms came out with a little gentle turning.

Then, finally the most crucial part remained -- the head.

With a gentle pull the head came right out and Andrew Donald Ash was born. Lana had done a great job with holding back so there was room for it to come out.

Birth Time: 2:08 pm -- (just 10 minutes of pushing!!)

Research shows that the first few minutes after birth are most crucial for mother and baby bonding together.

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll be back to check it later..." and with that he left.

Praise the Lord! Dr. Karmy didn't mind letting Lana keep holding Andrew.

Right in front of the pan are forceps which were available just in case the baby got stuck and needed to be dislodged in an emergency. Thankfully we didn't need to use them.

8 lbs 10 oz !! A very big baby!

See the way his legs flop up by his head? That's typical of a breech baby since they had been in that position for a while. It didn't take long for Andrew's legs to straighten out, leading us to think he hadn't been breech for long.

Notice the bruised spot on his bottom? Since he came out breech his head was cute and round but his bottom was quite bruised as it came out first and opened the birth canal.

Because Lana's overall labor time was quite short she had quite a bit of energy compared to her last birth.

After a couple of checks the nurses noted that Andrews' breathing was fairly rapid and shallow. They said it is typical of most newborns, but they said he should be watched. We would need to wait until the doctor checked him again.

After Andrew rested with Lana for a while, his breathing slowed down.

My first thought: "My word, he's light! (Johnny, our first-born weighs over 30 lbs now).

Conclusion

We are thankful for God's help and the many little miracles He performed for Andrew's safe delivery. Praise be to God!