As I write this, my child is 1-year-old and I am one month pregnant. I look forward to this next birth so much and I am drawn to thinking about my first child's birth more and more.

I had a very healthy pregnancy. My OB was nice, but left something to be desired considering she hadn't even had a child herself. I wondered if that was really who I wanted to deliver my baby? I also wondered if I really wanted to go to the hospital. It was so cold and impersonal, and I really didn't like the other partners in my doctor's firm. So after much soul searching and book reading, my husband and I decided we wanted a homebirth. So the search for a midwife started (at the time I thought that this was a logical step.) One midwife who did homebirths in the area wasn't planning to be in town around my due date. So then, what about traveling to somewhere where there was a homebirth environment? The nearest place was The Farm in Tennessee. Too far away, so we thought how about just doing it ourselves. How hard can it be? From what we had heard , unless you brought a doula or labor support person with you, you pretty much labored alone in the hospital anyway. Plus we didn't want drugs or interventions of any kind -- we began reading books on childbirth. We found some great ones and we found a community all across the country that does unassisted homebirth, daddy deliveries, do-it-yourself births, gentle birth, free births or whatever you call them. In fact, in our small community we found about 25 couple who do this kind of birth. Some great books include, Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin, Unassisted Childbirth by Laura Kaplan Shanley, and Unassisted Homebirth by Lynn Greisomer.

Anyway, so my due date came and went and I kept thinking tonight's the night because I was having pre-labor all the time. Sometimes with contractions 2 minutes apart and very hard, but they would always disappear before the morning. But from our studying we knew that if you were healthy, drank lots of water, the baby moved often, and your water hadn't broken, you could labor for a very long time, so we continued. All this time my OB is telling me we will have a C-section for various reasons. I think just to try and scare me into not staying at home.

My due date was July 20 and finally on August 5, I felt like I had a really big changing contraction at 4 p.m., so I went to the chiropractor like normal and got adjusted which felt great -- it really does take away the pains of pregnancy!!!!! So we went and got some pizza and came home and I was having regular contractions. My mom, who was there for my support for the birth, started timing contractions and they were 5 minutes but slowed to 10-20 minutes at 11 p.m.. So I thought here we go again, false labor and went to bed. Well, I was woken up every 10 to 15 minutes through the night with strong back labor. At 8 a.m. I was still having contractions and very excited that this may be the real thing. I understude the basic idea of checking dilation, so I checked myself and estimated that I was only 1 centimeter, which was discouraging. But it was morning and so I went for a walk in our back yard and tried to get ready for this all the while having contractions. By afternoon the hard labor had started and I was really working to concentrate on the contractions. I tried to check myself again and thought that I was still only 1 centimeter, and so I though maybe I didn't know how to check after all, by that evening. I was throwing up with every contraction including just water and ice chips. But surprisingly the throwing up felt kind of good to be doing something other that riding the waves of the contractions, and we had also read that throwing up can help you dilate because lose lip makes for a lose bottom.

So at 11 p.m. I checked my dilation and finally it clicked, I knew what I was feeling -- 8 centimeters. It really did take me a long time to dilate but I was finally on my way, although I was in a lot of pain. At 11:30 transition symptoms hit: throwing up (even more), feelings that you are going to burst or rip in half, feelings that you can't go on… My husband says that I said some pretty funny things, like go outside and get a brick and hit me in the head. Finally at 1 a.m. on the 7th I felt the urge to push, but I wasn't sure if I was completely dilated, so I held off for as long as possible. At 1:30 I started pushing in the shower and then moved to the big kiddy pool outside, and back to the shower. It felt so good to push, finally I could go with these huge sensations in my body. Then I moved to the birthing area my husband had set up in the living room with waterproof pads and stuff. At 2 my water broke , but the baby was so well engaged that it was only a few trickles The baby started to move down and I changed positions from hands and knees to squatting and then dangle squat hanging my arms over my husband's thighs while he was sitting in a chair. This was a good position, a nice deep squat, but not all the weight on my feet. Finally she was crowning, after what seemed like forever of pushing. and with one good final push the baby was born head, shoulders and all at 3:26 a.m. on August 7, 2 and a half weeks past my due date, with 35 and a half hours of labor. Twenty of which were hard, plus 2 hours of transition and 2 hours of pushing. Trillium Perry Daniels, who we call Lily, was born posterior (facing upwards) at 10 pounds and 22 inches.

An amazing birth, and I would do it again 100 times over. Our perfect baby girl was born in our house and caught by her father with no latex gloves and strangers everywhere. No interruptions or weird smells. Just the intimacy of our family, the environment that she was conceived in. And best of all the incredible since of empowerment that I have for having born my child the way nature intended will last my entire life!!! People always say wow to my husband and you delivered her? He says no, my wife delivered her own baby, I just caught. It has strengthen our marriage and made us an autonomous family unit, stronger than I ever would have imagined.

Unassisted homebirth isn't for everyone, but if you think that it is, get educated on the subject and do it , it will change your life like nothing else. And most of all, no matter where you birth or who is with you, don't believe everything that you are told just because someone thinks that it is best for your baby.

I disproved four reasons why C-sections are routinely done. I had a 10-pound baby after more than 35 hours of labor, for a baby almost three weeks late who was posterior at home, and I didn't even tear. Question everything!!!!

Good luck!!!!