I began my work with birthing women at Denver General Hospital and worked there for a year and a half. During that time I attended my first home birth and knew this was my true heart’s work.
In early 1974, I moved to New Mexico. I was in a small community outside Albuquerque and became involved in a birth support group that evolved in a natural food cooperative on the outskirts of town. A woman wrote saying she had met me at the center and would like me to assist with her home birth. I wrote back, saying I’d like to meet with her and discuss the situation. I didn’t hear anything more. I planned to travel in the summer and wrote to her saying so. When I returned from my travels, a letter awaited me. Jeannie said she had made other arrangements for her birth, but now they had fallen through. She was close to delivery and desperate. It was night when I read the letter and I had no car.
In the morning, I hitchhiked to the mountains outside Albuquerque where they lived. All I had was a post office box number. The woman in the post office didn’t know where they lived so I left a note and went outside to decide what to do next. A woman driving a truck pulled in and asked if I needed a ride. I said, “I’m looking for some people.” She was only visiting herself but asked whom I was trying to find. When I said, “Jeannie and Tommy”, she said, “I’m visiting them! And they’re at the hospital.”
Jeannie was in early labor. They’d gone in to be checked and were now on their way home again to decide what to do next. As we were talking, here came Jeannie and Tommy to check their mail on the way home. Jeannie saw me and started to laugh and cry at the same time. We hugged, talked excitedly and headed to their house.
I was not considering myself a birth attendant but only a friend with an interest and some minimal experience. I had a fetuscope, some gloves and lubricating jelly. Jeannie said she had scissors, gauze and some blue Chux pads to absorb fluids. We decided we could do it.
The woman that was visiting had an eight year old daughter who had not been prepared and was not expecting to see a birth. This was a first baby and typically strenuous. At one point Jeannie was on her hands and knees and her water broke, splatting against the wall like a giant water balloon. The young girl jumped about a foot in the air.
Late in the evening, Jeannie birthed her 9lb. son. Afterwards, the friend’s daughter was talking to me and said she would NEVER have a baby! I said, “Why don’t you ask Jeannie if it was worth it?” With stars in here eyes and love beaming out of her, she said, ” Of course! It was worth every minute.”
This birth gave me my first lesson in trusting the Universe and Divine timing.
This story is adapted from my first book, Tree of Life: Stories of Birth.
