Karis Ruth Edmonds
May 4, 2007
Arrival time: 2:50 am
Weight: 7 lbs. 6 oz.
Length: 20 ½ in.
Written addressed to my daughter following her home birth.
My dear Karis came just as beautiful as could be but bright and early on Friday morning, May 4th. Not only early in the morning but a week prior to your due date. One of the many miracles surrounding your birth. If you had weighed any more than you did, it would have been a lot more difficult. But overall, I really did not feel like it was that difficult. I felt the Lord’s presence throughout the whole process. Many have said I am a super mom, but I have been continually reminded that God is to be praised. I couldn’t have done it without His all sustaining grace.
Let me start at the beginning…I experienced many contractions and birth pains on the Sunday prior to your birth. Everyone thought for sure this was it. The ladies at church were praying for me and so excited about the news…it spread like wildfire. But alas, God had other plans and the process continued only for the remainder of the day.
The next few days I was pretty discouraged…I was originally contentedly expecting you to come late, but this had raised my hopes. The Lord had to work in my heart some more still before your arrival. Thursday morning was the turning point in my heart…the place of surrender. I submitted my desires into His hands. The process of humility can be so difficult at times, but the Lord is merciful. That afternoon I remember specifically praying that you would arrive that night, but I was at peace finally as to when the Lord would have you come.
Thursday night we were enjoying an evening to ourselves…homemade pizza, dessert and a movie. The real birth pains began around 9 pm. They were pretty intense from the start but we waited until 10:30 before calling the midwife. Aaron was such a sweet and wonderful husband madly filling up the tub and getting everything together. I was leaning over the exercise ball, doing pelvic rocks, etc. I continually remember thinking how grateful I was that each contraction was followed by a period of rest. I was so incredibly thankful that it was not intense the whole way through. This was one of God’s many miracles.
Mary & Peta, our wonderful midwives (Mary actually delivered four of my siblings – so long history with her!), along with our birthing class teacher, Amber, arrived around 11:30 pm. They went right to work. As the contractions increased in intensity, Mary and Peta went downstairs, the lights were dimmed, candles lit, and I continued to labor with my faithful husband and Amber at my side. Amber had her sweet little baby, Esther, with her…which was an encouragement to me. Soon I would have a little one at my side.
It was so peaceful. I felt the Lord’s presence surrounding our room and giving me grace for each contraction. I walked around and leaned on your Papa, trying to fully relax with each birth pain. Papa was so faithful to support and encourage me.
Once I arrived at 10 cm and fully dialated, we received the unexpected news that you were breach. What a surprise! I had even been faithfully doing all my exercises. Alas! The Lord knew. Once the midwife realized the situation the room went quiet. I felt perfect peace in her abilities. She seemed very much in control and confident. Another one of the Lord’s mercies. I knew if we had been in the hospital we would have surely had a c-section. Thank you Jesus!
After one hour of hard pushing…double difficulty because it was like pushing your head out twice, you arrived, at 2:50 am, following just 6 hours of labor. What an amazing experience! There you were…our precious gift from God and so perfect in every way. Daddy was crying at the sight. It was perfect.
God’s mercy was again over your life as you needed to be resuscitated due to your 15 in cord and the immediate delivery of your placenta. That was definitely scary but another evidence of the grace of God over your delivery. Praise the Lord! I am so incredibly thankful for His goodness to us. You are such a gift! That is what you name literally means is “a gift”.
Pictures were taken a week following Karis’ birth by our dear friends Paul & Jenn Hartung.
Thank you so much for publishing your beautiful homebirth story on this blog! I just read both of your children’s birth stories and LOVE your faith and understanding of God and His role in our lives and our children’s lives. Homebirth is amazing and not to be feared! I had my son in 2006 in the hospital and decided that was not ever going to happen again. My daughter was born last August at home with our wonderful and knowledgable midwife, who, through the grace of God, was able to stop my post-delivery hemorrhage. I fully believe we still did what God would have us do in the birth of our daughter and we are now excitedly looking forward to another homebirth in March of 2010! Praise the Lord, He is good!
My 5th child was also an unexpected breech birth at a planned homebirth. God was so merciful to us….everything went so smoothly. If you are ever interested in reading the birth story, I wrote an article that was published in the Spring 2008 issue of “Seasons at Home” magazine. A wonderful magazine by the way.
Hi Lindsay,
Thank you for sharing this beautiful story! I was wondering if you could recommend any books that you enjoyed reading during the pregnancy, whether it be about motherhood, natural birth and/or pregnancy care. Thanks so much!
A friend of mine sent me the link to your blog for the tortilla recipe… I’ve been surfing your site for about 2 hrs being blessed like crazy! I read your birth story and had many similarities with my daughters births! My first was 3-4 weeks early but the Lords timing is always perfect! She was breech and had a knot in the cord which was also wrapped around her neck! She was born in a birth center with a great midwife! My water broke at about 11, by 12 my contractions were hard and fast and at 2:50 she was born! My second daughter was also born in a birth center by a wonderful midwife and also BREECH! My labor with her was actually longer but I think in my heart I knew she was breech (we didn’t know till she was about to be born!) and was a little more nervous…God is so good though and we had a great birth experience!
Thanks for sharing your story! I look forward to reading more of your blog and wonder if you mind if I link to your site?
Love your sister in Christ!
Katrina, reading in Idaho
Don’t you just love Mary and Peta?!?!?! I’ve used them with my last 2 children…the first 3 were born in the hospital. We were so happy to find Mary and Peta and look forward to another beautiful homebirth in April. Take care
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What a wonderful birth story! As a birth doula it brings be great joy to hear of a woman having the birth she desires. It’s truly a blessing. God is Great!
What a beautiful story! Thank you for sharing! I am pregnant with my first, due in February, and so wanted to have a homebirth. Unfortunately, I don’t know of many midwives in my area, and of the two I found, one refused to accept me as a client because of my hypothyroidism, and I never even heard back from the second
I’m sure my baby’s birth will be beautiful however it happens, but I must admit I am more than a little disappointed.
Like Lylah mentioned I’m having my 1st home/water birth next month. YAY! I’m super excited. If you read my blogs I wrote about preparing for it! I love hearing other womens home birth stories! Thank you for posting it!
Lindsay – can you share more about the resucitation? I was wondering how the 15in cord and immediate placenta delivery played in to that. Thank you so much for sharing!
Jenny
I am not sure what else I could add on this as I am not too knowledgeable in the medical field. I just understood from the midwife’s explanation is that due to the nature of the immediate delivery of her placenta, Karis needed to breath right away. In any other birth, the placenta is delivered within 10-20 minutes or so, and thus the child does not necessarily need to breath right away because they are still connected to their supply in the mother’s womb. Karis’ cord was short enough that the placenta came out immediately, and thus she was no longer connected to me and needed to breath on her own. One of the midwives took my purple little girl and performed mouth to mouth resuscitation to her, and within a short time she was breathing. Praise the Lord!
Lindsay, it sounds like you had placenta previa. Where the placenta covers the cervix. in these cases the baby is normally breech, and the baby should be born via c-section. Essentially, the baby is cutting off their own oxygen, and is very life-threatening, and can die.
I am not sure if that is what it is called or not. In any case, the Lord definitely can make it possible to deliver these kind of babies at home. My midwife was not concerned about any significant risk and our girl really was safe and sound after a little mouth to mouth.
It couldn’t have been placenta previa, because when the placenta covers the cervix there is literally no way for the baby to come out vaginally.
If the baby has a short cord, it is possible for the delivery of the baby to cause an immediate separation of the placenta because it gets pulled off. This could probably cause breathing issues for the infant, and the more dangerous possibility would be postpartum hemorrhage for the mother. Lindsay, I think God must have really been watching over you since it sounds like you didn’t have that happen at all!
Karis did have a really short cord and the placenta was delivered immediately after the baby. She had have to be resuscitated quickly but we had an EMT for a midwife and it worked amazingly well. God was good!
Kate, she didn’t have placenta previa. I am a medical professional, so I can say for sure that she didn’t. If she did, as the cervix opened, she would have started bleeding from the placenta. That means she most likely would have hemorrhaged to death, and the baby would have been born dead. She said the placenta came out after the baby was born. With placenta previa, the placenta comes out first. And having the short cord and the fast delivery of the placenta had nothing to do with the needed recuscitation. Some babies just need extra help after they are born, usually due to the stress of birth on the baby (and being breech is a big stress on baby). Home birth is, for the most part, safer than hospital birth, where physicians try to interfere in God’s plan for a perfect birth, and cause more problems with inducing labors and restricting movements and eating and drinking of mommas than any home birth. The only concern here was that a breech birth in significantly harder the first delivery, as following deliveries the vagina and cervix are more elastic.
Thanks for sharing Lindsay! I’m looking forward to c-section #4 in less than 2 weeks. We’ve had wonderful hospital and c-section experiences 3 times. Although c-sections would not normally be preferred, new life is so beautiful no matter the where or the how! Happy birthday, by the way
i love this story and have sent it to my sister in law, Breana – who is going to have a home birth in another month. and the cool thing is i get to be there for baby coles birth. makes me cry
Wow, I had forgotten that she was breach! How amazing and wonderful that you were still able to have her at home naturally. Thank the Lord for good midwives.
This has inspired me to finish writing Boone’s birth story. I started it over a year ago and never finished it!
Maybe you’ll see it on my blog soon…
God bless you, and I pray your pregnancy is going well!
~Naomi
Yes, thank you for sharing your story. I have been craving home birth stories since I personally know no one who has birthed at home with a midwife. It is so much fun to read one from someone I know and respect! I read many home birth stories at home birth data bases online, but so many leave out God. Lord willing, I will have a home birth in February. If my baby is breech, then I hope its a surprise too! I trust my midwife and how God has built my body.
You mentioned your childbirth educator–did you take an organized course like Bradley or was it something different? Did you have any family there with you (other than your husband)? Do you wish that you had or regret that you did? I know you are very close with your family, as I am with mine, and I know that each couple has to make their own decisions, but this one has been on my mind. I have a feeling that I won’t really know what we will want until I’m actually laboring! Anyway, thank you for your input.
My husband and I took the Bradley method natural childbirth class and absolutely loved it. We loved our instructor, who happened to be a Christian and doula, so we invited her to our birth. She was a great source of encouragement to us and kept reminding us of all the important breathing techniques, etc.
I also had my mother, mother-in-law, and two sisters at my birth. I enjoyed having them. At first I was a little concerned and anxious, but when it came down to the birth, I appreciated their prayers and support through it all. They really wanted to be there, and when you are in labor you forget about caring anyway. I wanted a quiet environment during the labor, so we asked them to hang out downstairs until it really started progressing.
SO it was a little crowded but all in all, I would definitely invite them again, but only if they desire to be there!
Lindsay,
I’ll consider that an official invitation to your next birth. I’m there! I love you and am so blessed to have a daughter-in-law that will let me experience that intimate part of your life with you. I encourage other young mothers to include older, supportive women into their birth experiences. Let them help and bless you anyway they can during labor and delivery. If they don’t know what to do, don’t be afraid to tell them!
What an amazing birth story. I had my first homebirth, last year, and it was a wonderful experience. God is so good!
What a wonderful birth story! Thank you for sharing.
I am having my first homebirth in December and to read these positive birth stories really makes a difference! All women need to share their birth stories with our girls. Our society if full of aweful and scary birth stories. No wonder women are terrified to give birth! Thank you for sharing! God bless you!
Thank you for sharing this with us! Isn’t God good? His power through us; what an honor to have this privelege! Your story thrills my soul and is precisely what I desire to share with others! God is IN birth, and we must choose to trust Him and allow Him to be in it! I have chills at this reading, because you did what so many find so difficult-casting your own feelings and fears before God, allowing Him to do the work in you and what a miracle! She is absolutely gorgeous! Praise God!!!!!!! Here you are, months later, and I am sure that you can see how this birth shaped you as a mother, how that experience has made an impact in your life in so many ways. Chills, my friend. We are a blessed people, amen?
Thank you for sharing this! We have been blessed by the Lord to have had all our children’s births at home. (So far!) I am so thankful to the Lord for this!!!
I am so glad you shared your home birth story! You are so fortunate you have been into natural living from your first baby:) I did not even hear about home birthing until my 5th baby. It’s amazing what midwives have been trained to do, especially when it comes to delivering twins or breach babies. After having 4 hospital births, having 2 homebirths was such a blessing. Your experience is a testimony to the grace of God and how taking care of our natural (as well as spiritual:) bodies is so important during this special time. I pray your next delivery will go well!
That is just precious and such a testimony to God’s timing, grace and goodness!! I like hearing birth stories, although I’ve never given birth since both of my girls are adopted, I get all choked up when I hear them.
But I cry like a baby when I think of how God has graciously given us our little gifts as well 
(Isabella’s middle name means gift from God.) Thanks for sharing and what sweet pictures!
My firstborn shares the same bday! What a wonderful birth story. I have felt so blessed to have four home births. My first was a transfer to the hospital, but her arrival was just a special. Those pictures a beautiful too. I love the baby feet.
What an amazing story. I have just given birth to my 3rd lovely daughter and they found out she was breach when I was 8 cm! So I really know what you went through. My birth story is on my blog – http://amyplunk.blogspot.com/2008/08/introducing-our-newest-daughter.html
God is so good. Thank you for sharing.
What a beautiful story!! I love reading birth stories. Just to let you know a c-section is not the worst thing in the world.
My fave picture is the 4th one down, followed by the last one.
Beautiful, I almost cried reading this and I am not a crier.
I wish I could have had such a peaceful experience giving birth.
Blessings to you,hubby and the new baby. Leticia