When I got pregnant for the first time, my Christian faith added a remarkable dimension to my journey. I've heard many women describe their experience of birth as having a special spiritual component and this was true also for me.  While reading the Bible, I found out there is quite a bit in there about having babies! I wrote down my favourite verses and adorned our bedroom with them. Reading and praying these ancient, beautiful words helped me know deeply that I was loved, and that it is my heritage for birth to be a blessing, not a penance, and that my Creator has beautifully designed me to do this and do valiantly. Sounds good - but I needed to know it - deeply, purely, personally - I needed it to be MY truth. The more I meditated on this, the more my faith and my confidence grew.

Then I had a nap and fell into a deep sleep. Woke up when Talitha and Doug got home with the birth pool at 3 p.m. Had a sandwich but only et half of it. I had no appetite so stuck to my Raspberry Leaf Tea. Definitely something was happening in the tummy region, but I didn't say anything yet. At 4.30, we set off to the lake to meet our friends so that their 4 girls and our 1 could feed the ducks together. Plan was to have fish and chips by the lake but it was a bit cold and windy, so the plan was changed in favour of going to the nearby shopping mall …

 

Good thing, or Saoirse could well have been born under a tree by the lake!!!

 

Strolling down the pier after admiring the swans, I leaned over a rail and swayed from side to side. My loving friend came up and said, "Looks like the real thing, ay, Julie? This brings back memories - you're doing just what I did in labour!"

 

I said, "Well I suppose it's time to admit it – I'm in labour!"

 

Kathryn suggested going home, but I thought staying out and walking around would be good distraction to help pass the time during early labour. We decided to go to the mall to get the kids fed. I had one contraction in the car and another walking into the mall. I remember thinking, "Well, I can still walk and talk through them, so it must still be early stages." While everyone was eating, I thought I'd go to the toilet (midwife-ly alarm bells must be ringing by now!) My waters hadn't broken and there had been no mucous plug, so I thought I was still in PRE-LABOUR!!!

 

In the toilet, I put my hand on my tummy and said, "Cervix, I speak to you in Jesus' name and command you to line up with God's word and dilate quickly and easily, without pain. All you muscles, relax and yield. And all that is within me, praise His holy name!"

 

Out of curiosity, I felt inside. I could feel the amniotic sac, and the head. I tried to assess the dilation of my cervix, but couldn't locate it. I wondered why. Then I felt a gush of blood and amniotic fluid. I thought, "Great! Now I'm in real labour!" I figured that what I'd been feeling so far were merely pre-labour niggles, and that this was the bloody show that heralds that start of 'real' labour. What I did not know then but DO know now, is that sometimes you get a bloody show at the very END of labour, with the final dilation of the cervix ....

 

I thought I should go out and suggest to the others that it might be time to head home. Kathryn came looking for me and I had a big contraction that buzzed my brain, like being wave-tossed at the beach. I had to lean against the wall for a minute. I felt pleased that my body was working well and obviously getting right into the job at hand. I still thought I had stacks of time - I did not have enough experience to know that brain-buzzing, whole-body contractions are TRANSITION contractions ....

 

Back at the table in the food court, I mildly announced to everyone: – "Looks like we're underway, so maybe we should think about heading home soon."

 

Less than two minutes later, another strong contraction came. I leaned over the table – and suddenly, in mid-contraction, dropped to my hands and knees on the floor. It was like dropping a bomb! It registered in my mind, Doug's mind and Kathryn's mind simultaneously that women often instinctively drop to the floor just before they deliver! A bunch of other people reacted, too!

 

"Would you like to use my wheelchair to get to the car?"

 

"What's going on?" I looked up to see two burly security guards looming over me. I hastily reassured them that I hadn't been in a fight. They talked about calling an ambulance but I knew there was no time to go anywhere. Amid the fuss, my friend's voice sounded calm and clear, a voice of sanity totally on my wave-length: the very same thing I was thinking: "Julie, there's a little baby-care room right over there, it's quiet and clean –"

 

The contraction ended and we made a bolt for the parent-care room, just next to the toilets. There was a little breast-feeding cubicle that even had a curtain to pull across, so we had total privacy. I whipped off my trousers and kneeled over the chair as another contraction began. Then in my ear I heard:

 

"Hello. My name's Beryl. I'm a midwife. Would you like me to help you?"

 

"Sure!"

 

Beryl "just happened" to be having dinner in the food court when the drama began to unfold and bravely came to offer her services! Her dinner companion "just happened" to be a student nurse who was training at the same school I trained at. She was excited to become an impromptu member of the birth team.

 

Beryl had the fun of asking the lovely girl at the delicatessan if she could have a pair of gloves. "There's a lady having a baby in the parent's room!" That sweet girl was thrilled and immediately offered tea towels as well! Beryl returned with her food service gloves and performed a quick (and fairly unneccessary) VE.  She said, "Well, the baby's right there ready to come out! There's no cervix."

 

We figured!

 

Everyone I had wanted to attend our planned homebirth was right there with me. Instead, we were having a special "home-away-from-home birth." Doug and Beryl knelt beside me in the little cubicle, while Kathryn stood just outside, holding Talitha in her arms. She called out encouragement as a veteran of four births can. The nursing student stood with her, writing up notes. Doug asked the security guards to stand guard outside the parenting room, to prevent anyone from barging in. The ambulance medics had been summoned and were keen to do something.. Doug calmly explained that we did not want to be transported, and would they mind turning off their walkie-talkies so that we could have complete quiet? We were impressed with their consideration of our wishes. I had been concerned about being strong-armed off to hospital against my will; or of the medics taking over the birth, and was very relieved to see their friendly laid-back attitude.

 

 Kneeling forward, the weight was off my cervix and we had a quiet moment suspended in time waiting for the next contraction. Doug put his jacket and Talitha's coat under my knees. I felt with my hand, but couldn't feel any head yet.

 

With the next contraction, I could feel the burning of stretching tissues.  This little lass was not going to wait any time in catapulting into the world, and still has the same fiery, passionate temperament to this day. She had kicked so strongly even as a foetus that I'd said, "Either it's a boy - or a very athletic girl!" The thought crossed my mind that my tissues had not had the benefit of a long labour to soften up gradually. The sensations were much sharper than with my gentle first birth. I heard Beryl say, "Everything is stretching up nicely." Doug's quiet voice registered, "You're nearly there, take your time."

 

As I crowned, I yelped, "Ow! It hurts!" In retrospect, I think that if at that point, I had remembered to pray just like I had in the toilet, speaking to my body and my inner being to relax and stretch, I could have relaxed more and slowed things down. I was so excited, I forgot to chill and yield. Beryl said, "Julie, don't panic! Hold on tight to your chair!" That earthed me, and I could hear Doug keeping up a quiet murmer of prayer the whole time. Beryl wondered if we were speaking Yiddish.

 

Beryl said, "OK, everybody quiet now. The baby's coming!" The expulsion was so powerful that I could not back-pedal as much as I wanted to. I was too over-excited to simply yield to such intense, powerful surges. Even in a near knee-chest, this baby was coming crashing into the world. There was a small pop as my perineum tore slightly. Her head emerged ... then her eyes .. then her face. Beryl felt for the cord around her neck. Her shoulders were born with the next contraction and she tumbled out.

 

Like a skilled angler, Doug caught her and passed her through my legs to me, just as he had with Talitha. I noticed her muscle tone right away. It was like trying to handle a big slippery fish! She roared a bit more than Talitha had, because we didn't have a nice, warm room with dimmed lights as we'd had for Talitha (she was born in front of an open fire). We couldn't figure how to dim the lights and it was a bit cool. Poor Saoirse! Leboyer really has a point! So we wrapped her in Doug's jacket and she snuggled up with me to have a breast-feed. Doug cut the cord and we prayed for Saoirse.

 

We agreed to let the ambulance take us all home (poor people were desperate to be of service somehow!) and it was hilarious, being wheeled out through the food court on the stretcher, with Doug walking behind cuddling this little bundle! People nearly choked!

 

At home, our home-birth midwife met us and our volunteer midwife handed over to her. My midwife delivered the placenta, and placed one ot two little stitches in my superficial tear. It felt better right away.  Saoirse and I enjoyed a lovely herbal bath. Saoirse got a bit tired and began to cry, so while the midwives helped me, Doug took Saoirse, expertly swaddled her and tucked her in his arms for a firm cuddle. Lovely to watch this tiny little being snuggled up in those big strong hands! Saoirse settled immediately and the midwives were most impressed! There was me, Talitha, and Saoirse cuddled up in bed, and Doug still with blood on his hands and jeans. Doug said, "Let's pray and thank the Lord for his care and protection." After the prayer, my midwife acknowledged, "Yes, sometimes things do seem just a little too perfect!" And Beryl said, "I do believe that Someone was really watching over you!"

 

Now also having dinner in the food court that night, was a reporter from the local newspaper! So next day, she came round with a photographer and we told the whole story to them. We ended up being in the newspaper 4 times (!) We are still living that down ....

 

We remembered how we had prayed for the baby to be born in 3 and a half hours. Saoirse was born at 1830. While I probably had been in pre-labour since the morning, I came out of that denial and finally became convinced that labour was actually happening after I woke up from my nap at 3 p.m. We counted …. It was three and a half hours exactly!

 

It certainly gave a whole new meaning to the phrase, "born to shop" or "shop till you drop!" I figure God really has a sense of humour and is not above a good practical joke! And He is awesomely faithful to His Word.

 

In the birth notes, my midwife wrote that I was "shocked". I was surprised to read that. I did not feel shocked. I felt elated - even ecstatic! I thought maybe the professionals were used to seeing women shocked by too-rapid births and just assumed that I would be, too. I was as healthy as a horse and absolutely delighted. What they interpreted as a 'precipitate' birth resulting in a shocked mother, I had experienced as a wonderful answer to prayer and a triumphant experience.

 

Saoirse is still our little freedom girl. She has a wild streak in her that need never be tamed. The only thing I would change about her remarkable birth and the spiritual journey that accompanied it, is that I would have had a warmer, darker room for her if I could have. She first burst onto the stage with fantastic dramatic flair and continues to do so. She also sings like bell-bird, with a song free and wild that flows from her very soul.

©2007 motherwise birth resources.  None of the contents may be reproduced without prior consent.

 

Webmaster

Birth Stories

We had a beautiful home birth in Ireland to welcome our first baby girl. But I want to tell about the fun we had when our second little princess warrior was born! After many years away from home, working as volunteers in Asia, we finally made it to New Zealand, our choice of a place to have a baby furlough on account of the woman-friendly, home-birth-incorporating birth system in that country. Our first Sunday in church, the worship began with the sound of an Irish tin whistle, like waves on the shore. That was significant for us, because we both have Irish roots. I was in tears even before the song began; I could sense Jesus right there. They sang, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, There is Freedom". I felt this song heralding that God was bringing us out of religious legalism, which had bruised our hearts on the mission field,  into a place of freedom. I instinctively knew that the baby was a girl and that we would call her Saoirse - which means FREEDOM in Irish.

 

We planned another home birth. The day came to pick up the birth pool we'd hired, so my husband Doug headed off with two year old Talitha. I sensed something beginning to happen in the general 'tummy' area and decided to stay back and enjoy a quiet time with God. I sat on my bean-bag and read all my special birth scriptures.  Gotta love those amazing birth hormones - I had tears streaming down my face as I saw in these words how much God really loved me and was there to help me. I read Isaiah 53 where it says Jesus suffered so I don't have to. Doug and I had decided to pray for a three and a half hour labour. Talitha's birth took 24 hours – a peaceful, gentle birth, but lo-oong all the same. After that experience, my brain short-circuited at the thought of a baby being born in only three and a half hours. That just did not compute! But I so sensed the love and tender compassion of the Lord that through my tears, I asked boldly anyway.

Saoirse Deborah Bell, May 18, 2000

Julie Bell

WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS