PEN newsletter article

This article was published last May.  It is about public forums and uses our story as an example.  I sent a question to Laurie Kelley, and she passed it on to her readers.  I did get lots of feedback.  Some was helpful, but some was very insulting and judgemental.
http://www.kelleycom.com/pen/may2010pen.pdf

Malakai's Birth Video

I've never shared Malakai's birth video on this blog.  Here it is if you are interested.  This is the first birth we planned with the knowledge that our baby had a 50% chance of hemophilia.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvRJB5V0nxk

You are welcome to "Like" the BWB facebook page!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bubble-Wrapped-Birth-How-to-safely-birth-a-hemophiliac/168141116541416

Sorry for the L-O-N-G absence!! I'm back!

Since last May, I have started a BWB facebook page.  That seems to be the best way to contact people, but I want to get back to writing!  I really don't get too much feedback on my page, but I hope some of the topics make some people think.  I have gotten a few birth stories.  One thing that continues to dominate my thinking is the fact that bleeds are caused by interventions!!  My husband and I want to have more children.  We did have an awesome birth with Malakai at the hospital, but the newborn care protocols are not very hemophilia safe.  For example:  if he'd had hemophilia, the heel prick would've probably caused a bleed.  We were able to get oral vitamin K, though.  That was very good since they wouldn't let us refuse it.  If we could be guaranteed that our baby would not be handled roughly or be poked, I would definitely have another hospital water birth, and consider that our best choice.  Until I can have that guaranteed, I still have my doubts.  #5 is not on his/her way yet, but if we get any exiting news, you are welcome to join us in planning for another bubble wrapped birth!  ;o)

My Bubble Wrapped Birth

If I were putting together a birth plan for another baby, I would look at my options and decide where my baby would be the safest.  That is simple enough, but what is "safest" to me?  I choose water birth with a midwife nearby who is trained in newborn and adult emergency response.  I would choose to be in a place that does not interfere with my natural birth process.   If you have read my birth stories, you know that I have had 3 home water births, and one hospital water birth.  I prefer home because there are no hospital protocols to deal with.  Some could even cause a bleed.  I want to have the cord blood tested immediately after birth as opposed to getting it drawn a few days later.  That's rough.  My motivation is my baby's safety.  So, I would draw from my experience, assess my options, and choose the birth plan that keeps my baby the safest.  The purpose of this blog is to gather and discuss information that would help make this careful decision.

I consider water birth a huge asset to hemophilia carrier moms who want to avoid a c-section. Most hemophilia "experts" recommend that we have scheduled c-sections. Yet, I have searched and searched on this subject and cannot find any proof that a normal, calm, un-intervened birth has ever caused a bleed in a severe hemophiliac. All bleeds I have read about are caused by interventions during labor and delivery. Water birth has so many benefits to mom and baby, but the most important is that the mother is more comfortable. This relaxes her muscles. The warm water makes her stretch much better. The buoyancy of the water makes it much easier to move anywhere at will weightlessly. You naturally ease your baby out. These facts make the birth more gentle on the baby, and isn't that always the goal with a hemophiliac?

Our Fourth Birth - Malakai (part 2 - Birth Day!!)

My mom and Grandma arrived Thursday morning. I was miserable! I felt so sick, and was so upset about not being able to fully focus on our soon coming birth. Everyone agreed that Matt should take me out to dinner, and get me out of the house. I hadn't been out for about 2 weeks due to flu season! We went to Red Robin for dinner. Then we walked around Target and Walmart. It was so refreshing to be out with Matt. Throughout the evening, my mild contractions became pretty regular at about 5 minutes apart. I told Matt that I bet Malakai's birthday would be November 6th! We came home, and I went to bed. Matt stayed up making sure everything was ready if we needed to go to the hospital in the morning. I had contractions all night, and also got some sleep.

In the morning, my contractions began to get better. I couldn't talk through them at about 8:30. We began timing them. They were between 5 and 7 minutes apart. They got a little closer together, and I decided to take a shower. That really helped! I had 6 good contractions while I was in the shower. When I got out, I called Matt at work, and told him it was time to come home! We left for the hospital in about 15 minutes or so. The ride really wasn't as bad as I had feared it would be. Matt did speed, and didn't exactly obey every traffic law!

We arrived at the hospital a little after 10:30 am. Our midwife, Eileen was waiting in our room. The pool was set up and filled. The bed had been moved out to the hallway. :o) We met our nurse. This was one of the many amazing things God had planned for us. Our nurse had had 4 homebirths. 3 in the water! She was so exited about us. She had requested to be called in to be our nurse whenever we checked in. She was awesome! I had to get some blood work done between contractions, but refused the IV. I am not sure when I got in the pool, but I fell in love with that pool! Oh, soooo nice!! I had to get more blood taken. It was ok. We just went with it.

Eileen knew I wanted lots of privacy and space. So, she and everyone else left Matt and I alone for a while. It was nice! She checked on us periodically. My contractions got better and better. It was getting nearly impossible to be in a comfortable position through them. Yay!! Then, I told Matt to kneel down in front of me. I grabbed his shirt and got through my much stronger contractions. Quietly in my heart, I was really hoping Malakai would be born with just the two of us there. A couple minutes later, I braced myself, gripped Matt's shirt and felt my body begin to push! Matt asked me if my water had broken, but I could not speak. My body bore down again very strongly. I felt my tailbone move up and out of the way as Malakai's head came out!! At that time, Eileen and another midwife came in to check on us. Eileen heard me make a grunting noise, and said, "Oh! Is it time?!". I said, "Yes, the head is out." In fact, his bag of waters was still intact around his head! When I felt his head, it felt so amazing being in a water balloon! I relaxed for a moment. Then, my body pushed the rest of his body out. His water broke as his shoulders were born. I lifted him up out of the water and to my chest!

His heart rate was good. He was limp and getting more purple, though. We rubbed him, kissed him, spoke to him, and he wasn't snapping out of it. It had only been a minute, and sometimes water babies don't breathe for a whole minute just because they are not stimulated to breath until they are out of the water. Eileen gave him a few breaths mouth to mouth. He gave a little gasp and squeaked, but not enough. Katherine (OB that works with Eileen) gave him a few more breaths, and they cut the cord to get him to a flat surface. When they suctioned him, they found that he had swallowed some meconium. He pinked up right away. This particular situation would've been handled well at home too. I am very pleased with the care he received at the hospital. Everyone was very calm and acted quickly. They were great!

They brought him back to me in the pool. It didn't take him long to show me he was a pro at nursing! Soon my placenta was born. Then, we got out of the pool.

So, that's it! All of the fear, planning, tears, praying, and frustration about Malakai's birth came down to a very unusual hospital birth! Matt and I got to share a moment between just the two of us that we couldn't have even had at home! His birth began as an unattended birth, and I caught him myself! Malakai's birth was definitely the easiest I have ever had. I guess it helps to have a 10# 14oz baby before to plow the way!! lol!

For the record, the birth itself was the best part of our hospital experience. We were not thrilled to have to deal with the many unnecessary hospital protocols that you don't have to deal with at home. It is definitely not as restful to stay at the hospital, and soooo many people have their hands on your baby. You don't have as much say in your baby's care as you do at home. Yes, I'm still partial to homebirth, but now I know hospital birth can be awesome too! For us, the baby care afterwards was the main headache. We had nice people. All the required tests and procedures and middle of the night disturbances are not nice though!

God totally blew me away! . . . and, Malakai doesn't even have hemophilia after all of that!

Malakai Thomas Reeves was born on November 6th, 2009 at 12:32pm in a birth pool at Women's and Children's Hospital in Buffalo, NY. He was 7lbs. 12oz. and 21 inches long. His actual birth was mainly attended by his Daddy, and he was caught by his own Mommy.  "God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of POWER, and of LOVE, and of a SOUND MIND."  "I can do ALL things through Christ Who strengthens me."  God is truly awesome!!!  That was the beginning of Malakai Thomas Reeves!!  Whew!

Our Fourth Birth - Malakai (part 1 - pregnancy and planning)

I didn't realize how emotional it would be to revisit my pregnancy with Malakai.  I've shared my birth story with so many, but his story begins a few months before he was created. . .

One month before Elijah was a year old, I got the news that I was indeed a carrier of severe hemophilia A.  (For those who aren't as familiar with hemophilia:  It is possible that a hemophiliac is the result of a spontaneous mutation, and did not inherit the gene from a parent.)  That was November 2008.  In March 2009, we found out that we were expecting #4.  Within the next month or two after that, my husband learned that he was losing a huge part of his job that would make it impossible for us to stay in CA.  This was a very personal thing, and not just a business downsize.  Also, Elijah was one week from his port surgery.  I was under extreme stress, and had to choose where my energy would be spent.  That was not a hard choice.  I had to take care of my family.  My husband needed a lot of support, I was growing a baby that needed me, and I was gearing up to hand off my older baby to surgeons.  There was no room for anything else.  But, still, it didn't make all the other pressure go away.  On top of all that, I had to start planning my upcoming birth.  We got an ultrasound to determine the sex of the baby.  It was a boy!  I started doing extensive research on hemophilia and childbirth, and was not satisfied with what I found. I'll get into that in another post. 

Several facts were in the mix: 

1. Our baby had a 50% chance of having severe hemophilia. 

2. I had to plan my birth with wisdom in the new knowledge that I may have passed on this gene. 

3. I could not base my decision on the success of Elijah's birth, although that did play a part in the decision.  All hemophiliacs are not the same, and have different bleeding patterns. 

4. Until my third trimester, I did not have any idea where we would be for the birth. 

5. We needed to have his blood tested right after his birth.


6. Our son's hematologist recommended that I schedule a c-section.  Then, when she could see that I was not welcoming that idea, she recommended a plan B:  Have my birth as natural as possible in a hospital where they can do an emergency c-section if needed.


Near the end of my second trimester, my husband was offered a job in NY.  He accepted the position, and we had to pack up our house in a week.  We decided to drive.  After all, when would we ever get the opportunity to drive from CA to NY again?!  So, Matt drove the big truck, and I drove the van.  Yeah, it was pretty crazy!  It was fun though.  We made lots of memories.   I met with the only licensed midwife in the Buffalo area a couple weeks later.  We were planning a homebirth, hoping the local hospital would support running the labs for us (Matt would take the blood to the hospital immediately).  In some cases, this does work. However, this time, it did not.  Our new pediatric hematologist tried to work out the labs for us, and even an on call emergency transport.  However, the hospital would not support this plan.  Our midwife, who we loved, could not help us with a homebirth.  She was under fire from the hospital, and could only offer to help us with a hospital birth.  I was devastated.  We met with another midwife, but we couldn't work out the labs.  I met with the nurse manager at the hospital.  I told her that I wanted a waterbirth.  She told me that they did not offer waterbirth, and the room was so small that it just wouldn't work.  I was determined to have the most relaxed non-traumatic birth possible even if that meant having my baby at home and compromising the immediate lab work.  I was trying to avoid causing my baby a bleed.  I would keep him safe!!  I met with the perinatologist who asked me about my birth history and what I wanted for this birth.  When she heard my reasoning and that my only concern was the safety of my baby, she told me that I should get exact measurements of the birth pool, and get them to the nurse manager.  I did, but the NM said there was simply no room.  I asked her if we could make room for the pool by moving the bed to the hallway.  She said I shouldn't hope for this to be approved, but she would speak to "the powers that be", and get back to me.  I again shared my heart for my baby's safety with her.  The next morning,   I wept tears of joy when the NM called me and told me to order the pool!! 

*All pictures are from our trip from California to New York in August 2009*