Fenimore's Home Birth Story

Reader Contribution by Jeremy Galvan
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This birth story is the first of other home birth stories to come, told to me by a mother and shared here for others contemplating home birth and VBAC.

This is a story of two births. It is my second-born Fenimore’s birth story, but without my first-born Khady’s birth story, Fenimore’s story would have been radically different. It wasn’t until I read Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too, that I began to more fully understand that equality is not necessarily a good thing when raising kids and that beauty can lie in inequality. If I had not had a Cesarean, I would never have had a homebirth. And so I share my story, for Khady and for Fen, and for women who are wanting a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean).

The morning of October 28, I made an extra effort to spend time with Khady. I had a sense that there would be few moments left to devote all of my attention to my first-born. Though walking was, at this point, uncomfortable, hand-in-hand we covered the eight blocks to the Halloween celebration at the school where Khady played two days a week. My Braxton-Hicks contractions were frequent now and gaining in strength. I remember feeling a bit awkward, and at least one mom asked how I was doing.

“I think I am in labor,” I revealed, as 2- and 3-year-old lions, princesses and astronauts milled around. Khady was a bright orange tiger.

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