IT'S A GIRL! 

We are proud to announce the arrival of

Breanna Erin Banack

Breanna only minutes old

Born: April 9 at 1:04 am

8 lb 6 oz & 21" long

After a long labour, Breanna was born at home, in our kitchen. Our midwife Cathy Harness caught her. Terri, Connie's sister, took still pictures while Breanna's oldest brother Eric captured the moments on video. Connie is still in amazement having accomplished her VBA3C! We are all thrilled to finally meet our first daughter after 3 sons and loving every moment of being a family. 

You can read Connie's journey through pregnancy in the three part Trimester Files articles in The Clarion, ICAN's newsletter. The first part was in the Spring 2003 edition. Part two will be out this summer. Part three will be this fall.

More pictures of Breanna and our family

Birth Story

I had on/off labour the entire day before, but not strong or demanding so I worked on CDA (Canadian Doula Association) projects, read Special Delivery and the CAPPA Quarterly, and rested. Brendan had been up until 1 am the night before so I was a bit tired. I went to bed with the boys at 9:30 that night.

I awoke at 3 am to strong surges and decided a bit later to go into the tub to relax. That worked great and I stayed there until the water was cool. Brendan woke when I was planning on getting out and he didn't want Allan so I curled him up around my big belly in our easy chair and rocked him to sleep... the last time he would be my official 'baby' in my lap. I tucked him in and headed to bed myself to doze until morning as my surges had lessened with the adrenaline of Brendan's waking.

All of my labours involved intense back labour from the onset, so I was prepared for this, but the intensity of this labour was different. I knew my placenta was attached in the upper left quadrant where baby's butt should be optimally, but what a difference when baby is moving into my pelvis from the right side. 

My labour progressed slowly, becoming stronger and more demanding as the day wore on. I changed positions regularly, we found every 1/2 hour was a good time to change. I moved from side lying on our bed to the tub, to the chair, to the toilet, and different variations of that all day. Between contractions I read the teaching notes from my Body Awareness workshop and reviewed the emails I had printed from Wintergreen. Wintergreen is the founder of Common Knowledge Trust, who produce The Pink Kit. Without the knowledge I gained from this kit I know I trusted my body much more and knew which positions worked best for me and my baby. It helped labour progress efficiently and allowed baby to move through my pelvis. 

Baby was always in ROA (her back to my right front). By dinner time I was quite tired and Cathy, our midwife (who had arrived earlier but had a nap), and I agreed on a cervical check. I knew I was dilating as I had checked twice during the day for baby station and found my cervix opening beautifully. I just couldn't check actual dilation because my belly made it so I couldn't reach the center of my cervix. I was 5 cm and -1, great info given a thick, posterior cervix and that she was floating prior to labour. Yet it was tough information to take given my fatigue and the intensity of the contractions at that moment. I remember Brendan's labour being this intense when I was 8 cms! I seriously thought about my options at this point and was truly ready to transfer for that blissful epidural I knew awaited my arrival... what a carrot to dangle in front of any labouring mother. Yet I also know transferring from a homebirth as a thrice sectioned mother without a caregiver with admitting privileges could easily spell disaster, so we continued working and changing positions.

 
 

 

 
 
 
Cathy, our midwife, checking heart tones with her fetoscope.

We decided to call our doula, Erin Walker, to come to help spell Allan so he could focus on the boys. We called Terri a bit later to help as well. My water broke sometime in there while I was on the bed and it was everywhere! I have always had lots of amniotic fluid, but it still amazes me each time my water breaks as to how much there is, and continues to be, as surges keep expelling more. I braced myself for the inevitable increase in intensity of pain, but surprisingly there wasn't a huge difference.  All the while I worked through the contractions, staying relaxed as possible, using open positions, and working with my sacrum to help Breanna move down. I cannot tell you the difference in knowing my internal pelvis and how to move my sacrum did with this labour!

 

 

 

 

 

Erin, our doula, doing the pelvic lift as Allan provides sacral counterpressure.

I held my mother's curler in my left hand, which I squeezed during contractions to give the benefit of accupressure for pain. My youngest sister Terri (who took these pictures) used this same curler during her homebirth of her daughter Taylor 2 years earlier.

 

 

 

Deep relaxation between contractions. 

Now I am going to step back for a moment. Ever since my first baby was born I have had intuitions or premonitions, whichever you want to call them, about my children. They are like waking dreams, a strong feeling comes over me while I am awake and I see things happen, just as if I was in a dream. I knew of my eldest sons food breaking as well as when his front teeth were knocked out days prior to them happening.

I had a very strong intuition when I was pregnant with Brendan (our third son). It was that  I was of me pushing out my baby in my kitchen. Though I had sought a waterbirth with Brendan, my premonition was of me in a supported squat, just as Michel Odent used so much at Pithiviers, in a supported squat as I stared out into the darkness through the windows into the darkened back yard. With Brendan's labour we never went into the kitchen as the pool was set up in the living room (I had wanted it in the kitchen) and we just moved from there to the bathroom to our bedroom and back. I never told anyone this...

I was in the tub, left there to refocus (which I desperately needed) and my sister Terri came in. She sat by the tub and talked me through each contraction, talking me through the intense sacral pressure and pain. The water cooled and I needed a change of atmosphere. Cathy knew I was close so she explained to Allan how do do a supported squat (just as my intuition had been, even facing the back window) and we moved to that position from the bathtub. Terri and Allan took turns supporting me in that position. It HURT because gravity was playing a huge part now and the sacral pain was still incredible, I had so thought it would let up when she moved down. That was really discouraging. I had been anticipating the blissful pushing urges I had felt with Brendan, but they didn't come. Instead it  was intense, intense sacral pain ending with slight urges to push at the end of each surge. I would walk around our island between each contraction and would slide into the squat with each surge. 

 I tired quickly and though Breanna was moving down, it was taking a long time and progression was slow. We decided to try a reclining position on the bed. It was blissful between contractions to be able to relax, but the sacral pressure made me arch off the bed and not focus on pushing. We tried side lying which was worse, my legs were cramping with each surge. Yet I was finally starting to get a strong pushing urge during the surges.

 

 

 

 
Eric, our oldest son and self-designated videographer
Cathy, our midwife and a true blessing

As I was side lying on the bed, I could feel 'something' move down into my pelvis. Not big enough to be a head... but something. I told everyone of this and that it would disappear after the surge was over. Because of my legs cramping we moved again to the kitchen to assume the squat. As soon as I walked into the kitchen, I was immediately hit with a huge surge and I felt 'it' move down... and out. I had yelled at someone to catch me as I couldn't stand through the contraction. It turned out to be a big balloon of water. I grabbed it with my hand thinking it was baby's head, yet wondering why it didn't hurt as it had moved down. It was smooth and grippy, but I couldn't see it. Cathy explained it was a balloon of water and not baby's head. She broke it and I was disappointed that baby's head wasn't right behind. She was still up a ways. So we moved over and I again squatted, this time pushing well with each surge. I had no choice, my body demanded it of me. 

During my premonition, I gazing out of our big back window into the darkness over our back yard as I pushed in this position. In it I was in a supported squat against the cabinets, a chair on each side of me for my support person's feet. That was physically impossible in the home we had been in, because there was no counter or anything solid by the window in which someone could sit to support me. We had no idea that we would be moving only a year after Brendan's birth into a new home in another city.

I gazed out the window into the darkness through the big windows I was facing... that overlooked our back yard. I suddenly was feeling deja vu, then slowly realizing that it was from my premonition that I felt this familiar feeling. I couldn't articulate what I felt, but a warmth spread through my body and a smile crossed across my face as the surge ended. 

I felt her head as she moved down, what an incredible feeling to touch her head. I felt my labia go (tear) as I tried to breath her out and couldn't help but push. I screamed as the pain was incredible. Then blissful relief as her head out. I braced myself for her body to pass through with the next contraction and pushed hard. Out she came in a rain of amniotic fluid into the waiting hands of Cathy. I sat down immediately on one of the chairs Allan had his foot on and she handed her to me. 

My precious little baby, I couldn't believe I had done it. I am almost in shock, still reeling from the pain and intensity of my labour and her birth. I had did it! I was holding my baby, still warm from my body. She looked quietly up at me, checking everything out in that wise way baby's have. The quiet, patient soul who had been a part of me for nine months was now in my arms. I just gazed at her... then it slowly dawned on me to look and see if we had a boy or girl... to my amazement - a girl! I was so shocked I had to check twice. I had thought she was a boy even though I had not had the "boy" dreams I had with Eric, Ryan and Brendan. Then I felt my cord lengthen... not even 2 minutes after she was out, that surprised me given the precautionary concerns of several of my friends given my three prior cesareans of retained placenta and hemorrhage. 

Eric beams as sleepy Ryan comes to meet his new sister

Eric had run to get our second born, Ryan, who came in drowsy from sleep and he was the first to hug his new sister, just as he had asked. He went right back to bed and when he woke the next morning he thought it had been a dream until he watched the video. Brendan, our third son, slept through it all and though Allan expressed his wishing he could meet his new sister right away, we both knew it was best if he got his sleep. He would be up early enough the next morning.

Kathy showing Eric how to cut the cord

Time once again returned and I realized it was after 1 am. She had been born at 1:04 on April 9th, 2003. About 15 minutes after she was born her cord was completely limp so Cathy tied it with strong string and Eric cut the cord. He was so proud! I gave her to her proud Daddy and I moved to our bed where I pushed out her beautiful, healthy placenta onto a pad. We showed it to Eric and explained what a placenta was (an organ like his heart that provided all baby's nutrients and oxygen while growing in Mom). He had helped me make many cloth placenta's for Mother Care and now was able to see a real one. He was a sponge through it all, absorbing everything in the most calm way, like this was his hundredth birth he had been at. 

Allan, Eric and Breanna went to the living room while Cathy carefully inspected my bottom, finding what I knew - labial tearing, several 'skid marks' or stretching breaks of the skin, and a second degree perineal tear. I chose to have her stitch me up rather than leaving it to mend together on it's own simply because I knew I would not be able to rest as it would need to mend properly while chasing after three busy boys. Cathy carefully sutured the tear and Allan came in shortly afterwards with a hungry little Breanna. I laid her across my chest and she couldn't quite lift her head high enough to self attach (given my being flat on my back), so I helped her up and she latched on like a pro and nursed well. 

Enjoying our first bath together, better than LeBoyer!

After Cathy was done, Breanna and I had a wonderful bath while she swam and looked around at everything, the most content baby on the earth. What a peaceful way to conclude our night. We crawled into bed and both slept until morning.

Brendan is so excited about his baby sister

Brendan woke around 8 am the next morning and walked sleepily into our room as he always did. This time he was in for a surprise and didn't believe us when we first told him. He had to walk through the house to inspect everything (which was back to normal as everything had been cleaned up as I slept) and then came back and crawled into bed with us and his new sister. She is now officially "my badie" according to Brendan and he is very protective of his little sister to this day. 

Breanna and mommy the morning after her birth

My precious little daughter amazes us every moment we are with her. We are all so in love with this little bundle who has blessed our lives. It took a while for me to come to terms with the intensity of her birth, but I truly would not change one thing... unless Wal-Mart had their pools in stock in time <grin>.

This strange house in this strange city that we had only lived in for a little over a year was now our home. My dreams in the past were completed in the present through the incredible birth of our first daughter... in the kitchen in a supported squat just as I had known would happen years prior. 

Welcome to our family Breanna Erin, our amazing and wise daughter. Let your birth be a new beginning for us and a gift to the many women who long for a vaginal birth and need to learn of others, like us, who have accomplished a dream.

This was an amazing birth experience. So many plans... a homebirth, choosing a midwife, a doula, prenatal care and my fears of uterus rupturing during pregnancy or labour. Cathy Harness, our amazing midwife, and Erin Walker, our incredibla doula, was an integral part of our team. Eric not only supported me, she helped Cathy as her second (assistant) while I pushed Breanna out. We even learned about unassisted birth in preparation for Breanna's birth because of Cathy's being over 2 hours from our home.

Homeopathics for Labour and Birth

I wanted to touch on homeopathics as I have found them incredibly helpful during labour and in general for our family's health. I have studied them informally thus far and plan to do further, formal study in the future because of the benefits we have experienced in using them. For my last labour I relied on my midwives to know what remedies and potency to give. This time I studied several books, articles, and talked to several homeopaths and birth professionals about remedies, indications, dosages, etc. I compiled a cheat sheet that I referred to as did my support team during Breanna's labour. I cannot tell you how beneficial they were! During the last half of my labour I used several remedies, starting with Kali Carb and Belladonna. Incredible help with back labour, though it doesn't take the pain away, it makes it more manageable. Close to the end I moved to Chamomilla and Arnica because of the intensity and the bruised abdomen feeling I was experiencing, especially my round ligaments. I continued with Arnica through postpartum because of the involution and perineal pain and healing. I also took Hypericum for the suturing as it is specific to puncture or needle wounds.

Copyright © 1997-2007 Mother Care. All photos © Mother Care & Terri McKinney Photography. All rights reserved.