I was 31 years old and pregnant. My husband and I were thrilled! We did everything we could to make sure we would have a healthy baby. I told everyone I couldn't wait to get as big as a house, and by the fourth month, I was. I had gestational diabetes, and had to get my diet under control. I would eat (I loved sugar!); feel really tired, so I would eat some more. I ate a fairly balanced diet, I just ate too much of everything. The midwives made sure I got in touch with Dr. Khalil, whom in turn made sure I saw the nutritionist. With my diet under control, I stopped gaining 13 pounds a month, but my stomach kept getting bigger. That did not stop growing by leaps and bounds until my last month.

Dr. Khalil was concerned our baby would be too big for a natural delivery, and suggested he may want to induce labor during my 37th week. By that time, I was under the midwives care, and he was the consulting physician. I was very excited by week 37, any day I would be delivering, right? No! Since my stomach size had slowed down, they decided I could go full term. While that was wonderful, I was really ready for the arrival of our little girl.

Now, a few weeks earlier, I went in for my first non-stress test. The nurse said, "The baby looks great, but are you feeling that?" I didn't know what she was talking about. So she showed me on the monitor tape that I was having strong contractions. I was worried, because I was only at 32 weeks. I knew if she was born then she would start life with a struggle. They gave me a shot to stop the contractions, and five hours later, I was allowed to leave. I would go for a stress test each week until our little girl was born, and each week the test would show I was having contractions. I started to be able to feel the contractions after about three weeks. I just felt like I had a backache.

Week 37 came and went with no inducement date and no delivery on my own. My Mother had scheduled her vacation during the 38th week because we really thought I would have delivered by then. (Really, I had the largest belly most people had ever seen!) No such luck. She doesn't drive, so when it came time for her visit to be over, I drove her home. I was nervous about driving by myself, so my husband came with me. (Yes, he would have driven for me, but I needed something to do.) The drive took about an hour and fifteen minutes one way. We were fifteen minutes away from home on our return trip, when my water broke. I had Sandy paged (she was on call that night). When she called a few minutes later to get the details, she asked how far apart my contractions were. I said, "I don't know. I stopped paying any attention to the contractions." She laughed softly and told me to come on in, she would meet me at the hospital. Remember how I mentioned I didn't feel the contractions? Well, when we started the one hour drive to the hospital (yes, my husband drove), I discovered CONTRACTIONS! They were 2-3 minutes long and 1 minute apart. I remember bits and pieces during that drive, and through out the night. I know I was in pain, but I don't remember what the pain felt like. I love endorphins! I was able to deliver our beautiful baby Katrina after 5 1/2 hours with only 5mg of pain medication. I give a lot of credit the Family Nurse Midwifes staff and the JDMH nursing staff. They helped me and encouraged me to get through the delivery as naturally as possible. I labored in the strangest positions, but it didn't matter to them. They let me be in whatever position was comfortable for me; in other words, I was never on my back. I ended up delivering our baby while standing up, leaning over the edge of the bed. She was 8 pounds, 3 ounces; 21 inches long.

Now our little three-month-old girl is 25 1/4 inches long and weighs a little over 16 pounds. Many people have commented on how alert she was at such an early age. I think that is due to no epidural, but I'm no doctor. All I can say for sure is we are truly blessed to have a medical facility that listened to our wants and needs; and made sure they were taken care of. Even though we live an hour away, we will continue to use the Midwife services, and encourage more women to seek out the medical treatment that is right for them.

Thank you,

Stella, Jesse and Katrina