The Birth of William Oliver I never had any doubt that I wanted to go with a midwife and have a natural delivery. I like the idea of a nurse midwife being there the whole delivery and would encourage natural childbirth. A lot of people automatically thought I was going to have my child at home when I told them I was going to go to a midwife. With my first pregnancy, I went into pre-term labor at 33 weeks. So needless to say, with my second pregnancy, I was jumpy about every little thing that I thought might potentially be wrong. Since I went with a midwife with my first baby (in Iowa) I knew I wanted to go with a midwife with my second baby. Gretchen and Sandy came highly recommended to me by my sister and sister in law. Jeannette was not close to home, but I felt so comfortable with them that it was worth the 45 minute drive. Gretchen and Sandy were wonderful. They were so personable and willing to answer any questions my husband and I had, even when they were paged on a weekend, and I had a lot of them concerning the possibility of another pre-term pregnancy. They kept reassuring me that I was fine and my baby was fine. Once I hit the 33 week mark, we were all so happy that I made it that far and was on my way to having a full term baby with out any complications. When the time came, I was 39 weeks along and had an appointment to see Gretchen on Monday, December 21, 1999. Upon exam she told me I was 5cm along and about 80% effaced. She gave me the option of going to the birthing center to have my water broke then, waiting until Tuesday to go in, or just waiting for it to happen on its own. I was so grateful to her for not pressuring and pushing me and letting me make my own decision. After finding out that we were unable to get into the birthing center on Tuesday morning because they were already so busy with people being induced, my husband and I decided just to wait for things to happen on their own. Late Monday night things started progressing and Gretchen uggested to come in right away since I had such a drive. When I got to the hospital, I was already 7cm and 90% effaced and ready to have this baby. With only 2 1/2 hours of pretty tolerable labor and 45 minutes of hard labor, I had our second son, William Oliver at 9:16am. Everything was exactly the way I wanted it. I want to thank Gretchen and Sandy for being so emotionally supportive during the whole labor and delivery. They are so personable and I want to thank them for all their support and advice during and after my whole pregnancy. I would recommend them highly. I would also like to thank my wonderful, supportive husband, Dean. I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you so much! CLOSE this window to return to the STORIES page. Use the BACK button of your browser to exit that page . . .