By: Alisyn Don

This is the story of Mary Fraiser Smith. She tells the story her birth in a birthing center.

 

Being carried down a set of stairs while practically giving birth isn’t how anyone pictures their ideal labor, but for Mary Smith this was the reality. After years of using alternative medicine and having her own massage and acupuncture practice, Mary knew she wanted to avoid a hospital birth. Once pregnant with her first child, she decided that the best option for her and her baby boy would be a birthing center. She felt that there was adequate access to necessary medical equipment and she would still have control over her birth experience. This was the best middle ground between a hospital birth and a home birth, that Mary could have hoped for.

 

When Mary’s labor first started, everything went fairly normal. She headed to the second floor of the birthing center and settled into her room. She soaked in the warm bathtub to help with contraction pain and moved about her room however she preferred. After hours of long labor, everything still felt normal. Until it came time to push.

 

Everything seemed to be going well, then a midwife noticed that something wasn’t right. Each time Mary pushed, her baby’s heartbeat would drastically drop. The midwives scrambled to figure out was was wrong and came to the conclusion the the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck. “Every time I would push, the umbilical cord would tighten around his neck and cut off his circulation” Mary explained. Now was the time Mary had to decide whether to go to a hospital or not.

 

For Mary, the decision that seemed so difficult before became abundantly clear and her decision was immediate. An ambulance immediately pulled up front and was prepared to go to the hospital. Mary was tucked into the arms of two men and carried down the stairs to the first floor of the birthing center. Everything was prepared for Mary to get into the ambulance and head to the hospital. Her baby boy, however, had different plans. The world seemed to pause and Mary’s baby, Holden, was born at the half point between the ambulance and her birthing room.

 

After Holden’s birth, Mary took him to the hospital to make sure that everything was okay and that the umbilical cord didn’t harm him at all. The staff was incredibly kind and made her feel welcomed and trusted. The experience made her so comfortable that a few years later Mary had her second child, Evey, in that hospital. Overall Mary remembers both of her births positively and she now knows that, in the long run, she will always choose her baby’s health first. No matter how alternative medicine plays into that decision.