I was 26 and it was 1974 and we lived in San Marcos and we both worked for an electronics company. We had an apartment nearby. Though I had attended Palomar College for 2 years I stopped when my girlfriend who became my wife got pregnant. She got a job working at the Electronics company first and then I followed her there and we got an apartment nearby this location.
The people there convinced my wife to have natural childbirth because many of them had already done this. So, we took a Lamaze Class and decided to have the baby by ourselves.
Though I didn't necessarily think this was a good idea my wife was always very strong willed and also had an IQ of 170 so she was really smart in some ways.
So, about a month before this birth my wife had false labor and a lady friend of hers was there to help if the baby came. However, I spent too much time talking to her friend and she got jealous and decided when the labor was real that it would just be us two there and no one else.
About a month later, the day came and we were worried when a Sparklett's water man delivering water came but he left soon after delivering our spring water in 5 gallon bottles.
Then we started to move towards actually having the baby and she got sort of tired. So, I grabbed her under the arms so she wouldn't be so tired which she stood there to increase gravity for the baby to come out more easily.
Finally, I said: "Why don't you sit on the toilet because that is more natural for a person to move something through them maybe even like a baby."
I was right about this because she crowned then and then I helped her off the toilet onto the floor where I had no idea about just how much amniotic fluid there would be. It was about 2 to 3 inches deep all over the bathroom floor. So, it was good we did this in there otherwise we would have ruined one of our carpets in our apartment with the Amniotic Fluid that comes with the birth.
Then you have to allow the placenta to come out too which the umbilical cord is attached to. I put the placenta in the Freezer of our refrigerator because people told us it was healthy for the mother to eventually eat this. But, I personally couldn't relate to this. We tied off the umbilical cord from my son and cut the cord with scissors and taped the cord after tying it with sterilized shoe strings as we were taught in our Lamaze class.
So, everything worked out for us okay just by ourselves. Of course we were both very healthy young people and I was 26 and she was 21 so everything worked out fine.
Then my parents were worried about us having problems because we had the baby alone at home so they called their friend who was an osteopath Doctor and he signed off that he was present during the delivery so there wouldn't be any potential problems around the birth.
This was my first child but the next child was in the late 80s which is my daughter, then my next child was in the mid 1990s who is another daughter. But, I was present for each of the births. But the other two were in hospitals because one of the things I learned from my first experience is that it's good to have the resources you need nearby during childbirth. We were very lucky to come through our home birth so easily and safely.
When we returned to our Lamaze Class we were the only people in the class who actually did a home birth. Everyone else had chickened out at one point or another. People were completely blown away that we did this all by ourselves. We thought it was pretty funny at the time. :)
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