My 12 Pound Home Birth

Last Updated on July 8, 2021 by Rebecca Huff

The first child-birth I went through, I knew absolutely nothing. Everything was new. I was young; I wasn't aware I had choices (the internet wasn't in every home!) By the time my 4th child was born, my births happened quickly and easily (less than 1 hour from the first contraction.)

Because of the ease with which I gave birth, I decided to have my 5th child at home. I was practicing a raw vegan lifestyle, and it was common to homebirth in this crowd.

During the nine months of my pregnancy I never had an ultrasound* I practiced self-hypnosis with a series of CD's called Hypno-birthing.***see note below

I was two days overdue and miserably large when I went into labor around midnight. When my midwife arrived, she and my husband filled my inflatable birthing pool for me. My labor didn't progress the way she had hoped.

Around five hours after my first contraction, my midwife suggested that I get on the bed. I obeyed reluctantly as the warm water seemed to reduce the intensity of my painful contractions. Next, I tried one contraction while lying on my back, but that was excruciating. Therefore I tried a contraction on my hands and knees.  That didn't work so well either, so I got up on my knees and draped my arms around my husband's neck, and after about 45 minutes I managed to give birth to our baby's head…which was HUGE.

Now, this is where it gets a little fuzzy for me, and I have had the details filled in for me by everyone who was there.  I remember vaguely thinking, “ah, finally it's almost over” since every other baby I've delivered just slid right out after the head was out.  Well, I was wrong.

The baby's chest was bigger around than his head, so I still had a lot of pushing to do. Apparently, that is what everyone was screaming at me to do!!  (they all apologized later, but I don't even remember it) My midwife told me to flip over to my back, and somehow I did.  Then after what I thought was my attempt to push the rest of the baby out, she reached in…ouch…and got ahold of the baby and pulled him out. (she had to brace her foot on the edge of my bed and use it as leverage to pull this baby out!!!!!)

After about an hour after his birth, I asked how much he weighed.  So they got out the scale to weigh him.  We all were floored to find out that he weighed 12 pounds!!!  Born at 22 1/2 inches long, his head was 15 inches, with his chest 16 inches!

He was visibly HUGE, I mean he was A Giant Baby.  When they told me how much he weighed, I just started crying.   The last two months had been so miserable, and I couldn't understand why, since this was my 5th baby, I figured I would be an old pro by now!  Now it all made sense!

Even though we had been awake since the previous night, I couldn't sleep. All I wanted to do was look at this miracle baby! That was one sleepless night I will never forget!

Why was my baby so big?

I had spent a lot of time trying to figure out why Harmon was so big when he was born.  I had the Glucose Tolerance Test and did not show signs of gestational diabetes. I followed a Raw Vegan lifestyle while I was pregnant. I ate 100% raw for the first and second trimesters and only ate a small portion of cooked foods during the third trimester.  The one thing I did eat on a regular basis was green smoothies with a spinach base; I guess Popeye was right.

To us, this home birth was more of a miracle than anything we had ever experienced.  There were so many things that if they had been slightly altered would have completely changed the entire birth story.  If he not been born by Monday (he was born on Friday) I would have had to been checked up by an OB doctor, and my midwife told me that if an ultrasound had shown he weighed what he did, I would have been FORCED to have a c-section.  There are many other occurrences that we believe can only be explained one way…God's mercy and grace and His faithfulness and blessings over us.

***When I purchased this series it was all in one box, but now it seems to broken into singles, please visit my Amazon Store to see all of them HERE just make sure to notice if it is the CD or mp3, I listed them both, even though mine were CD's the mp3 is less expensive. (Please do not try self-hypnosis while driving!)

This article first appeared in Above Rubies magazine. Do you have an amazing miracle birth story? If so, I'd love to hear it. You can join the conversation in the Healthologist Community.

You might also like to check out my sleep series!

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