The Birth Story of Thomas Owen Pablo-Part 1

I hate to say that it has been YEARS since my last blog post. Working with refugees there have been many experiences and stories that I've wanted to share but being in the world of nonprofits and social work, sharing work related details is a big no no. But, to catch you up really fast, I've been in Fort Worth for almost four years, married to an amazing man for almost two years, and a mother to an adorable little boy for almost three weeks. The name of my blog is Adventures of Clairebear, and if there ever was an event in my life that deserved to be called an adventure, the birth of our son, Thomas Owen Pablo, would be one. Ive split it up into two entries, the first leading up to the birth and the second, the actual birth.

I've always been a wimp when it comes to handling pain. When I was little the doctor would have to get multiple people to hold me down to give me a shot. Over the years I've learned to cope with needles a little better but still don't do well at the dentists office and the thought of having to spend any extended period of time in the hospital raises my blood pressure. Because of all of this I had always been afraid of having a baby, until I started learning about midwifery. Over the past couple years several of my friends and coworkers had out-of-hospital births using midwives. Someone told us to watch "The Business of Being Born", a documentary about natural child birth. It completely changed my views of child birth and let me actually look forward to the idea of having a child instead of being terrified about it. So, when we found out we were having a baby, we decided to go the natural, maybe not so conventional route, and found a midwife, a birthing center, and a doula, and I was so excited about all of it.

People would ask if I was nervous about having the baby, and said that I was crazy for not having the option of an epidural or any kind of pain relievers. They asked if it was safe to use a midwife, and asked if there was a hospital close to the birthing center. Some people were fascinated, and some seemed concerned. The birthing center we found was beautiful. It's out in the country, surrounded by pastures, and looks like a nice bed and breakfast. And they have a pet donkey that was also pregnant, and surprise, surprise, that was a big selling point. I was very excited about the possibility of going for a walk in the pasture with the pregnant donkey. Our one concern was that the birthing center was 45 minutes away from our apartment, which seemed far, but as a first time mom, 45 minutes didn't seem like that big of a deal.

In November there was a very serious typhoon that hit the Philippines, and our midwife had the opportunity to go serve as a midwife there for a few weeks. She was very thoughtful in making sure that I was ok with her going. Selfishly I wanted her to stay in the country, but clearly I knew it was much more important that she go take care of women in the Philippines who wouldn't have the chance of any kind of prenatal care or anyone to help deliver their babies. And, Lorenzo's half Filipino, so how could we say, no don't go help. And, she was planning on being back in the US two or three weeks before I was due, plenty of time for her to be the midwife at our birth.

She set us up with another midwife that she works with, and there was a student midwife that we had been working with throughout my pregnancy who we felt very comfortable with and would still be at all our appointments. About four weeks before my due date I was told that our original midwife was going to stay in the Philippines longer than originally planned. She would now get back to the US five days after my due date. I was disappointed but felt comfortable with the new midwife and wasn't really worried.

And on the same day we got that news I found out that our baby was breech, so I had bigger things to think about than who would be at our birth. Thus commenced a week of lying inverted on an ironing board, listening to a hypnosis CD, getting acupuncture, going to the chiropractor,putting bags of frozen peas on my belly, and praying a lot. Thankfully, by the end of the week he was back in the right position. Over the next couple weeks I thought I felt him flip back and forth a few more times and just decided our baby must just want to keep us on our toes....and he did, until the day he was born.