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 When
Jane and I met and married our lives started to change.
Jane fell pregnant with our daughter but four months into
her pregnancy on Christmas Eve she collapsed at home. I
was urgently called to the hospital. 'We have X rayed your
wife' said the consultant 'and have discovered a large growth.'
When I pressed to know if it was cancer the consultant would
not answer one way or the other. They would operate tomorrow-
Christmas Day. It was likely, they warned, that she would
lose the baby.
Perhaps the worst moment for both of us was having to leave Jane
alone in hospital. Our children from our previous marriage were
looking forward to Father Christmas coming. It was too late to make
arrangements with their Grandparents so I returned home to get them
to bed, wrap the presents and fill the stockings. Jane was very
brave and faced the forthcoming crisis with great courage. Our first
Christmas together as a family was not to be.
On Christmas morning the surgeons removed an ovarian cyst from
Jane's fallopian tubes. It was one of the biggest they'd ever seen.
And it was benign!
"I was worried that there might be complications with my pregnancy"
says Jane "I was 38 and some people think that that's too old
to have a baby But both Craig and I had been married before and
we wanted a child of our own. We decided that the birth should reflect
our spiritual values"
When Jane announced that she wanted to have the baby at home by
underwater birth I thought that she was joking. In theory it sounded
a great idea but after the hospital scare I would have preferred
that she had as 'normal' a birth as possible with as much technology
around us as a hospital could muster.
But Jane would have none of it. Her mind was made up.
The midwife reassured me that if there were any complications then
they would take Jane straight to hospital. Gradually I relented.
There were many benefits: it reduces pain of the mother's contractions
and eases the trauma of birth for the baby. And many claim that
a water birth improves a child's intelligence and makes them more
perceptive - even psychic.
But most of all it symbolised a spiritual entry into the world.
Water is a very powerful conductor of psychic energies and if Jane
and I were in the pool together then our auras, and spirits would
blend together.
"The birthing pool was a round blue plastic tub of about 6
ft in diameter that came in four sections- it looked like a deep
paddling pool." says Jane
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"Craig, who normally detests DIY, assembled it and we filled
it up for a practice run. Celeste (Craig's daughter from his first
marriage) and Chantall (my first daughter) were dying to get in
to our new swimming pool that had taken over our dining room. Even
our dog William barked his frustration at not being able to join
in the fun. For the practice run we could be carefree but for the
birth itself we were careful to sterilise everything. We were supplied
with a special sterile lining to be used on the big day. The midwife
was very cautious to ensure that the extensive training she had
undertaken at her own expense, to plan for this birth, was put fully
into effect.
"For the trial run I put an ugly 'cabbage patch doll' under
my T-shirt and when I pushed it out, with realistic groans
of birth, it would shoot to the surface like a cork. 'Oh
look mummy it looks just like Craig' said Chantall sarcastically.
I couldn't wait for the real baby to come along ,everybody
was excited even the midwife.
"On the morning of the 22nd June, the day after the Summer
Solstice, I started to get contractions. Then they stopped.
I started to experience terrible pain and Craig quickly
rang the midwife and began filling the pool. When Jan arrived
the baby was well on its way and it was touch and go as
to whether we could fill the pool at the right temperature
of exactly 100 degrees Fahrenheit in time. Our central heating
system and immersion heater were having trouble coping.
An so was I
"The midwife could feel with her hand that the baby was facing
the wrong way and that if it didn't turn, they might have to use
forceps. The pain was, for a time, unbearable but as soon as I got
into the water the pain in my back just went and the baby's head
engaged round the correct way. I wished that I'd got in earlier.
Craig shut the blinds, put on some tranquil new age music, put on
his bathers and leaped in with me. He held me from behind to give
me an anchor to push against. The midwife rang everyone that should
be there. And Doctor Hood, our GP, brought along his little boy
to watch.
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