Sima’s Homebirth in Jerusalem-a heartwarming story

Sima is a vivacious young mother who was having her third baby. Her first birth went smoothly, and she was interested in a homebirth for her second baby. Her husband was anxious about the idea of a homebirth and vetoed the idea. He wanted his wife and baby to be in a hospital in case of any disaster. So, Sima reluctantly agreed. That birth was fast and furious. It had started when Sima woke up in the middle of the night with a serious case of the runs and nausea, coupled with killer contractions. She spent the next hour or two in the bathroom, feeling awful and trying to cope. Eventually she mustered enough strength to gather herself together and make it to the hospital. After having to deal with dragging herself to the car, sitting in the traffic, trekking through the hospital corridors, going up in the elevator and making it through the admissions process, she was thoroughly miserable. All she wanted to do was lie on her side and deep breathe through the contractions so she wouldn’t feel so nauseous.

When she finally got into her own room, she was close to delivery. Sima got on the bed and pushed her healthy baby out in a couple of minutes. She decided then and there that the next baby would be a homebirth, she was not going to put herself through that ordeal again.

Fast forward a couple of years and Sima was in the early stages of her third pregnancy. Originally, she contacted me for pre-natal care only, but after a couple of visits, she mentioned that she is ‘thinking’ of a homebirth, but that her husband is very against it. I suggest that we arrange a meeting together with her husband to go over all his questions and explain how homebirth works, and maybe he’ll come around.

We met and all went well, but I didn’t hear back from Sima. At our next prenatal visit, I ask her what she decided with her husband and she said “he’ll agree, he’s just not there yet”. By the next time we met, he had finally agreed to put aside his doubts. Sima and her husband signed my contract and we finally started planning for her homebirth.

Sima’s first two babies arrived before her due date, so Sima was ready and prepared to birth by then. However, her due date came and went and she was incredulous that this baby hadn’t yet appeared. Apart for the anxiety of having to wait so long, Sima was suffering from a lot of hip pain which prevented her from functioning properly and taking care of her family. In addition, if she did not have her baby soon, she would have to attend post-date monitoring, and Sima was adamant that she was going to have her baby before that!

After spending a relaxing shabbat, Sima was determined to move things along. She went for out with her husband to the kotel to pray for a safe delivery, ASAP!! They went down and up 100’s of stairs to and from the kotel.

Sure enough, that night the contractions started. There’s nothing like doing 100’s of stairs to bring on a labor. When Sima called me, I could hear in her voice that she was already in heavy labor and making fast progress. I realized I had to move quickly, so I grabbed the meds out of the fridge, threw the cool bag into the car and jumped in (the car is permanently packed with my other birth equipment).

The journey to her home was super-fast, seeing as it was late at night (eherm…. Otherwise known as speeding …). When I got to her home, I found Sima draped over the birth ball, looking as green as a cucumber, but she certainly was not as cool as one. She was in serious pain, had overpowering nausea and had hardly any energy to hold herself up. She couldn’t speak and couldn’t move and was moaning most of the time. On one hand I felt such a tenderness towards her and I wondered how I could help relieve her suffering. On the other hand, I knew this was her journey, and my job was not to fix it for her, but to walk through it with her. To give the loving and gentle support she deserves as she brings a new soul down into the world. And I could not imagine how she would have coped with the admissions process if she had gone to the hospital.

Her now on-board husband had set up the pool, but in his hurry he started to fill it before putting on the liner. There was about 10 cm of water in the pool when I walked in the door and I exclaimed, oh there’s no liner! He deiced to tr and slide the liner on under the water and do it properly. After a few failed attempts, getting wet and realizing, that he was just wasting precious time for filling the pool, he rolled up the now dripping and useless liner, threw it to the side and carried on filling the pool as it was! Sima was desperate to get in and experience relief from the water, so we boiled kettles and hastily filled the pool.

The doula had arrived and was helping out. Once the pool had a decent measure of water in it, between us, we helped maneuver Sima into the birth pool. The warm water provided a measure of weightlessness and therefore relief from the nausea and Sima labored for a short while there. Soon enough, the baby’s head started to emerge and Sima was the most relived woman ever when baby was out and she could actually focus on her newborn, rather than the overwhelming effort of not throwing up. After about 5 minutes, she finally managed to talk to us for the first time since we arrived. Sima’s green pallor drained with a pink color returned to her face and she smiled her vivacious smile. We were all happy to see the Sima we knew and loved, coming back to herself.

Afterwards, when we debriefed from the birth, Sima told me that she was so thankful that she stayed home and had a safe birth with a trained and equipped midwife. She said, if not, she would have stayed home anyways, but she would have ended up calling the ambulance service. Although equipped to deal with unexpected births, the medics do not have the same preparation and experience as a midwife. It would not have been the calm and relaxed atmosphere that she was hoping for. Before I left, she said she’d be booking me again for her next baby 😊. I think her husband agreed too!!!