Here's the story of my daughter’s seven home births.

First of all, let me share the reasons behind her choosing home births.
1) She is a preacher’s kid of a very hospitable family. We kept many missionaries in our home trough the years. Many of these missionaries had lots of kids and many had chosen home births. We also had pastor friends who had chosen to have home births. She was familiar with this type of birth as well as hospital births.
2) She is very modest and believes very strongly against any many other than her husband seeing her nudity. This includes doctors and male nurses.
3) We feel like birth is a natural occurrence and is not a medical condition.
4) The prices of hospital births are ridiculous and my daughter won’t use the welfare system.
5) Hospitals take the baby from the mother, lay the baby naked, and give the baby sugar water. Hospitals take the sweetness from birth.
6) Any little risk will cause a doctor to cut you open.
7) She preferred the comforts of her home.
Now...

Baby #1 - Desiree Hannah McKee (1998)
April was 20 years old. She had been to church Wednesday night but was feeling contractions. She asked me to go home with her. We called the midwife. The midwife got there about 2 hours later. April labored for about 18 hours. She cried and said that she was scared the baby wasn’t going to come. We assured her that it would. She pushed (prematurely due to the request of the midwife) for hours. She wore herself out! She and Tim (her husband) said that they almost got weak and went to the hospital. Finally, April told me to ask everyone to leave her alone for a while. She and I were alone in the room and I prayed for her. She laid on her side. Finally, with just me in the room, she said, “Momma, I feel something.” She rolled onto her back. I called for the midwife and Tim. They came in just in time to see Desiree’s head crown. Desiree did not cry until we began to wrap her in a towel. April (and the baby) was back in church on
Sunday. She weighed 7lbs and 6 oz. Desiree was born 2 days past her due date.

Baby #2 - Timothy Isaac McKee (1999)
Isaac was born on a Friday (his due date). Thursday, April called me and told me she felt contractions. I came right over and we waited about 4 hours to call the midwife because we were scared she’d have April doing all that pushing again. April was much better this time. She was more assertive to her own needs. The midwives did try to get her to push too soon. Finally April told them that she was tired of pushing and she was going to rest. After about 12 hours of labor, I suggested that April roll over on to all fours. We kept feeling the baby slip into the birth canal and then back out. When she got on all fours the baby was delivered fairly quickly. He weighed 7lbs.

Baby #3 - Tilly Diane McKee (2001)
Tilly was our first born without a midwife and was quite a quick and pleasant delivery. She weighed 8lbs and 2 oz. April had had 3 episodes of false labor in which I had to spend the night with her. Finally, it was really time. We went over to April’s house on Thursday around 3PM. At 5 PM we called Tim to come home. We called the midwife and the midwife came about 7 PM. The midwife had a family emergency and left with a promise to be back. The baby was born at 11:45PM on June 28. This we my husband’s birthday. April came out of her room after she cleaned up (about 1 hour later) and told her daddy, “Happy Birthday.” She was back in church on Sunday.

Baby # 4 & 5 - Kenneth Chase & Sarah Grace McKee (2003)
Twins. No midwife. Chase was 7lbs and Grace was 6 lbs 12 oz. We did not know that April was having twins. We did know that she was larger than ever before and we did on occasion hear two heart beats. However, we put those thoughts out of our mind. She had not false labor. However, on Thursday, she called me laughing at lunch time. She told me her water had broken. This was funny to her because she had never had her water break before. All previous babies were born in the water or at least with the water. I told her that I’d come. I got there at about 4pm. She was up walking around. Finally about 5pm she seemingly skipped the 2nd stage and went right into 3rd stage labor. I called Tim at 5 PM and told him to get home now! I got home at 5:15 PM and the first baby was born at 5:30 PM (after only 1 hour of labor.)
The cord was short so we had to cut it quickly. We wrapped the baby and I was praising God as we usually did. I told April that I was going to the kitchen to get a bowl to catch the placenta. As I was walking out of the room I heard Tim call me back. “Mrs. Lisa, this doesn’t look like a placenta!” I ran back and I was looking at the crown of another baby.” April delivered slowly and while the baby was half in and half out I suctioned the nose because the baby wasn’t breathing. Tim rubbed the baby’s back. Finally, the baby cried. I jumped up and down and down and up praising God.!! God had blessed us with twins. She was back in church on Sunday.

Baby # 6 - Melody (2006)
April’s house had a kitchen fire and had to be evacuated. (She tried to clean the oven on self-clean and forgot she had put a pan of grease in the oven.) She and Tim and the 5 kids had to stay at my house for a few weeks....which was fine because I have a large home and my husband and I have an RV....we moved in the RV. My youngest son was also married during this two weeks.
Tim came to the camper about 4 pm telling me that April was in labor. She labored all night and we couldn’t understand why the baby wasn’t coming. We later realized that the cord was so tight around the neck that it was pulling the baby back in after every push on April’s part. Finally, I told April to quit pushing. I gently placed my hands around the baby’s head and carefully removed the cords from around the neck. She was born very blue (I believe because the baby’s cord was wrapped so tightly.) She pinked up quickly while we rubbed her. April was up in an hour or so.

Baby # 7 - Glory Kaye McKee - (2007)
Glory was April’s easiest birth. My 2nd newest daughter-in-law, Candace, sat with the other 6 children while April labored. I had spent 3 nights at April’s house basically keeping house and cooking for her. April feels very comfortable with her mom being near during births. My husband would come eat supper with us each night.
Anyway, Tim woke me up at 4 am and she had the baby at 5pm. However, I don’t think she started laboring until after lunch. She had this baby on hands and knees. The cord was wrapped around the neck (not as bad as Melody). The baby began crying as soon as she hit air. She was given to April and began nursing immediately. The placenta took longer this time to come out (about 30 minutes). April is doing well. She is almost 5 months at the time of this writing and has NEVER had anything but breast milk.