Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Where nature comes first

Childbirth often occurs as hospital monitors beep. At Labor of Love, birth is a family affair.

By ELIZABETH MILLER
Published January 13, 2006

	[Times photo: Mike Pease]
	Matt Earnest sits with his wife, Jennie, in a tub of warm water at Labor of Love Birth Center for Tampa in Lutz just after the birth of their daughter, Ana. Midwife Robyn Mattox hands the baby to Jennie Earnest seconds after the Dec. 26 delivery.

LUTZ - There's a little road off of U.S. 41, and a wood-sided building in a row of nondescript offices. Inside, a young mother from Spring Hill clutches a rocking chair in pain. In a minute the contraction is over, and she chats easily with her husband.

Having a baby isn't called "labor" for nothing. It takes all of Jennie Earnest's energy and focus.

"By the time I was in hard labor, I thought, "What was I thinking?' " said Earnest, 24, with no pain medication and no hospital. Only her breathing and the coaching by her husband and midwife helped her through the strong contractions.

At the Labor of Love birthing center, women like Earnest experience the most natural act - the birth of a child - in what most of us have come to consider an unnatural way.

Earnest arrived at the center about 4:30 p.m. the day after Christmas, after having mild contractions all day. By the time midwife Robyn Mattox checked her, she was dilated to about 5 centimeters, halfway to delivery.

Mattox asked whether she was ready to have her baby.

Earnest remembers thinking, Do I really want to do this without medication?

A baby's birth usually conjures up a sterile picture of a hospital, an IV, an epidural (regional anesthetic). At Labor of Love in Lutz, the only birthing center in Hillsborough County, mothers forgo all that in favor of an all-natural birth.

Earnest first tried Labor of Love 21/2 years ago when she had her son Aspen.

"I fought it the whole time," she said of that experience. "I was regretting going to the birth center. I wasn't breathing or doing what I was supposed to do."

Earnest gave birth to her daughter Ana at the center on Dec. 26 after only three hours of labor. This time, she knew better and tried to plan everything right down to the food and drinks she'd bring with her to the center.

"I tended to manage it really well," she said. "I knew the baby wasn't going back up, so I just decided to listen to my husband."

Earnest told Mattox ahead of time how she wanted things to go - she didn't want a lot of extra coaching. Her plan was executed perfectly.

"Robyn just let me do my own thing. She's very mellow, she's a good listener," said Earnest.

The first Labor of Love opened in Lakeland about 20 years ago. The founder, Char Lynn Daughtry, was a midwife who helped women deliver at home. She opened the birthing center as an alternative for women who didn't want a hospital birth, but didn't quite feel comfortable having a baby at home.

"There's definitely a very special clientele here," said Janet Daughtry, Char Lynn's daughter and a certified nurse midwife for 11 years with Labor of Love. "They have the mind-set that, "I'm not sick, I don't want to go to a hospital.' "

The Lutz center opened nearly three years ago, and there is another Labor of Love in Dunedin. The centers offer full prenatal care for women with low-risk pregnancies. They accept insurance from most major companies.

The center offers prenatal education courses and may require it for first-time clients considering a water birth.

Inside the birthing center off Myrtle Ridge Road, the reception area is typical of a doctor's office with a desk and chairs. But the rest of the center is decorated like a home, with a cozy living area and two birthing rooms. These have a bed-and-breakfast aura with flowery bedspreads and country-cottage decor. The bathroom has a large shower and tub where women can opt to relieve the pain of contractions.

In a hospital, the woman typically isn't allowed to eat, in case surgery becomes necessary. She stays in bed throughout labor, attached to blood pressure and fetal monitors. At Labor of Love, women are encouraged to move around, walk, eat or take a shower or bath.

In the first few hours of Earnest's labor, Mattox gave her black cohosh, an herb believed to induce labor, and encouraged her to walk around a lot to progress the labor. Earnest ate stir-fry. Her husband, Matt, ordered a pizza. Matt's mother joined the little party in the living area.

"We just sat and talked; it was very homelike," said Earnest. Her really strong contractions kicked in about 9:30 p.m.

Earnest hadn't planned on a water birth, but it felt right once she got in the warm water about 11 p.m.

"I labored in the tub with my son, but I didn't have him in the tub," she said.

In some cases, the relaxing effect of the water can actually slow down the labor. With Ana, Earnest felt ready to start pushing after being in the tub for just 10 minutes.

Ana was born there at 11:30 p.m.

"When the baby comes out, she's nice and clean, and it's so much more relaxing," said Earnest.

The Lutz center is staffed with one full-time and two part-time licensed midwives. The midwife stays with the client during the entire labor, and for as long as the new mother needs to stay afterward, typically six to eight hours.

"The mom is not recovering from an epidural and is usually ready to go home after a shower and a meal," said Janet Daughtry.

"I was starving afterward," said Earnest. "I wanted to eat everything in the entire place."

She settled on some leftover stir-fry. She showered and rested while her mother-in-law changed and rocked Ana.

"My mother-in-law was shocked that she (Ana) opened her eyes. She was so alert," said Earnest.

By 3 a.m. , Earnest felt ready to go home with her new baby.

Many Labor of Love clients are educated women who have done their research before deciding on a natural birth, Daughtry said.

"In the past, the concept of a midwife seemed old-fashioned," she said. "In recent years, there seems to be a switch to a very mainstream population."

Earnest delivered her first baby in a hospital with a doula (labor support professional) present. While she liked the support of the doula, she didn't care for the hospital experience.

"It's not the medication I'm against, it's all the invasive stuff like the fetal monitor and blood pressure monitor," said Earnest.

When she became pregnant with Aspen, she read about birthing options on the Internet. After researching the C-section rate of hospital births, and the associated risks with epidurals, Earnest decided she wanted a totally natural experience. She drove from Brandon to the Lutz center to have her son, and from Spring Hill, about an hour away, for Ana's recent delivery.

Earnest might have opted for an at-home delivery with Ana. Matt liked Labor of Love's nearness to University Community Hospital in the event of an emergency.

Anything can happen during deliveries, but the midwives are trained to recognize signs of stress in the baby or the mother, said Daughtry. For example, they use a low form of ultrasound rather than a fetal monitor to check the fetal heart rate every 15 minutes during active labor.

Mattox had to tell Earnest to stop pushing a couple of times because the umbilical cord was wrapped around Ana's neck.

A midwife undergoes a three-year education program and a board exam to become licensed in the state of Florida. Certified nurse midwives are registered nurses who receive an additional one to two years of study in midwifery.

"Midwife programs are geared to care for low-risk pregnancies and have a very strict protocol," Daughtry said.

Of the 623 reported midwife births in Florida in 2004, 23 percent had to go to a hospital. Among the three Labor of Love centers, about 10 percent of women transfer to a hospital, said Char Lynn Daughtry.

One of those incidents brought a malpractice lawsuit in May against the Lutz facility. The parents allege that the midwife at Labor of Love did not act quickly enough in seeking medical care when the infant was exposed to meconium, which is waste material that newborns are in danger of breathing or swallowing. The lawsuit is pending and a lawyer for the family said doctors are continuing to monitor the baby.

It is the first such lawsuit in more than 20 years of practice, Char Lynn Daughtry said.

"We have a small number of clients," said Char Lynn Daughtry, whose Lutz center averages about 80 births per year. "We know everybody, we know their names and they are part of the decisionmaking."

Much of Earnest's labor feels like a dream to her now. Despite the pain, the comforting environment of Labor of Love was the perfect way for her to bring her daughter Ana into the world.

She noticed that her first baby wasn't as alert in the hospital and doesn't regret her decision to go all natural for Aspen and Ana.

"It takes a lot of energy, but you realize it's a really good experience for the baby and for you.

"Natural labor was awesome," said Earnest, "It was just such a great experience."

[Last modified January 12, 2006, 08:39:04]