Gabriel Lyle Peiffer – A Feisty, Fiery Birth!
My husband and I got married September 29th, 2012
and by the end of October I began questioning whether I was pregnant. I drink tea daily and when I suddenly lost taste for my favorite beverage I knew something was going on. Then, a day or so later, I came home and smelled something awful. My husband
didn’t smell anything but after cleaning the ENTIRE house thinking we had a dead animal I realized it was only the candles sitting on our dining room table that smelled stinky! Three pregnancy tests later the results were clear…I was pregnant with our sweet honeymoon baby!
I knew right away that I wanted to have a natural home birth. I had a bad experience with a reoccurring misdiagnosis by multiple doctors a few years previous and because of this had been awakened to homeopathy. My husband, however, was completely turned off. He had always been told that when you have a baby you do so in a hospital with an epidural. But after meeting Mary Anne and hearing her talk about home birth he was on board. From the get go, Mary Anne not only showed passion and excellence for her work and ministry but love. You could tell she LOVED her clients and LOVED birthing babies!
My “guess date” was July 12, 2013. I awoke that morning to a small gush of fluid. I thought my water may have broken but it turns out it was just my body gearing up for the birth of our son. I felt like I should stay home from work and began nesting. By 9pm that night my contractions started. They started out light and roughly ten minutes apart but by 10pm they were getting more intense. We called Mary Anne who told us to get some rest. I definitely tried but the contractions were coming every 5-6 minutes and lasting about 45 seconds. By morning it was the same – contractions every 5-6 minutes lasting about 45 seconds. We called Mary Anne and she came to check me. I was four centimeters dilated. She gave me some herbs to drink and advised me to try and rest as she thought this would help my birth progress. Was she right! I rested about 45 minutes with maybe 20 minutes of sleep and as I awoke my contractions were intense! They were now coming every 90 seconds and lasting at least a minute.
Mary Anne and Celesta arrived within an hour and began filling the pool. It was now mid afternoon. I was exhausted. I also had been vomiting everything in my system so they put me on an IV. My water still hadn’t broken so Mary Anne discussed the option of breaking it manually to progress my birth. I just wanted to be done birthing. It was now after 6pm and I just wanted this baby out! Breaking my water made everything flip into high gear… and not just my body! We had set candles out on our dining room table (which was located next to our birth pool) to create a relaxing atmosphere but somehow something sitting too close drifted onto a candle. The next thing I know my mother drops my IV, my husband is calmly telling me to look at him and I hear some commotion behind me. Our kitchen table was on fire! They quickly worked together and got the fire out without me even knowing. Shortly after this time I dilated the needed four centimeters and could finally PUSH! THANK GOD! I literally did not have anything left. I pushed 20 minutes and we met our precious Gabriel Lyle!
Mary Anne and her team are amazing. They not only went above and beyond to take care of us during the birth, they were exactly what I needed spiritually, emotionally and physically during the birth. There was a moment when Celesta came over to me and told me that God was giving me the strength I needed to birth. There were many times Mary Anne spoke to me that this was what God created my body to do and that I could do it! I felt safe and secure birthing our baby with both of them present. We still share our birth story with everyone who will listen. Not just because we love home birth and our incredible fiery, feisty birth experience but because we think Mary Anne and her team are incredible!
God bless you, Mary Anne and team.
We love you!
