KAPAA — There was nothing particularly unusual about Wednesday afternoon in Kapaa. It was hot and humid for a May afternoon. But inside an unassuming, green painted home, the measured screams of a woman could be heard. A Husky and
KAPAA — There was nothing particularly unusual about Wednesday afternoon in Kapaa. It was hot and humid for a May afternoon. But inside an unassuming, green painted home, the measured screams of a woman could be heard.
A Husky and an Airedale Terrier were tied up in the yard, pacing.
Upon entering the home, one could see three women crouched on their knees in the living room. They surrounded another woman, head hanging down, on all fours.
The three women and a man were focused on the woman.
“Reach down and take your baby, Rachel,” said the one woman, Sharon Offley, a nurse midwife.
But when Rachel DeBul, the woman on all fours, couldn’t take the baby because she was too overwhelmed, midwife assistant Erin Johnson passed the infant through Rachel’s legs to the man, the newborn’s father, Justin DeBul.
“I can’t believe we did it!” Rachel exclaimed, when she could finally catch her breath. “Somebody tell me, what is it?”
The 36-year-old had delivered a healthy baby girl at home in her living room with her husband and 3-year-old son Jaxen nearby. They told her the sex of the baby and she answered them saying, “I can’t believe we made a girl.”
The nurse midwife from Home Birth Kauai carefully handed her the tiny baby. Jaxen stared wide-eyed.
Justin couldn’t wait to begin calling relatives on the Mainland to announce the new addition to their family.
“Look at her,” DeBul said, “She is so happy. I feel like she looks exactly like me.”
The bonding had begun. No doctors. No drugs. No foreign environment. Just one happy beginning for seven-pound, two-ounce Betty Lynn.
Jaxen cut the umbilical cord, with the assistance of birth assistant Amalia Gray, who is a registered nurse, and Offley, the co-owner of Home Birth Kauai and nurse midwife.
“Birth, like death, is one of the greatest transitions of the human experience,” Offley said.
Betty Lynn rested comfortably on DeBul’s chest. It was DeBul’s second delivery outside the hospital. Jaxen had been delivered in a home birthing center.
“I will be proud to tell my girl that we did this remarkable thing in the living room,” DeBul said about Betty Lynn’s delivery.
DeBul said that when she first heard about mid-wives, she thought it was something from the stone age and didn’t know they still existed. But she was determined to find an option after considering a hospital delivery.
“When I went to the hospital the first couple times, I felt like a number,” DeBul said. “It felt more like a business. What these midwives do is an act of love. They want to know who you are and what you are about.”
Offley said DeBul’s pregnancy was low-risk. But Home Birth Kauai, which will undergo a change in name to Hua Moon Women’s Health soon, travels the island well-prepared for those home birth occasions that may require more attention. Everything from intravenous fluids to medications, oxygen, resuscitation equipment, herbs, oils and lotions are always on hand. And whenever the need arises, women in labor can be taken to the hospital. But not DeBul.
“They kept me and my baby safe,” said DeBul about the birth. “Once again I reached the top of the mountain. I’m so blessed I made it there. When you’re pushing you can’t be anywhere else but in the moment. You can’t reach those heights unless you commit everything to it. To have a baby with these women was like climbing Mount Everest with Sherpa at your side. All I had to do was show up and push.”
Offley has seen her share of deliveries having helped bring more than 500 babies into the world.
“This one was quick, a little over an hour of hard labor,” Offley said.
The father called it nerve racking, referring to not just the delivery but everything leading up to it. Rachel gained 30 pounds during the pregnancy. Justin compared it to the exhausting weight of a tool belt he had to wear all day in a previous job.
“At the end of the day I couldn’t wait to take it off. She couldn’t do that with the extra weight,” Justin said. “I don’t think us guys could do what they (pregnant women) do.”
DeBul’s baby was Johnson’s 18th “catch” as she called the receiving of a newborn. She is an emergency room trauma nurse and nurse midwife student currently interning with Home Birth Kauai.
“I think they (mothers) are all amazing,” Johnson said. “They have this strength. They just know everything will be OK, that they are going to take care of it and solve all the problems of the world.”
An hour after his sister’s birth, Jaxen no longer believed there was a horse inside his mommy’s tummy, something he had at one time believed when listening to the baby’s heartbeat during a mid-wife visit. Justin chased after him through the metal gate leading out to the dirt road. He ran fast and free.
“Did she have the baby?” asked the next-door neighbor as Justin tried to catch up with Jaxen.
Justin answered, “Yes,” and continued the chase down the road after his son. Turns out it wasn’t just another usual day for the DeBuls.
• Lisa Ann Capozzi, is a features and education reporter and can be reached at lcapozzi@thegardenisland.com or 245-0452.
