Cascade Christian Childbirth Association


We woke up a little before 6am on the 13th of November and Mary noted
some contractions. There was absolutely no pain. When we timed them
though, they came quite regularly every 5 minutes. We decided to go together
to New Manila so Mary could have a check up perhaps in the afternoon at St
Luke's Medical Center which is very near my office. (Our house is quite far
from the hospital.) We prayed the prayer of Onset of Labor and called our
spiritual elders in community who prayed over us and the baby in case this
was the real thing. Then we went about our morning prayers, routines and
preparations. By 8:30am however, Mary noted an acceleration of the
contractions and a bit of discomfort but the latter would dissipate as soon as
she did the relaxed abdominal breathing and said some praises to the Lord. On
the way to my office we timed the contractions again and noted them to be
coming regularly at 2-3 minutes so we decided I would drop Mary off first at
the hospital before proceeding to my meeting at the office.
When we got to the hospital room the resident wanted to do a non-stress test
first thinking either Mary wasn't in labor yet or at least very early because she
looked very comfortable. At her request however (they had to listen to her,
she was an OB there!) the doctor conceded to check her first. To everyone's
delight the resident reported she was already 6-7cm dilated! (You should have
seen the look on her face as she was counting from 1 to 7 during the
checkup!)
I proceeded to read the prayers and meditations from your book. Mary tried to
concentrate on breathing correctly and repeating the meditations or agreeing
with the prayers I would utter. We would also pray in tongues alternatively.
As the contractions became more intense and more frequent Mary would note
some pain coming but this would dissipate as we uttered prayers together.
A little before 12 noon we transferred to the Delivery Room (she was 10cm
and fully dilated) and were instructed to push during the contractions. Mary
tried to do so with all her might while I and the obstetrician who is also a
Christian cheered her on. All throughout, we kept thanking the Lord that each
contraction, overwhelming though it seemed, would just have to be ridden
with and was bringing us closer to the birth of our beloved baby. After 2
hours of 2nd stage labor however, our baby had not yet been delivered. (It
was confirmed later on that the baby was simply too big, especially for an
Asian woman!) Jane remembered what you wrote that if there was something
the doctor needed to do to help medically, we needed to trust that the Lord
may want to use this. Mary asked her obstetrician if the baby was in position
for assisted vaginal delivery with vacuum extraction and her OB agreed that
everything was just right for this. (Otherwise, they might have considered
doing a CS because it was already 2 hrs) At 2:48pm our baby Mark was born
into this world weighing 3.670 kgs, with an apgar score of 9 -> 9, very
healthy and such a beautiful child!
Our obstetrician was so ministered by the process of Christ-centered
childbirth. She wants to get to know more about it too. Is it okay if we give
her a copy of the ebook you sent us since the hard copy is not available in the
Philippines. We hope to share what we have learned through you and through
this wondrous experience with other couples and other doctors.

Thank you so much for all you taught us. Thank you for allowing us to see,
believe and claim the Lord's promises for his children. The Lord is truly
faithful and every good and perfect gift comes from Him!

Jesus be praised!
Birth Story #1