Originally written May 2016

This is the intriguing narrative of the midwife-attended, natural homebirth of my fourth child, Nikolas.

I have very late babies, typically, and Nik was no different.

Now, I am a self-proclaimed crunchy mama, in all its permutations and possibilities.

Knowing that I seem to have never-ending pregnancies, and knowing that we were working within the legal limitations of licensed midwives in the state of Texas - I could not “officially” go past 42 weeks of gestation.

In addition to being as liberal as possible with my due date given the evidence we had - we also decided early on to be semi-aggressive with multiple natural remedies to support a so-called "timely" labor.

My midwives also happened to be two of my best friends, and I didn’t want them to risk their licensure just because my pregnancies tend to fall on the outer edge of what’s considered ‘normal’.

My last baby came at 42 weeks, 6 days--and while it was a natural birth, it was also a stress-filled fiasco that I couldn't bear to repeat. Maybe someday I will write about that--but at present I prefer it to be a mostly buried memory..

WHY are there laws around when a woman’s body is allowed to finish a healthy pregnacy?

Liability protection for medical professionals.

It has just about zero to do with protecting outcomes for mothers and babies…but I digress. Onward!

Due date by my own estimate: Nov 1st

...by my midwives' calculations: Nov 5th

...by the 25-ish week ultrasound: Oct 25th

For obvious reasons, we made the "official" due date the latest one that was reasonable--November 5th.