When I was 44 I became pregnant for the 7th time. I had one miscarriage and 5 live children. The ages of my children were 12,10,8, 6 and 2 when I was 44. I had given birth at home with a midwife 1x with a doula (#4) and a midwife 1x (#1), a midwife and a good friend 1x, (#3) and just my husband and me (#2). My fifth was born in the hospital and the midwife almost dropped him because he came out so fast. I had made a deal with God being pregnant with #6. I wanted a water birth. I had never done any pain medication- but this was my way of dealing with what I knew was coming. Once we arrived at the hospital they started hooking me up to all sorts of monitors- I kept asking about my water birth... they were too focused on the baby to pay attention to me. After we went from 3cm to 8cm in one contraction I about lost it. The baby's heart rate wasn't returning to normal after the contractions- "Emergency C-section" somebody yelled and they threw me on a gurney.

A week before I had gone into labor we had heard a story about a woman my age who had an emergency c-section and had bled to death. My vivacious Godmother bled to death in a hospital bed as well.

I don't know who was steering the gurney but we hit every wall in the hall. They yelled at my husband to stay put and took me towards the operating room. He immediately got on the phone with my mother (a prayer warrior). When we got to the operating room they hit the door jam so hard that my head jerked back. Still, I was calm, I had done my spiritual prep work. As they wheeled me in there stood 5 medical people in a semicircle ready for me. I sat up and pointed to each one- and looked them in the eye- and said- "I don't care what you have to do- but no mistakes- I have 5 kids and I am going home to them." They were shocked at my boldness. My midwife left me with a resident while she went to argue my case. In between contractions, I told him the story of giving birth to #2 at home with my husband, just us (it wasn't planned that way, it just happened). Finally, my midwife came back, they said the baby had calmed down- they took me back to my room and she was born natur! ally and pinked up right away. We were going to name her Elizabeth, and then my mother said, "shouldn't she be Victoria because Jesus was Victorious?" and so we named her.

Three years later one thing led to another and we found out she had a brain condition. We couldn't find a brave doctor, and we were very despondent- until we remembered- her name was not "Victoria" for no reason. God had this, he named her in advance to give us encouragement. Later, a brave doctor did step forward and he did surgery when she was nearly 4. Still, at 10, she had a bleed, a stroke. At 11, we are waiting to see if her next doctor will be brave and wise. I am thankful her name is Victoria. God knows the future.