​Pregnancy was uneventful in a good way. Although I moved quite a bit slower, I stayed active, hiking, mountain biking and camping through the ninth month. Come to think of it, our pregnancy was eventful in that, during the last month we sold a house, bought a house and moved. We were planning a home birth, but didn’t have a home until the final hour. That kept things exciting

I chose to have my fourth baby at the birth center rather than the hospital like the other three, because they offered more maternal control over prenatal care and delivery than other options. Since this was my fourth child, I felt I knew my body well enough to choose my own level of care.
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It was a beautiful sunny Tuesday, one of the first sunny days of the year where you could actually feel the lights warmth. My due date was 6 days away, and I knew that as a first time mom I was likely to go over. I was taking advantage of the time to wrap up loose ends that needed to be taken care of prior to our daughter’s arrival. At my prenatal appointment that morning I had Chelsea check to see if I was dilated or effaced at all and I was only a fingertip dilated and 30% effaced which was no progression from when I was checked the week before.  I had not had the most pleasant pregnancy, but had finally surrendered to the idea of going the full 42 weeks.
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The hospital in Petersburg doesn’t deliver babies anymore (I was born there), but my husband has family in Juneau, so we decided to go there for the birth. Initially, I had several reasons to choose the Birth Center for care: several friends had successful birth experiences there, I liked the idea of a water birth, and the knowledge that the hospital was moments away in case of emergency was reassuring. I saw my regular doctor during the pregnancy and everything progressed smoothly, but always felt like I should have more questions. The one rough patch had to do with blood sugar. Apparently, sneaking in lunch while at the doctor’s office is a recipe for abnormal sugar results and gestational diabetes screening to rule that out- luckily everything was fine. ​

​Tuesday, April 21st, 2015, I hit 38 weeks pregnant!  My husband was in the midst of finals for nursing school.  I wasn’t feeling well that morning so I decided to nap while our 19 month old napped (and she took an unusually longer nap than normal, which was a huge blessing looking back!), while my husband was studying for his first final the next day.  We got up from our nap at 1:40 p.m. and the sun was shining in the window and it was clear blue skies. I was so excited! After a couple weeks of dreary, rainy weather I was ready to get out and hike in the sunshine!

​I was standing in the kitchen making a plan for the afternoon with my husband when a warm gush of fluid soaked my pants at 1:45 pm.  I was in shock, and just stood there for a minute, questioned whether it really was my water breaking, looked at my husband and said, “I think my water just broke!” His response? “Oh, shoot!”  

HI! My name is Angela Wilde and I am a mother of 4 children. I am 31 years old and I have been a client of Juneau Birth Center 3 times now. They have always been awesome. My birth experiences range from my first “medical” in hospital, to birth center .Initially I always felt that the standard of care, and the way that they nurture their clients, and the way that they promote wellness more in keeping with my values and standards than the doctor/hospital way.