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This is a letter from Dan Harper, M.D. of Wild Horse Mounatain, Montana. Dan - a tall, rugged man, both tough and tender,
strong and simple-and his wife had 6 previous caesarean sections when they decided to have a home birth. Before reading about
their home birth experience, here is a brief background on the writer.
Dan Harper began his education working his way through Abilene Christian College and graduating magna cum laude. It was
there that he met his wife, Dixie. He then continued at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston where he graduated in 3 years,
cum laude. During that time, he served on the curriculum committee and was President of Baylor's Chapter of the Student American
Medical Association. He also received the prestigious Upjohn Award for Outstanding Clinical Proficiency. After graduation,
he completed his internship and began his own practice.
The letter starts...
"Our God is Awesome! He is also very patient as a Heavenly Father to take us, His weak little children, and walk
us down life's path. I can't begin to tell you all of the "coincidences" that have brought my family to this point
of beginning the "faith walk."
God said that our children were our riches - gifts from Him. Our first six Caesarean section "gifts" cost over
$32,000: Our newest baby - Little SHAVA ("freedom" in Hebrew) - cost us 49 cents! This covered the cost of the white
laces to tie the umbilical cord. That was more like a real gift.
People have said it was fine for ME to do this home delivery, but you should have seen the flack I got trying to get a
birth certificate until they found out I was a doctor. After all, I was trained at one of the top 3 medical schools - Baylor
in Houston. In residency, I did over 50 C-sections - a lot for a Family Practice Resident. I did over 2,000 deliveries during
medical training, residency, and the first 10 years of private practice. I was given excellent surgical training and the best
neonatal care possible.
...So then God goes and tells me to cleanse my own house: ALL medications are tossed out, even cortisone cream and antibiotic
ointments. We didn't even have an asprin as a crutch in the house. He has been faithful to heal fevers, coughs, broken bones,
lacerations, headache, visual astigmatism in the kids, just by our praying for the healing of Yahevah Rophe.
...just a day before Dixie goes into labor, I have no surgical instruments, no fancy umbilical clamps, no scissors, no
sutures, no oxygen, no IV's, and a wife who is tired from hoeing potatoes the day before! I had no back-up plan - besides
I was dismissed from the clinic 2 months before so all our funds were gone - there was no way to pay for a hospital stay.
In fact, if neighbors hadn't brought a carload of groceries, I don't know what we would have eaten. Twice since then, I've
gone to the post office to find an anonymous letter with many $20 bills inside. I hadn't let anyone know we were low on funds,
but God showed me we were rich in friends and blessings!
So - here I am, broke, weak, humbled, without any of the familiar obstetrical equipment, doing a delivery that God had
not allowed me to do so much as a fundal height measurment on! No pap smears, no ultrasound, no pelvic exam, no urine checks...NOTHING!
Just His Word to do it at home.
...I called you after about 24 hours of labor, to say that Dixie had wanted to push and had been pushing for an hour and
a half, so I finally checked her - 4 cms and thick, foul meconium...Dixie gave up when she found she was only 4 cms. She laid
down to rest, trying to get it together. The contractions had usually slowed down when she reclined, but this time the contractions
sped up to every minute and a half and were MUCH harder. She cried, "I can't, I can't!" and "No, I won't have
a C-section" and "No, I won't take any medications, satan." Several times during the next half hour she also
gave me her permission to soak my head in the creek.
Realizing that transition was now complete, I asked for and got permission to recheck her; and she was complete! In 30
minutes or less, out came the baby girl!
satan wasn't finished yet: Here was the baby, blue and lifeless with thick, green meconium in her nose and mouth. She
didn't breath or move. No sign of life. I rubbed her back and feet after sucking out her nose and mouth with the bulb syringe.
One brief grunt and a lot of retracting of the intercostal muscles was all that came out of that.
I looked down to see Dixie's womb filling up with blood to above the umbilicus. So I prayed, "God, this is your baby
and your birth - I won't take them to a hospital and I don't have any oxygen or pitocin. You can put your Spirit and its life-giving
oxygen into this baby and let it feed of Dixie's breast to clamp down that womb you just blessed." So I put Shava on
the breast and she began to feed and pink up. The womb went down; and in a few minutes Dixie said, "I've never passed
a placenta before, but I'm sure I did just now." I tied off the cord with shoelaces and cut it with the kitchen knife
I'd sterilized with rubbing alcohol.
Anyhow, we all passed through the storm; and when we FOCUSED ON JESUS, it worked out fine. We learned we couldn't do it
in our own strength or by head knowledge. This was all communicated to us by the Spirit and done completely by the grace of
God."
There is much more to this testimony, but because of space and time I must leave it out. I believe you can purchase this
for a few dollars through www.homeinzion.com If you are like most christians, reading this had your palms sweating! When I
first read this a few years ago I just cried and cried, partly because I knew that God would come through for me on my next
birth and partly because the human side of me was scared to trust Him like this. But, I did trust Him for my 5th child, and
despite the circumstances (faith doesn't walk by what it sees, but it holds firm to God's Word and what He has PROMISED) God
brought forth my child by His hand!
Blessings,
Shannon
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