Soundtrack in my head: Cloud Cult, “You’ll Be Bright”
For the second time in three years,we have been blessed by a home birth in the co-op house. Yesterday around 6 p.m. we gained a new member in room five. It’s a boy!
I have lived in my current co-op house for six years now, and it says something about how much of a home this can be when a new life comes into being in this house. It’s something to be proud of and I think it says something about the house when residents feel at home enough to let this miracle happen here.
I joke that now that rooms four and five have been blessed with home births, we should work on the other rooms. Of course, it is neither a practical or desirable goal, and in one or two rooms, this feat would be physically impossible.
The expecting couple led discussions at a couple of house meetings about their needs and expectations a few weeks before the baby was due, and we also held a baby shower here. To some extent, the whole house was preparing for the baby.
But just in case anyone was wondering, this home birth, like the previous one, was a private family affair–and I mean biological family. We didn’t have the entire house watching and gawking–the room was only for the husband, wife, baby, midwives and doulas. Even the new grandparents and aunt and uncle were waiting downstairs.
As of yet, I have not seen (or really even heard) the baby. The last time we had a home birth it was several days before we saw the baby, and it took weeks before we saw him very often. I imagine it would be overwhelming for a new baby to be introduced too soon to so many people.
But the children do eventually adapt to co-op life. Indeed, they seem to often thrive from contact with so many others. I was quite close to the previous baby born in this house, as well as his older sister, who moved here with her parents when she was but a month old.
I thought it would be appropriate to include a video for the Cloud Cult song, “You Were Born.” It’s a sweet, pertinent, and a delightful song.
Oh, and, what the heck–I might as well include this song too as lead singer Craig Minowa reportedly wrote it for his newborn baby.
