Dear Peggy,

I am writing to thank you for making the birth of our third child one of the greatest experiences of our lives. I would also like to offer a strong testimonial to all expectant parents who are considering home birth. Lets face it dads, we are experts at finding the easiest possible way to get something done. Homebirth is definitely "The easy way!"

On January 18th, 2008, I came home tired from work at about 8:00pm. My wife had fixed me dinner and complained that she had been having some really intense contractions. We sat down together after I ate and began to play a game of SORRY. As we played her contractions grew stronger and she asked me if I thought we should call Peggy. After timing her contractions, we called.

At that point, our two daughters, ages 8 and 5, were sound asleep in their beds. If we had had to go to the hospital, I would have been waking them up, packing the car, making phone calls to my mom, and trying to rush to the hospital. Instead, we spoke calmly to Peggy, who told us to time the contractions and call her back in an hour. We calmly sat and played another game of SORRY.

After an hour, we felt that this was the real thing. Peggy said she would get her assistant Tierny and they would be on their way. In the meantime, I waited calmly with my wife. As my wife's contractions grew stronger, she asked me to boil some water and get out the birthing kit. I started making preparations but told my wife "Ive read the instructions on delivering the baby, but I am NOT ready for the quiz. Please hold off until Peggy gets here!"

Not long after making the call, Peggy and Tierny arrived at our home. They checked my wife's vital signs and her cervix. Everything was progressing normally as Peggy got everything ready. All we had to do was wait.

The house was quiet around midnight as my wife and I paced back and forth in the bedroom. I could not help but remember being in the hospital at this point with our other two births. In stark contrast, the hospitals would have kept us waiting in the lobby for a while as someone would be frantically typing insurance information into a computer and searching for an available room. Then I would be navigating unknown hallways looking for the room. After checking into the room and my wife's arguing and extreme protests, a nurse would come in and force a huge unwanted needle into her arm, "just in case they may need to put her on medication later." At that point she would have already had several things forced upon her that she did not want in an unfamiliar environment.

My wife and I continued to pace quietly in the peace and quiet of our own bedroom as Peggy waited outside. Between contractions we enjoyed our own choice of music on the CD player and laughed about old memories from when we first started dating more than 10 years ago. I brought her frozen cubes of "laboraid" as the contractions grew more intense. At 3:00am the labor was very intense as I held my wife close to me and we paced back and forth. Tierny came into the room and could tell that my wife was nearly ready to push. The pain my wife felt served it's purpose as it was supposed to, causing her brain to release chemicals that helped her deal with the pain and that would stimulate her body to push the baby out. Tierny told my wife that if she could rotate from lying on her back to being up on all fours, the baby would probably come right out. My wife changed positions as Tierny suggested, pushed one hard time, and the baby popped right out as she said it would. I was completely amazed. He had no foreign chemicals or drugs in his perfectly healthy body, his skin color was fantastic, his crying voice was very loud, and he was squeezing my finger for dear life as he lay there on my very own bed. My daughters came into the room and were overjoyed at the sight of their new brother. They got to be there as soon as he came into the world and I am sure that they will never forget the experience for the rest of their lives.

The last time we had given birth at a hospital, this was the point when the nurse impatiently stood over us, basically asking us to hurry up so that she could take the baby away and test her hearing, blood, etc. The nurse then took the baby away as quickly as she could and placed her down in a plastic bed, devoid of any human contact. As our daughter began to cry and scream without any consolation for several minutes, I asked the nurse if I could just hold her while she was waiting for her tests. The nurse angrily responded "She has no reason to cry, I haven't done anything to her yet!" and then told me that I would have to wait.

Peggy and Tierny gently cleaned our new son Luke off as he happily nursed for the first time. His eyes were soon open as he gazed around inquisitively. After nursing for a while, we laid him gently down on our own bed as Peggy quickly weighed and measured him. All of his vital signs were perfect, and he seemed very content. My wife was doing very well, and very relieved to have had the baby without incident. We were able to avoid the countless germs and viruses of the hospital that our home does not have, a huge boost for our babies health.

After checking out my wife and the baby, Peggy determined that everyone was doing great. Peggy and Tierny packed up their things and headed home. We laid down on the bed with our new son and the three of us fell into a deep sleep. Several hours later my mom showed up and cooked a huge breakfast for all of us to enjoy. There was no packing and unpacking from the hospital, no intrusions from dozens of nurses and doctors, no paper work, no car seats to figure out. We were chilling out at home and we were loving it.

There was simply no comparison between the ease and simplicity of having a home birth versus the stupendous hassle of going to the hospital. Knowing what I know now, I would never dream of having a baby any other way than at home...It was FANTASTIC!!! Thanks again for making the birth of our son exactly what it should be- a personal family memory of the ultimate happiness between a newborn child and their family. NOTHING could have been better!!!!

Thanks for an amazing experience, We love you!!!

Juan, Rachel, Eula, Pops, and Baby Luke!