Noah and Sharon have traveled from the North to have the birth that they have dreamed of. It is their second baby, and they are both birth activists and Noah is a childbirth educator. They have researched homebirth and natural birth and decide that this baby will not be born in hospital. They are also involved in rebirthing and want to have a labor in water. They arrive in early labor and take long walks on the moshav. Labor gets more intense so the Jacuzzi is filled and Noah spends a lot of time in the Jacuzzi. All is well and the baby is fine and the labor is progressing well. Noah feels the urge to push and she is fully dilated. The water breaks and there is thick meconium. I listen to the heartbeat and my heart skips a beat as I hear a very slow heartbeat of the baby. Together with the meconium, this is an ominous sign, and there is the real but dreaded possibility that there is severe fetal distress. Too late to transfer as Noah is pushing and this is a second birth so it should go quickly. She is pushing but the baby is just not coming, and the heartbeat is still very slow , but goes up between contractions, which is encouraging. Finally after what seems like a lifetime, with lots of pushing and even some pushing on her belly to get the baby out, the head emerges, and I quickly suction out lots of thick meconium so that the baby won’t inhale it when he takes his first breath. I feel for a cord around the neck, and feel many loops. The shoulders come out and I slide the baby through one loop of the cord but there are three more loops around the neck that I quickly entangle. The baby is purple and his muscle tone is weak, but he reacts to the suction catheter and begins to cry. I give him some oxygen and he begins to pink up and I breathe with relief. The baby is pink and crying lustily and soon is nursing. Noah has no stitches and is happy not to have the episiotomy like her first hospital birth, even though the baby was 3800 gram. I was not doing homebirths very long, and it was a very scary experience for me. I relive the experience for many weeks after and wonder if I was just lucky and perhaps it is dangerous to do homebirth. I am all the time reassured by Noah and Sharon that they were not really aware by my behavior that there was a real danger, and that this birth was such a wonderful and positive experience. Then I am at a hospital birth with a very similar outcome. Only everyone gets into a panic and the doctor comes in and cuts a huge episiotomy and brings in a vacuum and the baby is pulled out. The pediatrician suctions, gives oxygen, and although the baby is pink and crying, he is whisked away to the nursery and separated from his very worried parents for several hours, during which he lies naked and alone under bright florescent lights attached to various beeping monitors for observation. He is pricked for blood glucose (routine with meconium and in babies over 3800 and with instrumental births) and his head is swollen and sore from the vacuum. The nurses are all busy so actually no one is observing him, but monitors will beep if necessary. The mother is being stitched and asks about her baby but cannot get to see or hold him as he is in the nursery. I remember Noah’s birth of Uri and am glad that she was saved this scenario, and I am ready to do more homebirths without fear. I will always have oxygen at a birth, and I am glad to do a resuscitation course once a year to practice my skills.