Home births can be filled with love, happiness and lots of excited children.
Just ask Susanna and Brian Cox, who welcomed their fifth child, daughter Magnolia Plum, surrounded by their other children in the comfort of their Tennessee home. Susanna's home birth was captured in a video filmed by Kalli Pavon of Kalimana Film Stories, a studio located in Murfreesboro.
Susanna and Brian were already parents to four children when Susanna found out she was pregnant again. Susanna had also delivered a fifth baby as a surrogate. She had suffered serious complications five days after a previous pregnancy and was incorrectly diagnosed with a heart complication that doctors said could be life-threatening during another delivery. Susanna took permanent contraception measures, but still got pregnant again.
"I know some of our friends and family will wonder why we are doing it then," Susanna said, in a statement sent to The Huffington Post. "If there is a risk so scary, why take it? I won't lie and say we didn't think of the alternative. Of course we did. We have [four] beautiful children who need their mom. Tossing the risk aside, we are already strapped for cash, time, space, everything is tight as [a] drum. How on earth can we stretch to fit one more into the budget, into our hearts, even into our mini-van? The answer? I don't know. But somehow we will."
On the day of the birth, Susanna was surrounded by her family and the Tender Beginnings midwives team, led by Mary Anne Conyers Richardson. She credits these women, as well as her husband, with giving her strength through the labor.
Pavon was moved by the love she saw among members of the Cox family.
"When I first met them, I spent an hour in their home, hearing about their blessings [and] struggles," Pavon said of the family. "I felt a sense of peace and love in that home that is incomparable. I was thrilled to meet them, and capture this little miracle baby's entrance into the world. Their sweet family has a way of getting into your heart. I have loved seeing the way Susanna and Brian parent with such peaceful patience. ... That's the beauty of what I do. ... I have yet to have children myself, and I learn SO much from the families I get to know."
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Susanna Cox experienced complications during a previous pregnancy. The complications happened postpartum. She did not have any complications during pregnancy or delivery.