June 11, 2006
4:43 a.m.
7 pounds, 14 ounces
Home birth
As a doula, you’d think Britt Mouton-Sady would recognize the signs of labor, but for two hours she was in denial. “I was like, ‘Oh, whatever, more Braxton-Hicks,’” said Ms. Mouton-Sady, 36, referring to the “practice” contractions that many women experience toward the end of their pregnancies. When the tightening sensations began arriving in intervals of two to three minutes, however, she screamed for her husband of four years, Patrick Mouton-Sady, a Frenchman who is finance director of the nonprofit organization Action Against Hunger. Fill up the birthing pool! Call the midwife! Three hours later, against a soundtrack of Tibetan chanting in the candlelit dining room of their Harlem apartment, Ms. Mouton-Sady gave birth to a little boy with peach fuzz, full lips and his père’s Roman nose. “I was looking down at the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” she said. “I’ve seen beautiful things, like Bryce Canyon or Sequoia National Park—and nothing’s as beautiful as this thing in my arms.” Mr. Mouton-Sady, 40, then spent some quality time purring in his native tongue to his son. “Research suggests that if Dad spends 15 minutes alone with the baby, with no one coaching him, they have a better bond,” Ms. Mouton-Sady explained. Though their place has three bedrooms, the new parents prefer to sleep with their newborn between them. “It makes things so much easier,” said Mom. Check back with us in six months, toots!
