This home birth came close to happening in the hospital, until this couple decided to listen to their instincts, and their hearts, to have the birth experience they truly wanted for their family.
- 6:00 am 04/20 Easter Sunday: I woke up feeling some low-grade abdominal cramps that I thought were related to normal bathroom pains but, after using the facilities, they remained. I started to wonder if this was the beginning of early labor but, during my pondering, I heard your voice in my head saying “GO TO SLEEP!” so, snooze I did.
- 8:00 am Woke-up and noted that the cramps remained but I carried on like normal in order to distract myself and ignore my labor (again, per your advice). Since it was Easter I was expecting my family to come over so we could carpool to Easter Service.
- 11:00 am Our family was enjoying Easter Service at a new local church that offers multiple venues with different music styles. My Parents and Grandmother choose traditional, my older daughter was in childcare while my Husband, Sister and I choose rock n’ roll. Leading up to the start of service the cramps remained but were not painful. Turns out going to the rock n’ roll venue was a good thing as the pulse of the music on my belly caused the baby to kick and move A LOT which was uncomfortable but told me she was sitting low. After service her activity and the low-grade cramps completely subsided so much so that I thought this was false labor pains. After church we drove back to my house to change then drove our separate cars to my parents house where we were going to eat Easter Dinner together.
- 3:00 pm The cramps (early labor) came back and intensified slightly to the point where walking around became uncomfortable so I ended up resting in the rocking chair overlooking the kitchen. My family, aware of what was going on with me, were most attentive. They kept my well hydrated and blissfully distracted though I kept reassuring them that I was in no pain except just mild discomfort.
- 5:00 pm We sat down at the dinner table to eat and mid-way through the meal I had to admit that the “cramping” was starting to hurt and intensify. I remember talking to my Father and having to stop in mid-sentence, lean back in my chair, close my eyes and breath through what I assume now was a contraction. By 5:45 my ability to concentrate on eating, talking and breathing through the pain was waning so I excused myself and went to the living room to start doing my stretching and breathing exercises.
- 7:00 pm After Easter Dinner clean-up was complete my family joined me in the living room and provided me with an exercise ball in which to sit on and labor. By this time it was clear I was in fact in early labor and that this was no longer false pains. Zane started using his iPhone app to record the contractions while the rest of the family continued to distract me by playing a card game called “Cards Against Humanity”. Turns out this was the perfect distraction as we were laughing a lot which hurt some belly-bump-wise but was preferable to just sitting alone and concentrating on the contraction.
- 8:00 pm The exercise ball I had been laboring on popped and I slowly found myself resting on the floor. I took this as a sign that it was time to return home. Zane packed up our daughter Quorra in the car where my Sister Taylor joined her all while I slowly said my good-byes and waddled my way to the car.
- 8:30 pm We arrived home where I quickly waddled to our bedroom, changed in to my planned birthing outfit and got comfortable on the bed. My Sister worked to put Quorra to sleep while Zane started filling up our Aqua Doula. As both worked, they would come in and check on me in turns. I was trying to relax enough to fall asleep but my body had other plans. (Active labor beginning) Contractions were strong enough that breathing through them wasn’t enough anymore. Instead I would have to jump up and labor on all fours and try to ride the pain wave. Thankfully my Sister had finished putting Quorra to sleep by then and brought me my exercise/birth ball to sit upon. This was the same birth ball I had used during my first labor so I was eager to sit on it again as laying down on the bed and sitting on the toilet were not working for me.
- 9:30 pm My Mother arrived which was a happy surprise as none of us had called her to ask that she come over. Upon hearing my Mother’s voice I relaxed even further which only increased the contractions. She stayed with me and helped me to breathe through the contractions by reminding me, in her stern parent voice, to relax my hands, shoulders and make deep sounds as I exhaled. We quickly determined that we would try to sound like the deep bass noise of the didgeridoo and even took up the practice of me placing my ear to her throat while we both made deep exhale noises. This practice helped me immensely as she would hit the deep register I was going for and I would try to match her. When we were harmonizing it really did help to alleviate some contraction pain and on occasion I could actually feel my belly/womb vibrate (or at least seem to) which was also comforting.
- 10:00 pm Zane realized that the iPhone app we had been using to record my contractions was too complicated so he switched to the app we had used during my first pregnancy. After a few recorded contractions we realized that they were all over the place and inconsistent which was odd because I felt like they were non-stop and painful but we couldn’t get an accurate read on how far apart they were or how long. We decided to ask our Doula, Debbie Shelton, to come over as we had been communicating with her all day.
- 10:30 Debbie showed up and immediately sat with me and my Mother while I laboured. She took a reading of the baby and confirmed her heartbeat was strong and that she was doing well which relaxed my Mother. By this time Zane and my Mom were switching often so they could each labor with me in turn. The three of us continued the ear to throat practice as this by far was the most helpful for me. My contractions were non-stop and intense. My Mother had been trying to feed me earlier in the night just to help me keep my strength up but it was around this time that I threw-up. At some-point during this my water broke. Since I was on the exercise ball it felt like a huge warm gush.
- 11:00 pm I heard my Father’s voice as he arrived at my house and immediately started helping my Sister and Zane with prep. Hearing his voice was both a huge relief and made me happy because it wasn’t until that moment that I knew he was going to be at the birth. I had only seconds to appreciate him before another contraction kicked in. By this time I was starting to ask after the status of the water level in the tub because I really wanted to feel the warmth and buoyancy of the water. Zane had also called our Midwife and asked her to come as he had been in contact with her all day and realized if I was asking to get in the water, I was close.
- 11:40 pm the Midwife and her team arrive and immediately began to set-up. Zane tells me they have arrived and I relax even further and feel safe and ready now that my entire team is present. Here again I ask after the status of the water and Zane says while they are still heating up water and filling it, there is enough in the tub now for me to get in and be mostly submerged. I decided this is good enough for me and barrel down the hallway from my bedroom to the living-room where the tub is set-up. Zane, already dressed in his swim trunks, climbs in and sits on his knees with his arms out. I disrobe, totally beyond caring who sees me naked, and climb in and rest on my hands and knees.
- Midnight Upon getting in position in the tub I had anticipated feeling that moment of bliss that I had felt during my first pregnancy. Alas, no such thing had happened since the water wasn’t high enough to cover my lower back which was exactly the area I needed covered since it was hurting from the contraction effort. I was tired but eager and Zane was supporting my torso in the water, my Mother was supporting my head from just outside the tub, my Sister and Father were sitting to my right watching, while Debbie and the midwives were all behind me. Here Debbie suggested to perform a cervix exam to see how far a long I was but warned that she wasn’t familiar with performing such an exam in my current position. I gave her the go ahead and it hurt like hell, most uncomfortable exam ever. Not her fault at all, just the situation my body was in. She announced that she had a guess as to how dilated I was and asked if I wanted to know. My Mother immediately said no to this request but I, feeling like I was close, said to go ahead as I anticipated she would say 9 or 10 cm dilated. Instead I heard her say 5 cm dilated. Well, my heart sank and I just lost it. I started sobbing and shaking and just became really upset..which was the exact moment my body decided was the time to spring the first birth contraction on me. WHOA! my body took over and it was INTENSE so much so that I tried to climb out of the tub in an effort to “get away” from the pain but everyone grabbed me and held me in the water. Jerks. I had forgotten my proper breathing and was screaming but thankfully my Midwife’s voice cut through the screams and reminded me to blow my breath out like I was blowing out birthday candles which surprisingly helped. The first birth contraction subsided only to have another start up in its wake. I can’t remember much about what was going on during this second contraction except that I thought, if my body was already at this stage then my baby girl was about here and I wanted her OUT, 5 cm dilated be damned, I was ready to push. The birth contraction subsided and I got a bit of a break from the pain. I collected my thoughts, heard some one say that my baby’s head had been seen briefly and then had gone back up (darn it) but I was encouraged and ready to push again. The third birth contraction hit and I bore down and pushed with all my remaining energy and then….RELIEF!
- 12:41 am Monday, 04/21 Everyone was talking at me, but all I could focus on was the relief as my baby slipped out and in to the water. Someone told me to reach down and pull my baby up so I reached between my legs, grabbed whatever part of her I felt and pulled her up to my chest…and then we were looking at each other. I rolled on to my back and just held her close. She cried, I cried, I kissed her then cried s’more and said “Hi, I’m so glad you are here!” which I then repeated many times over for several minutes. She was gorgeous! A full head of hair and covered in vernix which i promptly started to rub in to her skin. We stayed in the water like that for several minutes before I handed her over to her father, who legs had long since fallen deep asleep, so I could focus on getting the placenta out. About 20 minutes later baby and I were snuggled up on the couch where she had latched on like a pro.
