Having a home birth can be such a wonderful experience. Being in the comfort of my own home with a team I trusted made for a beautiful home birth story.
The world is such a different place than it was even just a few years ago. The way hospitals and healthcare work is becoming, seemingly, more and more restricting. This is one reason why I was intrigued by the idea of having a home birth.
As a mom of two already, I knew home birth was something I definitely could handle with the help of God and my husband. I actually really wanted to do a home birth with my previous child, but decided against it. This is because the midwife that I use only delivers in hospital with a particular OB. She has a lot of experience and is someone I really trusted, so I didn’t make the leap to try something new until I was pregnant with my third child.
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Why I chose to have a home birth
There are a few reasons why I chose to have a home birth this time around. Keep in mind that these reasons may look different for others, and that’s okay. This is simply my story and why I chose to do it the way I did.
Being in the comfort of my home and going straight to my own bed after birth was the thing that sounded the most desirable for me. That is the first reason I chose to go this route.
I have two other children under the age of 4, so it just made sense to me to be home for the birth and not have to be shuffling kids around. Plus, I really wanted my older son to be a part of this home birth experience. Another thing I knew was that this birth could be super quick, and it was. Three hours from start to finish was all it took. This was the same time frame with my second birth. So, I figured why drive the hospital to push out a healthy baby and then have to stay longer than I wanted in postpartum care there, due to protocol.
Secondly, since I desire a natural birth, it made sense to give a home birth a try. Women have been having babies at home forever, it’s such a natural part of life. I wanted to experience the natural way birth has happened for many years. My desire to experience a water birth goes along with this reasoning. Many hospitals do not allow a water birth, and that was something I wanted to try this time around. Home birth midwifes advocate for all of the things that I desired for this birth.
Everything is becoming more and more expensive. For this reason, home birth was also the most budget-friendly option for us this time (I’m all about sticking to a tight budget). That was another big reason we chose to do the home birth option with this birth.
Why I chose to have a water birth
Many Midwifes advocate for a water birth because the pressure of the water can help relieve some of the labor pains. Not only that, but, I had also heard that babies transition better when going from amniotic fluid to water. Those two reasons alone were enough to convince me to try a water birth. Something I learned that I also did not know is that, babies do not know to take a breath until their skin comes into contact with the air. Therefore, the risk of the baby drowning are really low if you just bring baby straight out of the water.
The night of my home birth experience
This birth story began on the night of November 29th when, on a whim, my family decided to go out on a family date. I just had this thought that I wanted to go do something as a family of 4 before baby was born. I realize now, this was a God moment.
There is wonderful Christmas light display in the town next to ours. So, we decided to bundle everyone up and hit the town for dinner and to see the lights. I’m so glad we did this, little did we know, our baby girl would be born later that night.
I did a lot of walking when we were viewing the lights. I’m sure I was having true contractions during this but they weren’t noticeable for me at that point.
We got everyone home after viewing the lights and kids were in bed by 8PM. My husband and I were to bed by 10PM ourselves. A couple of hours later it all began!
The progression of my home birth
12 AM
Just after midnight, I woke from my sleep and had a contraction. I spent a few minutes in the bathroom to be sure I truly felt what I thought I did. My husband couldn’t go back to sleep after that, despite my efforts to urge him to rest because it “wasn’t time yet.”
I cozied up on the side of my bed with a birth ball and pillows to rest. During this time of trying to rest I timed my contractions. They were about 5 minutes apart from the get-go. This is exactly how my previous labor progressed, and so, I knew it was time to call the midwife after about 30 minutes of consistent contractions. My previous labor and delivery was only about 3.5 hours, so I didn’t want to make the mistake of calling my midwife too late.
1 AM
The midwife was called at about 1AM, her and the second midwife arrived only about 20 minutes later (I think it was only about 20 minutes). I got in the tub to relax as soon as I got off the phone with my midwife and I spent my entire labor in there until my baby was delivered. Now, I originally had planned to use a birth pool but I never received it. I was worried about laying on my back in the tub to give birth because I didn’t want to contribute to pain I already had on my sacrum. It turns out, when you’re pushing out a baby, you forget about any other bodily pains ha!
With my husband by my side and music playing in my ears, I focused on my breathing and sunk into the water. Quickly after, the contractions progressed to being longer, stronger, and closer together. My husband knew that our baby was coming soon because I was becoming vocal with my breathing. I could hear the midwives getting things ready in the room next to me and I was at peace with the progression of the birth.
3 AM
All of a sudden I was pushing! My body was sort of floating in the water and my husband had to hold me up through this. After just 4 pushes and about 5 minutes, our baby girl was born at 3:24AM. The pain quickly subsided as I held our precious girl. We stimulated her feet to get her vocal. I decided to stay in the tub to deliver the placenta, seeing as I already made a mess in the tub. The placenta came all in one piece about 10 minutes after baby was delivered.
Apparently the placenta can tell you a lot about the baby, and I learned that my girl was ready to be born due to the dark coloration. She was born on November 30th, which was 5 days before her estimated due date.
After delivering the placenta, I moved to the bed where it was more comfortable. We woke our oldest son to come meet his new sister. Baby girl got latched and nursing within the hour and our son got to watch his daddy cut the umbilical cord and weigh her.
This time was so precious and I am so grateful that it all happened the way it did. We had my mom and mother in-law present as well, which was so helpful.
If you are considering home birth as an option, I definitely recommend it!
If you have had a wonderful home birth experience and want to share something helpful, please do so in the comments below, I’d love to hear!
For more encouragement from My Abiding Home:
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