Emily's Homebirth Story
I am thrilled to share a beautiful homebirth story today. Emily’s second child, Michael, was born at home just over a year ago. Enjoy reading Emily’s words as she tells the story of her birth, and enjoy the photographs I took that document the experience. It was a joy to be part of her birth team!
“It was so calming to be in my own home, and be surrounded by people with positive birth energy who believed in my ability to birth my baby myself.”
emily’s homebirth story
: in her own words :
Brian (my husband) got home from work and one of the first things he said was “I’m suddenly nervous you’re going to go into labor. I need to run and get a new hose for the birth pool.”
We ate dinner and Brian went to Menard’s while I put my daughter Lexi down to bed. I was putting laundry away and felt like I should lay down. I started watching Grey’s Anatomy and Brian came up to bed shortly. He climbed into bed and gave me a hug and rolled away. Right when he rolled away I felt a tugging feeling and said “my water just broke!” This was right around 10:30pm Brian jumped up and I asked him to grab me a towel. I climbed off the bed and there was so much fluid pouring out. Brian kept handing me towels but I couldn’t get up off the ground cause of all the fluid. It took about 5 minutes for me to be able to make it to the bathroom.
I called my best friend Aly and she answered the phone saying “are you in labor?” I told her my water broke and she said she couldn’t get to my house till her husband was out of work at 7:00am. I got off the phone with her and texted my doula, Brenda Baar, midwives Jenn DeWaard and Jen Holeshoe (from West Michigan Midwifery) and my birth photographer, Annica. We all agreed that I would try to get some rest and update them when contractions started.
Brian got the birth pool blown up and put the plastic sheeting on the bed. He also set up the hose so it was all ready to fill the pool. We laid down in bed and I started having contractions right around 11:30pm. They were decent strength right away and I had to breath and vocalize a bit through them. By midnight they were consistent and strong and no more than 3 minutes apart. Contractions felt different this labor. The intensity started in my cervix and radiated up to my abdomen instead of being just in my abdomen.
Brenda and Annica arrived right at 12:30am and Jenn arrived about 10 minutes later. Lexi woke up shortly after they arrived and was absolutely adorable. She kept talking about all her friends who were there for baby Mikey’s birthday party. She wanted me to hold her and said “I got you, don’t worry” each time I had a contraction. We decided that Brian would take Lexi to my moms and he left right around 1:30am. Annica and Brenda discusses that labor would probably pick up right when Lexi left or right when Brian returned. Everyone went downstairs and I laid back down to try and rest.
Contractions started getting stronger right around 2:00am and Brenda came back upstairs shortly after to help me work through them. She recommended that I sit on the toilet and allow them to be strong for 3 contractions. I did that with Brenda and Annica in the bathroom with me. I joked that it was a strange feeling having someone take my picture while I sat on the toilet.
Brenda recommended that we try a “lift and tuck” through some contractions and that immediately made them stronger with more pressure. Jenn came in the check on the baby’s heart rate and I mentioned getting in the birth pool but not wanting to slow anything. She suggested we do the miles circuit before getting into the pool.
We started right at 3:52am. Right when I got into the knee-chest position I had an incredibly strong contraction that I felt all in my back. Brenda used her rebozo to “shake the apple tree” and then started counter pressure on my lower back through each contraction. Brian fell asleep on the floor and started snoring so we sent him to get some rest in the other room. I stayed in the knee-chest position for about 20 minutes and then switched to left side lying and then to right side lying each for 20 minutes or so. Contractions continued to be strong and I was vocalizing through each of them.
I got into the tub at 4:51am expecting the water to help but I don’t feel that it helped much. Contractions continued to be strong and I started to feel like my body was pushing a bit at 5:10am. With a couple contractions I remember reaching down to feel because I felt like my body was making progress.
At 5:36am Jenn asked if I wanted her to check my cervix and I said yes. She said I was about 8 cm in the front and 9 in the back. She said to try and breathe through each of the contractions and not push with my body. The pool had started leaking air so we decided I would get out and try to move a bit to get the rest of the cervix out of the way. It took me a bit to get out of the pool because the contractions were coming so fast.
I got out of the pool and Brenda helped me dry off and walk toward the bathroom. A contraction started halfway there and I had to brace myself between the bed and the dresser. The contractions were coming so strong and fast that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make it the rest of the way to the bathroom. This was right around 5:52am and at 5:55am I said that my body was pushing and I couldn’t stop it. Jen reassured me to listen to my body and not to fight it. I noticed them putting pads on the ground underneath me and I knew I was getting close.
I remember reaching down and feeling that there was no head yet and then immediately feeling his head move lower and I could feel his head with my hands. There was so much hair! At 5:59, the rest of his body was born and I reached down to grab him from Jenn and pulled him up to my chest.
Jenn helped me sit down on the birth stool and Jen helped to wipe off Mikey. Shortly after that they asked if I wanted to move to the bed and I said yes. Jenn pointed out the separation gush and said I could push with the cramps to deliver the placenta. The placenta literally shot out of my body and they said they had never seen that before.
As I laid in bed with Mikey, everyone talked about how much he looked like Lexi when she was born. He had so much dark hair and I think he looks like his grandpa. Jenn D brought me the placenta to look at and she said they had never seen such a large placenta for such a small baby. The size of my placenta was about the size they would see for a 12 lb baby. She also pointed out that it looked like 2 placentas fused together at one spot. I asked if it could be because of the twin we lost early on and she said she wasn’t sure, but it could be.
Once Mikey was able to nurse for a bit, they took him to check him over and weight him. He looked perfectly healthy and weighed 8 lbs 2 oz I had guessed 8 lbs 5 oz - he looked so much bigger to me than Lexi did. Brian brought me some crackers, cheese and grapes and Jen H brought me some juice. When they were done looking him over, Brian held him while I got in the shower. I got cleaned off and by the time I got out all of the birth materials and pool and everything were cleaned up and gone.
Before everyone left, Annica took a group picture with everyone in our bed.
I can’t believe I actually got my perfect home birth. About 6 hours of labor this time, unlike Lexi’s 4 hour labor. I remember being terrified last time and with this slightly longer labor I was never scared. It was so calming to be in my own home, and be surrounded by people with positive birth energy who believed in my ability to birth my baby myself. I could look over and see my dog and climb right into my own bed without worrying about what I was “allowed” to do.