My Home Birth Story - The Birth of my Daughter

My first born (son) was almost born at home, I remember the car ride to the birth centre, moving out of the comfort of home and into the car/lights, making my way into the birth centre, it really shifted me out of my very focused state.

When I found out I was pregnant with baby number two, who I intuitively knew was a girl, I decided that I would like to have a home birth, so I went about finding a private midwife to assist me. I found an incredible midwife who was also a birth photographer and lactation consultant. 

What I love about having a private midwife is that you are able to create a personal connection with them, building trust throughout pregnancy so that when it comes to the actual birth, you have someone in your home with you who knows your birth plan and even more importantly your baby in the womb knows their voice. 

We were renting a home at the time in Gerringong and my baby was due close to Christmas. Right at the start of December we were given notice that the property was going on the market to be sold. We looked and looked for properties and while my partner became stressed that we would not find something, I had a strong knowing that all would be okay, we would find a wonderful new home. We moved into our new home about 5 days before she was born! Being in full nesting mode, everything was unpacked quickly and we were all settled before the arrival. 

Back to the birth, it was about 10pm and my waters broke, with my son's birth everything started to happen quite quickly after my waters broke, but we waited up for an hour or so and nothing was happening so I decided to go to bed and get rest. I went to sleep and woke to some back pain about 4.15am, I got up, wanting to start moving around. The birth pool was set up, so all we had to do was put water in it. I started pacing the room, my partner kept asking if he should contact the midwife and each time I said not its ok, not yet. It was around Christmas so I didn't want to take her away from her family too soon.

The contractions became very intense, and my partner secretly messaged the midwife to tell her to come over, she was about a 30min trip away. In my first labour with my son, I used a Tens machine for my contractions but this labour was different and I wanted to move around. The midwife arrived at 5am coffee in hand to find me moving into transition, shocked she realised how close I was to giving birth, she invited me to get into the birth pool and almost immediately I wanted to push. A few pushes, my beautiful baby girl was born 30 minutes later into the water, then into my open arms with the sun rising. I birthed the placenta not long after, and after having a shower and getting into some comfy clothes I moved to the lounge to be in awe of my beautiful sweet daughter starting back at me.

My son who was fast asleep upstairs during the birth, woke up to find his baby sister had been born and the look of complete surprise was all over his face. Being in my own home and having my second birth completely in trust of my body, felt absolutely incredible and I can remember it so clearly still to this day 9 years later! It was a fast, intense labour/birth....thanks to the water, I had no rips or tears and my little double Capricorn entered the world in such a peaceful loving embrace.

I will do another post about how I prepared for birth - if you are interested look out for part 2.