| THE BIRTH OF REUBEN - Planned Home Birth with a Private Midwife I had always liked the idea of homebirth, it seemed more natural and carried less risk than hospital birth. I had a few clients who had had a homebirth and their stories sounded so much more positive than most other stories I heard. Once I fell pregnant I did some research on homebirth and was happy to find it was as safe if not safer than birth is hospital, and by birthing at home I would able to take the time I needed to do this with support of an expert, but without any arbitrary time limits and intervention. I had also trained in HypnoBirthing®, so I felt I would be able to best achieve the kind of birth I wanted at home, with little distraction and in the comfort and familiarity of my own home. I found my midwife on the Midwives in Private Practice website, emailed, and very quickly I felt we were on the same page about birth. I met with her at 15 weeks and enjoyed the visits during the pregnancy, discussing various aspects about birth and I enjoyed the fact we had unlimited time, a bit different to a visit with an Obstetrician!! My labour began at 41 weeks plus 3 days, I was excited that finally something was happening, but I was happy for baby to decide when to be born as well. It was pretty cruisy all day long, I called my midwife to come over later in the afternoon, I wanted to know she was there so I could totally relax when things got a bit stronger. In the evening I was 3-4 cm and fully effaced. After the check the surges became a little stronger, so I hopped into the bath (bliss!), and stayed there for hours. I had no idea how much time had passed and used my breathing for every surge, I found first stage really manageable and comfortable. In the early hours of the morning she suggested getting out of the bath, I did after a while and once I became more mobile the surges picked up a bit. Later I came out to the lounge where she had set up everything for me. The first real discomfort was I think in hindsight, the last part of dilating, not long after this I had a lot of pressure in the pelvic area and started to push. It wasn’t happening so the midwife checked and I had a cervical lip, so she pushed it out of the way and back I went to pushing. After a while she suggested getting up and marching with my knees up high, it did the trick and after a 40 minute second stage and some great squatting with the surges, and holding onto the kitchen bench, all of a sudden my boy descending and crowned, this bit was again nothing like I thought it would be, just a really strong stretching sensation and then out he came. My beautiful son Reuben George was born at a nice 6lb 15oz and 35 cm head. He wasn’t keen on feeding, and after while when I’d showered the placenta wasn’t coming out, so after the midwife checked to see what was going on, I fainted and started to haemorrhage and ended up being rushed to hospital for a manual placenta removal and some much needed blood. Having a support person you know in these circumstances is so very important. The midwife made sure Reuben wasn’t given Vitamin K or Hep B and came in to recovery to express some colostrum as he was getting hungry. Afterwards breastfeeding took a while to establish and was very dis-jointed from being in hospital. Once I got home and had Andreas support it happened in no time, and continued for 18-19 months when Reuben weaned himself. We also enjoyed continuing with our midwife for the Maternal Health Checks for Reuben, and the support was also there when I began suffering some effects of the trauma from my post birth experience. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for the birth experience to have a known carer, someone who knows exactly what you want and need, and if things don’t go to plan it’s also a godsend. It’s the total care package.
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Offering midwifery & maternal child health services to the Echuca and surrounding areas. |