HOME

ABOUT

SERVICES

STORIES

James

Emma

Mandie & Cooper

Erica

Holly & Macey

Reuben

Tate

GALLERY

CONTACT

LINKS

TATE'S BIRTH - Planned Home Birth with a Private Midwife

I had a homebirth with my first son. The birth while long was a good experience. Afterwards I suffered a retained placenta and post partum hemorrhage and a lovely transfer to hospital. They had no luck removing it either, so I had to go under a general and have it removed manually. My experience of this and afterwards in hospital was very traumatic, so needless to say I had a lot of processing to do before getting pregnant again. There was no doubt in my mind to birth at home again, but I still had to overcome the grief and trauma which I experienced. I worked through my fears and when I felt ready we conceived on our first attempt.

I always had in mind that I would like to go into labour a little early this time, I had September 19th in mind as the midwife was going away from the 21st-25th to the Australian College of Midwives conference in Adelaide, and I figured it would be a great relief to us both to have baby born before this. My due date was September 21st, which was also my oldest son Reuben’s 4th birthday. I finished work on the Friday before so only just had a week off, which was fine, I felt very organized and still felt quite energetic and well, I actually never got to a point where I was “over it”, I was ready and just wanted to meet my baby.

The baby had turned breech at 31 weeks and seemed intent to stay that way, I did try different things to get him to turn acupuncture and moxa, hypnosis CD, lots of positioning etc, but he was happy staying breech. I prepared myself that he would birth breech and although would have preferred him to turn head down, I felt okay about a breech birth and read as many positive breech births as I could. The 2 nights before the birth he was incredibly active at night, I’m not sure whether he was trying to turn, but when I woke on Friday morning his head was still up high.

Thursday 17th I had a massage with my boss, Greg first thing, he worked on my pelvis, sacrum and back and neck and then did some reflexology points and other interesting techniques. Not long after this I went to the local homebirth meet with my sister Paulette who had arrived the day before to be with me for the birth. I started to feel some pressure in my cervix and sometime later my mucus plug started to come away slowly. When we left the meet the aches died off again, and then came back that afternoon and evening, and stopped again just before my Blessingway started on Thursday night. It was such a lovely and special evening. The baby was moving crazily while the henna was getting painted on my belly and then continued once I went to bed. We ate some lovely food which went down well and the night didn’t end until quite late, I think I got to bed after drying off the henna with the hairdryer at about 11.30pm or maybe later. My mucus plug has continued to come out that evening, and I was peeing flat out all day Thursday and Friday.

I was awake from about 4.30am on the Friday morning feeling a bit achy again so I got up and watched The Amazing Race from the night before which I had taped. Later that morning when my husband Anthony had woken up I told him that I didn’t think he’d have to wait much longer, that I thought baby was on it’s way. Anthony took Reuben to swimming lessons and picked up my sister as well. I listened to my relaxation CD around 9am and then decided to have a bath about 9.30am. In the bath I had some mild tightenings about every 3-5 minutes but only very short. I rang the midwife at 10.40am to tell her it was happening although very irregularly, she laughed because I had told her all along I would be birthing before she went away, and I had thrown around the 19th as the date, she had thought that seeing as I went 10 days over last time, it was unlikely! Anthony and my Sister came back later in the morning, Anthony joked that I hadn’t had the baby yet! I ate a lot, was really hungry and drank a lot too, very conscious that I needed to be well hydrated for labour, so lots of water and magnesium drink all day long. Late morning I went for a long walk with Paulette and got some tightenings happening again, having about 5-6 during the half an hour or so of walking, still only 30 seconds or so long. I had some toast for lunch and then still had a few snacks until about 3-4pm I think, then apart from drinking I didn’t feel like much. The mucus plug continued to come away, with a slight blood tinge as well, and my bowels were a bit loose as well. In the afternoon everything quietened down again. I had a lie down and listened to my CD’s again and got a few strong surges. Then I headed off for another walk about 2 or 3 pm and again got around 5-6 tightenings again, some a little stronger. Once home I layed forward on the beanbag and started to get some stronger surges about 5 minutes apart around 30-45 seconds long. The midwife sent an SMS to see how it was going, I said it was slowly going but getting more regular and I would let her know a bit later how things were. I was feeling quite restless. Reuben came home from Mum’s between 5.30-6pm and the tightenings backed off a little. I kept trying to walk and stay upright.

Everyone else had a dinner of chicken and veggies and then we got Reuben ready for bed. Anthony went out to the shed for a while and Reuben actually let Aunty Paulette put him to bed. Around 8-8.30pm I decided it was time to get serious, so I stood up at the kitchen bench and had to keep sort of squatting down and moving my pelvis forward to get the bottom to put better pressure on my cervix. The surges felt a lot different this time. I could feel them just right low down in my belly and also right in my cervix, like I could feel my cervix opening up each time. Before too long the surges got a lot stronger and a bit longer, although some were still only 30-45 seconds long. . Around 9pm I texted the midwife to let her know that the surges were a lot stronger and I felt the need to fill the pool now and I would text back soon. She texted back not to wait too long! We started filling the pool, I held the hose for a bit, then got Paulette to come and help as DH was having a little trouble with the tap fitting. Things were heating up quickly and by 9.30pm, I sent an SMS telling the miwife to come over. Paulette lit 4 special candles for me as well.

The birth pool was filled and I got in but after a short while I found it too hot and started to feel queasy and yuk so I got out and went outside which was quite refreshing, and off to the loo again. I got back in the pool and the midwife arrived at 10.45pm. The surges were strong and about 3-4 minutes apart. The midwife kept making sure I was drinking water and suggested something to eat, I agreed on a banana so had little pieces here and there. Last time my labour was long and I was exhausted and with the complications, we were aiming to keep the fluids and my energy up. The second midwife turned up some time after 11pm but I don’t recall seeing her much until the very end. Our midwife said after a while “it’s the 19th!”, I had to laugh looked like I was going to have a baby on that day, I still couldn’t believe it.

Around 1 am I started to become a bit more vocal, the surges were 2-3 minutes apart, the peak of them getting quite strong. In between I was very relaxed, and on the video you can see me falling asleep and my head dropping to my chest. At 1.20am grunting occasionally but not ready to push yet. At 1.25am the midwife’s notes record that I comment on “some major movement from the baby” and then not long after “the surges felt really different”. Because of Tate “being breech” the midwives encouraged me to breathe through the surges from about 1.45am. I was starting to feel a bit pushy now and getting louder, so much so that Reuben woke up. He wandered off to the toilet and then peeked in to see what was happening. Apparently he came down to the room (I birthed in the baby’s room) and blocked his ears (which was caught on film), and then announced to Anthony as he walked off, “that sounds a bit too much like hard work!”. Anthony watched Bob the Builder with Reuben after this. At 2am I started pushing with the surges and really let loose you could say, I was over the whole not pushing thing by now and it was quite challenging to resist such a strong urge, but I wanted to make sure that cervix was really open. I was moving about a lot in the birth pool, and this time felt quite a few times to see how far the baby was from coming out, the first couple of times he was quite high up still, but towards the end I was happy to feel him moving down further. I hadn’t felt the head the first time. My water’s broke at 2.20am with a strong surge and finally at 2.33 am and with the first really strong push on my behalf Tate came out very quickly, it stung a little more than last time but still no tearing. The midwife asked me to give another push and then before I knew it she was saying “pick up your baby”. I looked at his face and knew it was boy before I even checked.

It was a few minutes after that the midwife told me that Tate had actually come out head first! It wasn’t until later that we realized he had probably turned around when I was fully dilated, as she had noted a lot of fetal movement and then I’d said that the surges felt different or better in some way. All that “not pushing” for nothing, oh well, better to be prepared for it I guess. I took in my newborn for sometime and Reuben came in to meet his brother which was lovely, I’m so glad he was awake for it. I was vaguely aware of the midwives getting the syntocinon out ready to go, just in case. I thought to myself “I won’t be needing that!”. I decided after 15 minutes or so I wanted to get out of the pool, I was aware it would be easier if anything happened if I were not in there. I got out and walked to the lounge room where they set up a space on the couch, but a few steps before I got there the placenta literally fell out of me and they raced me to the couch and sat me down and blood was splashed everywhere all over the couch, down the couch over almost every cushion in sight, it certainly made a grand entrance this time!!

I can’t tell you how relieved I was, I was confident everything would be fine this time, but I was overjoyed that it came out so easily on it’s own (just as it should). I moved to my bed and fed Tate for the first time. Reuben came in beside us and gave Tate one of his teddies, meanwhile Anthony and Paulette cleaned the couch and then started to empty the birth pool. I had to be re-assured a few times when I felt a gush of blood, that it was normal. I did get up and have a shower, but started to feel very feint after a short time, then managed a huge wee, and slowly got back to bed. The second midwife left a couple of hours later. My midwife was relieved also and told me just before she left, how happy she was that everything went perfectly this time. It had been traumatic for everyone including her last time. We caught a little sleep after this. We phoned our family later in the morning to let them know our happy news and they were all stoked that everything went well this time.

I got my babymoon this time, which was one of the main things I grieved for after last time. I felt in a very surreal world for days after the birth, in the end it felt like everything happened so quickly and I got to experience birthing before my due date this time, which was surprising to me, it still is in fact. Mostly I was surprised by my mind and body’s ability to kick in when I asked it to, it worked out perfectly. My midwife could go away and relax, not worrying that I hadn’t given birth yet. My sister could be there for the birth, enjoy the first 10 days with us and then get back to W.A. to be bridesmaid for a friend’s wedding, Anthony could take 2 weeks off at the quietest time work wise for him and we also had 2 quiet weeks as Reuben didn’t have kinder or swimming for 2 weeks either. I was also surprised that a baby can still turn during labour, even though I knew it could happen, I didn’t think it would, I guess my boy won’t be forced or rushed into anything, until he’s ready.

We still needed a bit of help with breastfeeding this time, but we got on top of the problems a bit quicker. Having your own midwife who can be there for the pregnancy, birth and afterwards is so valuable, it’s the only way I would ever do it.