What Mother Didn't Expect at Home Birth

What I learn from home birth stories like this is that you will never know what to expect….

Shared by the mother

Madison Lee Born: April 22nd at 1:20am (1 week after due date) When Daniel and I found out that we were expecting, we knew we wanted to do a homebirth. We’ve done our due diligence and three of his cousins had great homebirth experiences. We also wanted keep the gender as a surprised. Therefore, we only had two ultra-sound at week 11 and 13 to make sure it was a healthy baby to move forward with a safe home birth. I had a great pregnancy throughout with only one vomit and regular pregnancy nausea. My birth experience started on Tuesday, April 21st, a week after Madison’s due date. My water rupture at 7:15am and saw blooding show at 8:00am, but I went back to bed to get rested for the big day. I woke up to a light pressure wave (aka contraction) at 10:45am but it didn’t really bother me. I had my breakfast and started listening to my Hypnobabies CD’s. My birthing time (aka labor) went very smoothly and I was progressing very well as my midwives told me (I was dilating about 1cm an hour). Throughout the whole birthing time, pressure waves were very manageable and never once thought about an epidural. I used ujjayi breath (yoga breathing) and it actually helped shorten each pressure wave. I thought to myself, the hard part (labor) is yet to be over.. and all I had to do was to push my baby out and I will get to meet him/her soon.

Around 9:30-10:00pm, I got into the water and was ready to push. The baby’s head crown and all I could hear was “the baby has so much hair!” After a few more tries, my excitement of seeing my baby soon, had dissipated. The baby’s head was not going any further. The midwives suggested we get out of the pool and try other positions as I was getting really hot in the heated pool. I, literally, ended up trying all positions in the book (luckily, I read about it so I knew exactly what was going on) from all-fours to squat to laying on my side.

After almost 3 hours of pushing, baby Madison finally made it out to the world at 1:20am. She was a 9lb 4oz baby! What I learn from this pregnancy is that you will never know what to expect. Everyone told me that I was having a boy, but I ended up having a girl. They told me because I looked so big, my baby is going to come early but Madison was 1 week overdue. They also told me that I look like I was having twins, but my baby was just a healthy 9lb baby. I wanted to have her in the water, which we started but ended up having her on the floor, laying down (and then flipped over in all-fours). From all the birth videos, it seemed like the pushing was the easy part where the baby slides right down but my experience was totally different. I am just very appreciative that I had a loving husband there actively helping me throughout birth and two great midwives who’s patiently helping me through the whole process. I also am grateful I was able to do it at the comfort of my own home as I was able to eat, drink and exhausted all my options and did not have an episiotomy.I also have to give thanks to Hypnobabies as it was on playing in the background the whole time to keep the whole situation calm.

Lastly, I have to thank my B Team: Melanie-who took off work to come spend the rest of the day with me and to watch my three bulldogs, Scarlet, Gray and Carmen; my sister Judy-who has been cooking, cleaning and teaching me everything about a newborn; and my dad-who’s been caring for Madison so that I can rest. Not to mention, everyone who prayed and wished us well the whole time. I am so blessed to have so much love and support from everyone. It’s been quite an experience and I wouldn’t have it any other way.