The birth of my third baby, second daughter – Waterbirth,  planned Homebirth with midwife

credit:Britelite photography

So this time, we learned our lesson and decided to have a planned homebirth with our midwife. Baby was sitting – breech, until 34 weeks. I believe it was my webster trained chiropractor’s appointments that helped her turn. At 39 weeks and 3 days, my back was rhythmically hurting, I remember my dad’s wife was manicuring my toes and I could only be sitting on the birth ball all the time. Looking back, that was probably some early back labor. At 39 weeks and 4 days, contractions started at 7am, on the last day of spring break. Everyone was home, contractions were every 8 minutes, not really strong, but midwife knew my history and came at 11am to check on me. My doula came too. My first cervical checking on the pregnancy, I was 4cm dilated. They left and said they would be around, we had lunch, I was sitting on my birth ball,  filled the birth pool, at 4pm I felt contractions were much stronger, lasting longer, surrender and breath through them was hard. I texted midwife and doula and they all came back, this time we had a birth photographer who arrived too (totally recommend having one!). I was 7cm dilated. I got into the birth pool and what a difference the water makes for those contractions! The kids were around, it was a very cozy warming atmosphere.

My doula Kristi.

At 6pm without really pushing, my little girl arrived in the water, sister and brother cheered, my husband was crying. Again I haven't pushed, just focussed on breathing. Soon she latched, placenta was born a little after and dad cut the cord. The midwives are wonderful cleaning everything, it was a peaceful night. It was a longer labor than the previous labors but I couldn’t tell.

Early pregnancy loss – loved soul we didn’t meet

We discovery we were expecting, and it was a total surprise, and so much happiness. I told my midwife I was 5 weeks pregnant, we scheduled our first appointment for 10 weeks. When she came, we didn’t have a heartbeat, it was heart breaking. That same day I spotted earlier, I knew something was different. My husband stayed at home with our three kiddos, my midwife went with me for an ultrasound - that blessed soul, it took about 5 hours to get the ultrasound at the local hospital. It looked like at 6 weeks, our baby stopped developing. the next day, naturally, I felt contractions, it was just like labor, maybe more painful than all the others-emotionally certainly was. It was our goodbye to the early undeveloped new life we didn’t have a chance to meet in this life. Those days were sad, we were hurt, but then there was peace and we realized our family was not complete.  

 

The birth or my fourth baby, fifth pregnancy,  third daughter – waterbirth, planned homebirth with midwife, unplanned unassisted

 

First selfie, waiting for midwife.

My husband and I and our three kids were so happy for this pregnancy. At 39 weeks and 2 days I spent the day having training contractions – Braxton Hicks contractions. I felt energetic, cleaned the whole house. Later at night, when everyone was sleeping I somehow couldn’t. The first contraction came. It was 12:20am. Texted my midwife, said it could take a while but was letting her know. Later she said she was in alert from that point on. 1:20am I told my husband, I couldn’t lay down anymore. Husband woke the kids up, they came to my room. He filled the tub.  I sat on the ball, soon I decided to take a shower and see if it was the real deal. Water broke before getting there, there was meconium, I texted to see how long it would take for my midwife to arrive and asked her to come. It was 2 am. She would take 30 min.  I could only stay in the shower for about 2 contractions. Left the shower, then 2:10am I got into the tub. I remember thinking 20 more minutes the midwife was going to be there. 2:18am after one urge to push, I felt her head and said she is haired! My baby girl arrived, I brought her up, with  my kids and husband around, she cried, she was here!

My midwife Sandra.

We had the midwife over the phone, at that moment she was 10 minutes away. She arrived and we were there for at least 20 more minutes, baby latched well; the placenta came, my oldest son cut the cord. My midwife taught the kids by showing the placenta where baby was. I went to bed, the midwife weighted the baby and checked on her, kids went to sleep, midwife left and off to bed we went at 4 am as a family of 6. It was accidentally unassisted, it was fast and I didn't have time to really fear or even realize it, it was a blessing, as the birth of all of them, and we are so thankful for that!! 

 And those are, in a few words,  my own birth stories. I would love to hear yours!

•  I have my phone close by every night, and ringing. But I always say, if it is night time, please call, I really don’t want to risk sleeping through a message.
• I stay in town. I will stay within 1-2 hours of our clients at all times during the on call period in case a client tells me they are  in labor. This means no trips, no vacations, no quick trips on weekends to San Antonio.
• Leaving in the middle of the night happens. When I am on call, sometimes the phone will ring in the middle of the night. In order to make sure I am ready to head to a client overnight if needed, I will have clothes ready, I will have my doula bag ready, drink some coffee too so I make sure I am awake and alert.
• Being ready to head out any time means I am leaving everything, or as much as possible, ready for the day and/or the following day for who stays. My entire family/household is on call while I am. When birth workers are at a birth, someone else has to be responsible for caring for our children (and on call support for our own children is subject for another blog post entirely) or, for some, taking care of pets, hosting or going to a birthday party solo, getting kids ready for their activities. We are present on daily activities but some days we are not.
• We don't know how long we'll be gone. We may be called out at any time, and labor support is continuous (there are no shifts). A birth worker may be gone for 6 hours, or 32.
• I can’t postpone daily errands. I can’t really leave for tomorrow what I can do today. When it comes to filling up the gas tank, doing laundry, or grocery shopping, we tend to postpone when we aren't on call.  Laundry may become a snow ball if days go by without doing it. The car must have gas all the time, if I need to leave in the middle of the night. Groceries must be up to date as well. And since we can't predict when we might get that call, we have to stay on top of the game..
• Being a doula who is on call means we will have to reschedule many things. Either for my kids doctors, activities, plans, or  for my clients not in labor. There may be times when I am called to a birth and need to reschedule doula meetings so I can meet a family in labor. As inconvenient as this may be, most of the time these families are wonderful and understanding and send their good wishes for the birth. And my family completely understands, that is their lives too. My friends get it too, my answer is always I will be there unless at a birth. Blessed to be surrounded by lovely people!
• I will sometimes be late or completely miss personal things. I had being called to births over holidays. On Christmas Eve, it happened  twice. Although I have to admit things seem to happen in sort of a magical way (one first time mom dilated from 2 to 10 cm in just one hour on a December 24^th), or when I made it just on time for my kids end of the years school presentation. or that time... I can go on and on.  But yes, I have being absent on family gatherings, dinners with friends, my kids school events and others, for births. That's just how doula life is! 
• When I am on call, I take extra care of myself because I need to be at my best to support you in labor.