Unexpected Rock Chick Garage Birth

When deciding to have children DH and I were undecided if we wanted two or three. We settled on two but after having DS1 I knew I wouldn't feel done till we had three. We had DS2 still unsure if he would be our last then after umming and ahhing for a while we realised we really weren't done and we would go for baby #3, feeling sure this would be our last.

DS1's birth was a drug free, vaginal birth in a birth centre and while it went well I still felt limited and pressured by hospital protocols that did nothing to improve our birth outcomes. Having DS2 at home was a wonderful decision and I loved having him in the birth pool and being supported by our midwives. So for our last baby we planned another homebirth and I really wanted this to be a spectacular birth so I could finish my birthing years on a high.

While we had the first two babies in Australia we were now living in the United States so we needed to find a new midwife and learn about birthing within a new system. I spoke to a few midwives and chose one and commenced care. But then routine blood work, testing third trimester iron levels, showed I had low platelets.

Having low platelets increased my risk of having a major bleed at birth, as my blood may not clot and I was risked out of a homebirth. I spent the remainder of the pregnancy trying to use diet,supplementation, visualisations and lots of sleep to build my platelets up. I went for weekly, and then twice weekly blood draws to try and see if I had levels high enough before baby came. But they kept see-sawing. They would come up and we would think surely we're going to beat this, only to retest and find they had dropped even lower again. I was stressed and upset and eventually started facing the significant possibility that I was going to have to transfer to hospital for this birth. There were a lot of tears and grief over the loss of my last hurrah birth at home.

Then, at 39 weeks and 5 days my labour started. The night before I had had a very unsettled sleep and I felt like baby was 'preparing' and I was wondering if labour was close. I had a feeling I'd been asking this baby to stay put for too long and I had to accept some time soon that they couldn't wait for me to keep doing these blood tests and hoping for higher platelets. That day I felt heavy and tired and I did the bare minimum I could, getting DS1 to and from school. We got home around 3.30pm and I started to notice I hadsome very mild pain. When DH came home about an hour later I asked him to take over preparing dinner as I laid down for a rest on the couch and timed the pains to see if they were coming at intervals. After 45mins I found they were coming every 15mins so we realised I was most likely in early labour as this was the same way my contractions started with DS1 and DS2. All my fears of hospital transfer went away as I felt so excited now that we were having a baby!!! Then I went to the toilet and had some bleeding so things really were happening and I called my MW at around 5.30pm to let her know. I called our doula to let her know too as she would becoming over to stay with the boys when we went to the hospital. We had hired our doula to be available as birth support for the boys and she was also going to be preparing my placenta and staying on to help as a postpartum doula so I was at least looking forward to bringing our placenta home for her to make into a post birth smoothie and encapsulate.

Over the next few hours things were slowly ramping up. Contractions were about 10mins apart but only lasting about 30 seconds and always very mild. As we put the boys to bed we talked to them about our doula coming over and Mummy and Daddy might be gone having the baby when they woke up. They both seemed to sense labour and needed me to do their baths and get them ready for bed. I took the chance to give them extra hugs and watch them sleeping knowing it was the last time we would be our little family of four.

At around 8pm contractions moved to about 5 minutes apart and I called our doula and asked her to come over so that she would be there in case we had to leave. I went upstairs to hop in the shower as my contractions were getting more painful and I hoped to warm water would help. I realised I just wanted to be on all fours during my contractions though and kneeling in the bath with the shower water spraying everywhere just wasn't working for me so I hopped out again soon enough. Many times in my labour I longed for the birth pool and this was one of them!

I kneeled on the floor leaning over the end of our bed and kept working through the contractions. Our doula arrived while I was in the shower and I saw her poke her head in the bedroom so I told her she could come in. She and DH sat in the room and I talked to them in between contractions. I kept thinking labour must still have a long way togo as I was so lucid and had no pain between contractions. I asked DH how far apart they were and he said they were about 3 minutes apart and 40 seconds long so things seemed to really be progressing though I thought we had a long time to go. At about 9.30pm I had some really intense contractions that made me feel nauseous and shaky and all I could think was “I can't do this”. Transition!! I was shocked and told DH to call our MW as I thought I was in transition and it was time to head to the hospital. I got up to go to the toilet and then as I stood at the sink I felt baby turn and drop down into my pelvis through two more contractions. It was so intense I couldn't move and then I could barely walk to get to the car. DH and our doula helped me downstairs and I had to stop at the bottom of the stairs for another contraction.

During the contraction my uterus was suddenly pushing hard and I felt something bulge out. I had the burning feeling of crowning then it retracted as the contraction passed. I told DH and told him to call our MW again as I thought the baby was coming out. He talked to her on speakerphone and she had me check for the head which I couldn't feel so she said it was most likely the waters starting to bulge out. She said was about 15 minutes from the hospital and it would take us about that long too so she could meet us there if we headed off now. I had pushed the waters and then baby out for about one to two hours in my previous labours so I guessed I had at least 30 more minutes so I said we'd go and I rushed to the garage.

I had asked DH to take the boys carseats out earlier so I could kneel in the back seat for the trip to the hospital. As I was just about to get in I had another contraction and the pushing was even stronger and the burning crowning feeling was more intense as something bigger was coming out. It felt big and I thought it might be baby's head so I pulled off my undies and told DH the baby was coming and he had to call our MW again. It was so thrilling and exciting to have my body pushing so hard and with such strength! Second stage had always been long and labourious for me- this was a new experience! Neither DH or I felt anxious or worried and I think the reasons we had intended to transfer were barely even on our minds.

Things happened quickly then. I was trying to hold what was coming out and called for someone to put towels down on the concrete floor. DH put my pillow that I had with me down and coaxed me down to kneel and assured me he would catch the baby so I could focus and relax. Our doula brought a small waterproof sheet and we both asked again for towels on the hard floor. She found our old towels and brought them so DH put them under me on the floor too. The forewaters came out and hung there then during the next contraction baby's head came out. I could hear our MW and DH talking on speakerphone. I remember our MW asking if my undies were off and reminding me to breathe as baby was coming out. After the head came out she asked DH to check if he could see the cord and if it was around baby's neck but it wasn't. Next contraction baby's chest and arms came out so DH supported baby, ready to catch them and stop them falling to the floor. I could feel baby's legs were stuck in the next contraction though and I asked DH if he was holding the baby up. He said he was so I asked him to hold baby down so the legs could come out and as he did baby slid out, and at 10pm was born!

Baby cried as soon as she was born- so we all knew she was breathing! And she was a girl! After two beautiful boys we now also had a little girl in our family. DH laid her down on the pillow and towels and I carefully turned around, stepping over the umbilical cord and picked her up. We live between our MW and the hospital and when baby was born she was only a few minutes from our house, passing as she was heading to the hospital. So she drove to our house instead and arrived very soon after while we were still beaming over our new baby on the garage floor.

Our doula had been busy setting up our homebirth supplies on the couch in our lounge room so I moved there to rest with baby and work on birthing the placenta. Our MW gave me a herbal drink and tincture to assist with the third stage. While I hadn't bled after the birth, we were aware that I was still at risk of a major bleed while birthing the placenta so we wanted it go smoothly. The placenta ended up being a little more work than I expected and came about 40 minutes later, while I was on the birth stool. Then I did start to bleed a bit. As we had already discussed, our MW massaged my uterus asking me to “go inside” and focus on clamping it down. She also gave me a shot of pitocin and after a short time the bleeding stopped and ended up only being a minor loss.

DH, baby and I rested on the couch for some time before eventually cutting the cord. I did it this time as I hadn't wanted to before and this was my last chance. Then we went upstairs, I had a quick shower and we checked baby. Then at about 2am our MW and doula left and we settled down in our bed to sleep, feeling grateful and euphoric to have avoided a hospital transfer and to have had an unassisted birth that we did together as a team.

The next morning DS1 and DS2 came into our room and were so thrilled to find their new little baby sister in our bed. We enjoyed the day snuggling and blissed out with our now completed family.

Weight: 8lb 9oz/3.88kg
Length: 53.5cm long
HeadCircumference: 35.5cm

Congratulations and thanks for sharing your story. xx

Congratulations! Welcome to your little one. Hardcore from birth. Gotta love that ;)

What an amazing birth story :)

Congratulations and thankyou. You are right, you do make a great team. When your DH said it is okay he will catch the baby melted me :)

Congratulations meow!

Congratulations!! What a great job you did.

Congrats! Welcome little one! Thankyou for sharing your story

Well done and Congratulations!!

Congratulations! Awesome team work!

Congrats meow! Such an awesome birth story! So glad you and baby got the birth you wanted. Even if it wasn't quite in the birth pool. ;)

Beautiful story meow!

Thanks everyone. My DH and I are on such a high to have finished our birthing journey with a freebirth :D While my DH has always been a strong supporter of women and birth he transformed into a stronger advocate after this experience. It's fun to see him become even more of a feminist!