Emily's home water-birth.
After about three weeks of pre-labour (which was beginning to be extremely emotionally and mentally tiring!), and one false alarm of "false" labour, on Wednesday morning at 4:30am, I woke up and noticed bloody show when I went to the bathroom. Mild to moderate contractions, feeling fairly similar to PMS followed pretty much right away, about 5-8 minutes apart. I was thrilled to be have something real finally happening! This baby was one day overdue, and as my previous birth had been one week early, I was getting pretty anxious to have this one out!
We called our midwife at about 7:15, just to let her know what was going on, and she came down to check me about an hour later. We had packed the girls off to MIL's house for the day, and they were excited to go. Unfortunately, when the midwife arrived, the contractions pretty much stopped! She said that was fairly typical, and she and her student midwife set up their supplies, and left again, with instructions to call them if anything changed, or if we felt like we needed them. When she examined me, I was at 3cm, with the head nice and low.
The contractions resumed when they left, about 5-7 minutes apart, and still fairly mild. DH and I went for a walk, which picked things up a little, to about 3-5 minutes apart, but it all slowed down again when we got home. So out we went again, and this time, they stayed a little stronger when we got home. Called the midwife again, just to see if she wanted to check if we were progressing. She came, and checked, but not a whole lot of progress had been made - still 3cm. She suggested that I rest for a little while, and just let things happen on their own, instead of trying to hurry it along. So DH and I curled up on the couch with a movie, (classic WB cartoons. :)) and sure enough, the contractions became stronger and more regular. By this time, it was about 4:00pm, and I was a little discouraged, because the girls had both been born in about 7 hours from start to finish, and I had expected this one to be the same! But you can't really hurry babies, I guess, and I was thankful that labour thus far had been manageable, and with no back pain, either! I was worried about that since this little one was on my right side, and they expected her to rotate to a posterior position before coming around the right way. I had a bath, and started to need to really concentrate and breathe through my contractions, as they were picking up pretty strongly. Around 6:00, the midwives returned, and checked me, and I was at 4 cm (what - only four!?!?!) and agreed to break my water, since labour was well established, and I was ready to get it done and over with! They called the other midwife, so that all would be ready when they broke my water, should things happen quickly then. At about 7:15, they broke it, and I headed straight back into the bathtub. Things became quite intense after that. The contractions were very demanding, and I moved beyond breathing through them into moaning and a little yelling (sore throat today! :redface: I think DH was a little embarrassed, but he was so wonderfully supportive and encouraging!) I stopped responding to questions kept my eyes closed in between contractions, which were coming one on top of the other. The water was quite comforting, and I didn't want anyone to turn the jets off (which they had to do to hear the baby's heartbeat now and then.) I felt the baby turn, suddenly, (the right way, hurray!) and she began to move down the birth canal quite quickly. I began to push, and about 6 minutes later, there she was, on my tummy, complaining a little, and then content to rest on me. It was 8:15. What a wonderful feeling! What a relief! Placenta was delivered about 5 minutes later, all intact, and after a quick rinse in the shower, Emily and I headed to bed for a little snuggle and nursing while DH called all the family.
A little later, the midwives checked me over, no tearing, thank goodness! Then they made the herbal bath ready for me and Emily, and we soaked in there together with DH beside us, for a few minutes. My family came over, and saw the baby, and later, when I was decent, I visited with them too. Emily was weighed and measured and checked over - all was great, 7lb 8oz, (3.4kg) and 20 1/4 inches (51cm.). Nursed Emily again, and then by about 11:45, we all settled into bed together. She woke up once or twice, and I offered to nurse, but she was content to just snuggle until the morning. She had a busy day herself, and seemed pretty worn out!
All in all, it was a great way to birth a baby. I would recommend it to anyone! It didn't make labour easier, necessarily, but it was nice to be in my own home, in my own bed, or bath, for labour, and for recovery, I certainly wouldn't want to be anywhere else! DH and I thank God for his wonderful blessing in making everything well, and giving us another beautiful healthy daughter!
