Home waterbirth of my baby boy
My little boy kept changing positions right up until his birth. He was transverse (lying sideways across my body) for awhile. At 37 weeks, my midwife used rebozo techniques to turn bub head down. He moved quite easily, but by the next week he had moved back to transverse. We tried rebozo again and baby moved head down again. I strapped my tummy and bounced on a fitball, but again baby moved. I had a muscle separation and my stomach muscles just weren’t giving baby the support for him to get into a good position for birth.
As I was planning a homebirth, we talked about my options and I confirmed that I wanted to continue with my homebirth. At 40 weeks, I could tell that baby was no longer transverse, and my midwife confirmed that he had turned breech. Again, we used rebozo and again he moved easily. There was just no structure for him. This was also making it difficult for baby to engage or put pressure on the cervix. I put in a more concerted effort at strapping and bouncing, but I also felt that things would be ok.
My DD had been born at 41 weeks, and so I wasn’t surprised to be pregnant at 40+ weeks. On the Tuesday, I went to the movies with my DH while DD spent some time with my Mum. We then picked her up and drove to my favourite Cambodian restaurant to pick up takeaway. (a bit of spice never hurt anyone at 40+ weeks!) On the way, DD fell asleep and so after collecting the food we drove to a nearby park and DH and I had a picnic dinner close to the car (with the windows down in the car). DD woke after a little while and joined us for dinner. We then played on the park equipment for an hour or so and it was just an awesome lovely time for the three of us.
I saw my midwife again on the Thursday and everything looked fine. Baby was head down! I booked in for a pregnancy massage on Friday late afternoon. I dropped DD off at my Mum’s place and DH was going to pick her on his way home from work. The massage was awesome, the masseur asked if I wanted an induction massage but I said no. She said that baby was so close to being born, and that baby was a girl, and she was never wrong in her predictions.:lol:
After the massage, I drove to my Mum’s to drop something off and I was hoping to see my brother who was visiting from interstate, but he was out with my Dad. While I was there, I felt a couple of tightenings and felt like I wanted to get home. I said good-bye to Mum and headed home. It is about 40 minutes drive to home, and I was having tightenings most of the way. I passed a mate along the way who was pulled over servicing a truck. I almost pulled over to get him to drive me home, but didn’t want to make a fuss.
When I got home, I said to DH “I don’t think you will be going to work tomorrow”. “Huh?” “You sure?” he asked. DD was finishing dinner and then she had a bath. I messaged my midwife and student midwife at 21.50 “I am having a few pains, not sure if they are going anywhere but thought I would let you know”. I gave DD a quick breastfeed, and then read her a book in bed. All the while, my tightenings were getting harder to ignore. I had DHs phone with the stupid contraction app that he had downloaded and was timing them while I was sitting next to DD on the bed as she went to sleep. Thankfully :pray: DD went to sleep pretty easily. A rare occurrence, but one I was glad of the timing of.
I put a drop sheet and then a sheet over the couch, so I had somewhere comfy but it was also protected. We rang the midwife to update her. I remembered that I had washing in the washing machine and wanted to put it on the line. And so my massively pregnant contracting body, went out into the gorgeous night to hang the washing. I had to sit and rock during contractions but could get back up again and get a few things hung up before they started again. DH joined me outside. It was awesome thinking that there were people in their houses so close who had no idea what was happening in my backyard. My little secret for baby, DH and I.
With the washing done, we went back inside. I was holding on to the idea that I was in for a long labour. Around this time, I remember leaning on the kitchen bench and feeling my pelvis move and open up. The pain was immense, and I remember thinking that I can’t do this for 17 hours. Soon after, I came to the realisation that I didn’t have much choice, that things were moving and it probably wasn’t going to be that long. I said to DH to get the birth pool. It was blown up and sitting down the shed. “Already?” he said “You sure?” Yes, DH get it now! Boys should know to listen to a woman in labour. DH went to collect the pool, and I probably went to the toilet again.
Just before midnight, I was sitting on the loo and heard a big “pop” and a gush. I called out to DH, “My waters just broke!”. Pretty sure DH didn’t really think that it
was on until this point. He quickly rang my midwifes to let them know. I started to get scared, and had a few tearies. The student midwife lives close to me and arrived not long after. Her notes say that my contractions were strong. I went to the loo again, and had some bleeding. I started to cry, and had some flashback ickiness because bleeding began the cascade of intervention and trauma at my first birth. Thankfully, my awesome student midwife was able to reassure me that the amount was fine and I was able to focus again.
The student was also able to get DH moving to get things organised. I had everything that we needed on the baby change table, and the plan was to bring it out into the kitchen when labour started. Because things had moved quicker than I thought they would, I wasn’t able to do things and so was trying to remind DH of things in between contractions. DH was filling the pool, and I was back on the couch. I had one leg on the floor, one foot up on the couch and kind of leaning on the back when the contractions hit. I wasn’t getting much of a break, and I don’t think I was able to talk much during this time.
I am pretty sure that I was feeling baby’s head at this time, but the pool wasn’t ready, and my midwife wasn’t there! The student notes say that I was feeling pressure and burning. The student suggested that i take my trackies off and I kept saying ‘in a minute’. Finally, I managed to get them off and put my gown on. “Is the pool ready???” Not yet… The notes say that the length between contractions was increasing (didn’t feel like it though!). I hear a noise, ah finally, my midwife is here.
I can’t remember exactly what she said, but I just felt love, and reassured and so ready to meet my baby. The pool was finally deep enough and at 00.55 I dumped my gown and nickers and entered the pool. Ah, bliss! I kneeled on my knees and rested my head on the side of the pool. The water was just awesome. DH was still adding warm water to the pool. It must have been enough, and he sat next to the pool and rested.
I had been cut with my first birth, and I was hoping to avoid damaging my scar. I knew that I had to take it slowly and “breathe baby out”. I could feel him right there. Everyone was kneeling now, my midwife was doing long slow breaths that helped me to find my rhythm. A moment of calmness. And then at 01:07 he was there. I had one hand touching his head, and as he came out my other hand went down and I brought my slippery little baby out of the water. The cord was a little twisted and so my midwife said “wait” while she gently moved it from around baby. I sat back and checked out my beautiful baby BOY! It’s a boy!
DS had so much vernix, and we rubbed it into his beautiful soft skin. DH said he didn’t even know the birth was so close, he just sat down cos he was tired. DS was so calm, I asked the midwife if he was ok. “yep, he is fine. Just perfect. You did so well. Just breathed him out perfectly”.
To be continued.
Home waterbirth of my baby boy
