Below is the birth story of my homebirth of my now 18 month old. I thought I'd post it with a few pics (the inside of the yurt is in the background). My sister had her almost 3 year old in her yurt as well. It was the middle of summer so she labored outside under the stars in the birthing tub with the crickets, frogs, and birds talking as the sun went down and the moon came up. It was the first homebirth I've ever attended. Even though I had planned on having a homebirth if we ever had another child I certainly vowed then and there never to again step foot in the hospital for something so natural as giving birth unless their was a medical emergency reason to go.

My due date of December 20^th had come and gone. I had been having contractions on and off for days and mostly just tried to ignore them because they always went away. I kept busy with getting ready for Christmas and getting ready to have my baby. Everything was normal for me the night of December 23^rd. I woke up at 6:30am on December 24^th. My husband asked me if there was something wrong because he said I was really restless all night and kept him up. I told him that I had been having a few contractions but nothing too exciting. I got out of bed to put a log on the fire. I squatted down and when I stood up fluid ran down my legs. I told my husband that I think my water just broke and that I think our baby would be born on Christmas Eve. I went into the bathroom and wiped my legs with one of my white washcloths from my birthing kit (I had a basket full of white washcloths and white towels for my birth. It helps the midwife tell what color the blood is and how much of it there is). I found that not only did I have pink tinged fluid on my legs but that I also had huge gobs of bloody mucus as well when I wiped. I figured that this must truly be it! I was very very excited! I tried to eat a good breakfast so that I could keep up my strength for the day ahead. I also broke open one of my bottles of Recharge out of my birthing kit to stay nice and hydrated for the hard work ahead. I called my midwife at 8:30am and told her that I didn’t know what she had planned for Christmas Eve but she better work in some time to deliver a baby. I told her I wasn’t near ready for her and would call her later when I wanted/needed her. 

After breakfast I decided that I wanted to walk. I put on a moo-moo type nightgown and some boots and walked up and down our top hill over and over. I found that I had a certain tree that I was always at when I had a contraction and would lean against the tree during my contractions. I felt at the time that I would always remember that tree for helping me get through my early labor. My sister joined me for my hiking and my husband and kids mostly left me alone (what I wanted, I mostly like to be left alone during labor). I came inside at one point but while I was leaning against the table my husband kept saying “what’s wrong, what’s wrong, is that a contraction, is that a contraction” when the contraction was over I snapped at him that “YES, it WAS a contraction, what did he THINK it was?!?”. I decided then that I didn’t want to be inside at all and left again to go hike. Around 12:30 I told my husband to fill my birthing tub because I needed some relief from the pain of the contractions. While he was doing that I called my midwife and told her that I was fine and that my contractions were 6min apart. I told her that I didn’t need her yet but that my husband was filling the tub and I wanted to get in. She told me to go for it but to get out if my contractions spaced too widely apart. I was so very happy to see a few hundred gallons of hot water and relaxed into the tub. I opened another bottle of Recharge since I didn’t want the hot water to dehydrate me. Almost immediately my contractions started coming every 3min and were hard and very painful. I was a little like “what the &*^&%^” I wanted to relax for a minute, I’m not suppose to go from 6min to 3min and hard labor in the space of a few minutes!! Back this labor wagon up! After the first few contractions of me in the tub my husband started telling me that he wanted to call the midwife, he wanted the midwife, could he call the midwife. After a few contractions I realized that it was time to call. I live about 30min from my midwife (and from town) so she didn’t get out to me until I think 1:45pm-2:00pm. By the time she got out here I was past talking to anyone and was only just getting through each contraction.

I barely paid attention to her coming and her assistants setting everything up. With a home birth they bring all the stuff you would think of for a birth (extra lights, oxygen for me and baby if need be, emergency kit with tubes and suctions if need be, plus all the other medical supplies like latex gloves, chucks pads, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, all those sorts of things). After they set up all the medical type stuff the assistants made my bed up. First went a clean set of sheets, then goes a shower curtain liner, next goes another clean layer of sheets. On top of all that goes chucks pads. Then my blankets are kept nearby for after the birth to cover me and baby.

I really didn’t notice all this though. By the time they got there I was in complete labor land and not able to talk much. I kept yelling “no, no, no, no, no” during every contraction. My midwife got down in front of me at one point and said “yes, Morning, yes, yes you can do this” and apparently I just yelled “no” in her face. It didn’t really feel negative at the time though, it just felt like something I had to say that “no” I didn’t like this pain and “no” I didn’t want it to keep going on. Towards the end I started grabbing the sides of the tub and letting out very loud screams/groaning sounds. My midwife checks the baby’s heartbeat every 20 min or so during a contraction with an under water Doppler but towards the end I couldn’t stand to be in one position during a contraction and refused to let them check the baby.

I then got out of the tub and started pacing (of course stark naked). I paced outside onto my porch and paced around there for a bit. I wanted to cry at this point and felt like I was breaking down. I told myself that if it hurt this much and felt all these things then the end was very near and I would see my baby very soon but the other side of  my brain said that I couldn’t last even one more contraction so what did it matter if it was almost over ?!? My midwife brought out a birthing stool and had me try and sit on it to bring the baby down the last little bit and I tell you I’ve never felt so much pain trying to sit on that birthing stool. I ended up not being able to do it but it didn’t matter because I climbed onto my bed because my body said it was time to push. I got on all fours and tried out a few pushes with the first contraction and it hurt so badly! The next contraction I only pushed just a little bit, just to relieve some of the insane pressure, but I just couldn’t bring myself to push that baby out. Then with the next contraction I told myself that this is it, this baby is coming out! I pushed as slowly as I could but I pushed the baby all the way out with that contraction. And then there she was, screaming and pink and beautiful. It was 3:46pm. The midwife placed her up on my chest and I fell instantly in love. After 4 years of infertility, surgeries, miscarriages, and finally natural IVF, I finally had my baby and it was a sweet little baby girl, our third girl (we didn't know the sex until she was born). I had wanted a home birth through most of those 4 years and was joyful that I managed not only to get pregnant but to have my home birth.

She was a screamer from minute one. The midwife said she was screaming even before she was completely out. I nursed her immediately and she wouldn’t let me stop so we didn’t cut her cord for about a half an hour (it was wrapped up in a towel next to us). When the time came my then 11yr old daughter cut the cord (my husband doesn’t like to do it).

After the birth the midwives clean everything up (they even do the laundry). My bed was stripped down to those bottom clean sheets and we snuggled in. The midwives had made sure the yurt was plenty warm about ½ hour before the actual birth so it was really warm in there. I had on extra space heaters and my husband had saved some really hot burning wood for when the baby was born. When my midwife checked me I had not even one little tear and it didn’t even hurt to go pee for the first time. I was blessed indeed! She weighed 8lbs 14oz.