Eden's Home Birth
2013
Second baby
Lived in: Whangarei, Northland
WHERE WAS YOUR PLANNED PLACE OF BIRTH?
Whangarei hospital OR home birth (was not decided 'til I was in established labour)
WHERE WAS YOUR ACTUAL PLACE OF BIRTH?
Home
EDEN'S BIRTH
Eden is my second baby. My first baby was an induced labour and not a pleasant experience. I am choosing to share this story, rather than the story of my first as it is far more positive and I think there are enough negative stories that woman hear while pregnant. We need to be empowering expecting mummy's and helping them to believe they can do it, rather than scaring them :)
Pregnancy
I got my positive pregnancy test while I had what I thought was my period! I was then told it was a miscarriage but my HCG levels continued to rise. It was two long weeks before a scan confirmed I had a healthy baby growing inside me. I also had some minor bleeding at 26 weeks but all was well and other than that my pregnancy went smoothly and I had no morning sickness bar slight nausea in the beginning.
I had a fabulous midwife up in Kaitaia, we moved to Whangarei when I was 20 weeks and I was really worried about finding a new midwife. I stumbled upon a team of midwives and remembered one of them as the awesome midwife that delivered my first daughter! She was a hospital midwife at the time (my own midwife could not be with me in Whangarei for my induction) and had since become a LMC. That was enough to convince me to go with them, all the ladies in the team turned out to be wonderful.
Labour begins
I woke up at 3am on my 22nd birthday with strong contractions, I tried my hardest to go back to sleep but it just wasn't happening. At 7am my husband woke and I told him I was having contractions. They were still quite far apart so I dropped him off at work and my stepkids off at school, I remember getting a contraction at the traffic lights and one as I was pulling out of the school car park. I had to sit there til each contraction had passed with cars backed up behind me. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have been driving.
I got home and put my 2 year old in front of the tv to watch Dora the explorer (where she would stay for most of the day, she thought it was great!)
A few hours later my sister-in-law came over with cake and chocolates to wish me a happy birthday! She timed my contractions and convinced me to ring my midwife, I was told to ring back when they were lasting longer. My sister-in-law went home and I lost track of my contractions, my husband came home from work and a few hours later my midwife came over to check on me. She told me I was 5-6cms and asked if I was still comfortable at home, I said yes and it dawned on me that meant I would be having a homebirth. I didn't care I wasn't getting in a car to go to hospital!
By this time my contractions felt like a ring around my stomach crushing me, I got through them by pacing, rocking and swaying. I also found myself putting my arm over my head and pulling on it with other arm, this seemed to help. Being outside in the fresh air was a huge help as well.
My midwife kept reassuring me my body was doing exactly what it was meant to and I kept repeating that to myself and kept telling myself millions of woman had done it before me - I would be fine.
My mother-in-law and second midwife turned up and someone ran me a bath, as I was walking across the lounge to hope in the bath I felt the urge to spew and rushed outside. I then jumped in the bath for a good half an hour which felt really good. As I was getting out of the bath, I thought to myself "this is ok, it hurts but I'm getting through it. I'm guna do this and I'm not going to need any drugs!" I felt empowered to carry on.
After that we all gathered in the lounge. My daughter was still blissfully watching tv and had been taken out the front for Mr Whippy so was happily eating her icecream. Every one was still cracking jokes and laughing and all though I couldn't join in it made me feel calm and at peace.
By then it must have looked like it was nearly time because I was asked if I wanted to have the baby in the lounge, I said no and we moved to the bedroom.
My contractions stopped for awhile and I panicked, my midwife reassured me my body was just giving me a rest and sure enough they came back with a vengeance.
Birthday gift!
After abit of mucking around on my hands and knees I hopped up on the bed. With my daughter still happily watching tv in the lounge and my husband and mother-in-law with the midwives encouraging me, I gave three big pushes and at 5.33pm my beautiful 2nd daughter was born!
She weighed 9lb 2.5oz and was the best birthday present I will ever receive!
My older daughter came in and helped my hubby cut baby's cord.
Recovery was a breeze and 20 minutes later, I was up, showered and taking photos of my new baby having skin to skin with her daddy.
My mother-in-law rushed to Countdown and returned with a cake that my hubby and kids bought into me complete with candles.
Not long after that we were all back out in the lounge eating my birthday chocolate :)
Later that night we named our brand new daughter Eden Grace.
Things you would do the same?
I am so glad I had a drug free home birth. I was so determined to have a drug free birth and the home birth was just the icing on the cake. I wasn't sure about it at first but I trusted my midwife 100% and it turned out to be the best thing ever. I'll never birth at a hospital again if I have a choice!
Things you would do differently?
I honestly don't think I would have changed anything, it was perfect really.
What advice would you recommend to other Northland mums / families?
Find a good midwife that you really click with. A good midwife is a must and if you find you don't click with the one you have, don't be afraid to change. Ask questions. Don't pay any attention to all the horror stories you hear, every body is different and every birth is different too.
