Jamie's Homebirth Experience

After having read many people's birth stories I am excited to finally be able to share my story. Feel free to skip this one if it is not something you want to learn more about. Don't worry though, I won't be sharing a ton of gory details.

Sunday morning, September 9th I realized that labor was imminent and was glad to have the sightseeing trip with my parents as a distraction. During the sightseeing I had some back pain, but I wasn't sure if it was just discomfort from the car ride or contractions. After the drive through the mountains we went to the grocery store to pick up some last minute items - like the chicken that Judy would need for the chicken soup. When we got home I was completely exhausted! And I really didn't do anything strenuous. I took a nap and realized that my contractions were regular, about every 20 minutes or so. I took a warm bath to relieve some of the pain and to relax a bit; the contractions seemed to slow. After talking with Ryan we decided to let Judy, our midwife, know that my contractions were becoming regular and we discussed again when to call her and that I should try to sleep between the contractions as much as possible to conserve energy.


Later that evening we went out for Mexican with my parents. After dinner we tidied up the house and prepared ourselves for labor to begin. I tried to sleep, but couldn't - partly because of the contractions and partly due to the excitement of the whole thing. I tried another warm bath as it had relieved my pain and slowed the contractions previously - the bath didn't seem to work as well this time, I was relaxed, but the contractions continued and got even closer together. I went back and forth between the bed, the bath and the couch so as not to disturb Ryan and to relieve the back pain I was feeling from the contractions. Finally at 2am, when my contractions were 4 minutes apart I decided to wake Ryan and let him know that we should call Judy. I had wanted both Ryan and Judy to get as much sleep as they could; Judy had been up for over 24 hours the day before at another birth.

When Judy arrived around 4am I was 4 cm dilated - she was surprised that I was already that far along. Judy got started on making the chicken soup fairly soon after she arrived and would check on me and the baby's heart rate at regular intervals. Ryan was a tremendous help in encouraging me to relax and massaging my back during contractions. Unfortunately since I had not been able to sleep at all, most of my day was spent lying in bed. I had tried various positions to go through the contrations in, but the baby's heart rate was the strongest when I was lying on my side. Lying on my side was not exactly how I envisioned myself going through my labor at home. I had hoped to be up and walking around in order to use gravity to my advantage. I do remember telling Ryan that I could see why women would get an epidural, and at that point I hadn't even reached the hardest parts of labor.


Judy had me do some exercises on the stairs to try and encourage my labor to progress. I walked around for a little while after this and hoped to find something funny to watch on TV - laughter is supposed to help labor along too. Nothing good was on TV, but my parents stopped by after touring Celestial Seasonings and before going to a movie. My dad made a few jokes and got me laughing; just as they were leaving my water broke. I believe my dad helped my labor to progress.

When I reached the last phase of the first stage of labor (transition - the cervix dilates from 7 cm to 10 cm) I was blessed to have 6 minutes between contractions and I was actually able to rest/sleep between them in order to prepare myself for the next stage - pushing! This is where another surprise came for both Ryan and I. The baby was not born on our bed as we had envisioned, where I had started the pushing stage, but rather the baby was born on the floor in the small doorway of our bedroom. Judy had encouraged me to try holding the doorknob and squatting down to push - this enabled me to use gravity to help move the baby down. Eventually I was sitting/leaning up against Ryan and pulling myself up to a squatting position during the contractions and pushing. Sadly, Ryan was unable to catch the baby as he had hoped due to the tight quarters of where we were giving birth and the fact that I was sitting on him/leaning up against him between contractions. The transition and pushing stages each took about 2 hours (a total of 4 intense hours). Ryan, Judy and Peggy (Judy's assistant) were all very encouraging in helping me to push and stay as relaxed as possible.


After the baby was born I stayed on the floor with Aviella still attached to the placenta in order to reap the benefits of the rich blood and oxygen she was receiving through the umbilical cord. Ryan cut the cord about 45 minutes after she was born. While waiting for this my mom fed me chicken soup to help me regain some energy and strength. After eating the soup and cutting the cord I was able to breastfeed Aviella. She was amazing, she latched on right away. She had been waiting - sucking on her own hand or Ryan's finger until I was ready to feed her.

This was by far the most amazing thing I have ever experienced in my entire life! And I wouldn't do it differently if I had it to do all over again. I loved being in my own home and being surrounded by people that loved and cared for me (and whom I knew).