A Home Birth

40 Weeks

If someone had told me five years ago that I was going to have a home birth, I would have thought they were crazy. But, alas, here I am.  With my first child, I chose to birth at a free-standing birthing center. I loved the prenatal care I received from my midwife and we were happy with our birth experience. So when we moved to Utah and got pregnant with number 2, we wanted a similar experience. Well, out here in Vernal, our only options were home birth with a midwife, travel three hours to the closest birthing center, or use the local hospital-without a midwife.  Not having to get in the car during labor was very appealing, and we found a midwife in our area that we were comfortable with.  Thus began our journey for a home birth. My midwife has a strict nutritional approach to pregnancy and birth. She has her clients cut out flour, sugar, carbonation, dairy, and a few other things. She also puts us on a supplement and prenatal tea program. It was an interesting pregnancy especially during the holiday season.

Well, we were expecting this little one to come late like our first who was almost two weeks past the “due date.”  Our baby’s due date was slotted for January 15^th and I thought I would have the baby the next weekend.  I woke up at 1:45 AM on January 17^th and realized that my water had broken. I just started laughing because I couldn’t believe that I would actually be going into labor. I wasn’t feeling any contractions when I woke up Scott. We talked about whether we should go ahead and call the midwife. Around 2:15 AM, we finally called and my contractions slowly started while talking to her. She showed up at our home maybe an hour later.  My contractions were about 2-3 min. apart. I was dilated to a 4, which I was excited to hear.  However, my labor slowed down so everyone took a nap while I made trips back and forth to the bathroom, with little progress. I was feeling anxious about what we were going to do with our 2 year old. He is highly sensitive so I didn’t want him to be around while I was birthing a baby. My mother-in-law (who we had planned on taking our son) was out of town with her daughter and 2 day old grandson. Around 5:30 AM, we finally called Scott’s dad who was getting ready for his morning temple shift. His dad was more than willing to help us out. He and our son are best buddies. He got out of his temple shift and took the day off of work-what a relief! We had him come get our son around 8:30 AM, which is when my labor finally kicked into gear.

I spent a lot of time lying on my side on the bed working through contractions with Scott pushing on my back. I was finally dilated to a 5 and I decided to get in the bathtub for some relief. I love being in the water while I labor, just wish I owned a bigger bathtub.  My contractions were getting more intense along with my back pain. I really hate the back labor.  I got out of the bathtub and was still dilated to a 5. I labored a little more on my bed then finally ended up on the ground kneeling down and holding onto Scott. My back pain was getting worse especially my tailbone. After awhile, the midwife checked me and I was at an 8.  I then had five really intense, painful contractions. I told Scott that I was done. My back was killing me. I started to feel the urge to push so the midwife checked me and I was at a 10; I was so happy to be able to start pushing. While on my knees, leaning into Scott, I started pushing. After (for me a quick) 45 minutes our little baby emerged at 12:15 PM. We were excited to see that we had a sweet little girl. She was a little blue probably because her short cord was draped around her neck and wrapped around one leg, but a little oxygen took care of that.  She weighed 7 lb. 4 oz. and was 19 in. long. She is healthy and just a little angel. A little while after the birth Scott said to me, “You did it, we had a home birth!” My response: “oh yeah, I guess we did.” It seemed so normal to give birth at home. I didn’t feel anxious about being at home during the whole birth experience. I am grateful that everything went smoothly and I didn’t even have to get in the car. I am so happy that this birth was about a third of the time of my first.  A couple of hours after the birth my mom and sister made it into town.  I loved having their help.  After a little rest, we had Scott’s dad bring our son home to meet his new sister. What a sweet meeting. I love how he says Bridget’s name. He loves his new sister.