{Birth Story} : Where I was Born Serie Project | Beth
Today it’s Beth that will tell her beautiful birth story..She is a birth photographer so even though it is her first homebirth with her first baby , she has already many births under her belt , this time she is the one on the other side and like her midwife said to her “I was surrounded by so many amazing women welcoming me into motherhood, it was so beautiful!”
My labour started early hours on my due date in the middle of a local flood and massive rain event. I woke up to go to the toilet and noticed how wet my undies were. I didn’t think too much about it until I had to change them 3 times in the space of 10mins. I then realised my waters were leaking and I wasn’t just peeing myself!
I messaged my doula and went back to bed, there was some lower back pain but nothing noteworthy at this point.
Early the next morning I text my midwife to let her know and joked about having a due date baby (little did I know!)
She told me to rest up and if anything kicked off to let her know otherwise, she would come and visit me that day just to make sure bub was happy.
That night (Friday) I woke up to some mild contractions that were roughly 10mins apart. I put my TENS machine on and stayed in bed. About 4-5hrs later they started to space out and I was falling asleep between contractions. My doula recommended just embracing the rest so I took then TENS off and went to sleep.
Saturday, nothing happened during the day and I just kept to myself around the house. My midwife came for another visit, everything was looking fine with baby and I wasn’t showing any signs of infection so I made the decision to keep waiting.
I put the TENS back on and after a few hours had to get out of bed and started swaying through them. They were a lot stronger than the night before and was all in my lower back.
I laboured on my own until about 3:30am when they again started spacing out. I messaged my doula asking what to do. She recommended some spinning babies exercises to try move bub into a better position. I called my Mum in to help with those and around 4:30am decided to call my doula as well. She came and did some more spinning babies with me but by 7am the contractions had slowed right down again.
My doula decided to head home and told me to go sleep. I struggled to sleep but got a tiny bit of rest in.
My midwife then dropped in around 11am and stayed for about an hour. I was again having contractions every 7mins but it was still super early. She decided to go see another client but told me to rest as much as I could. Everything was pointing to things kicking off that afternoon/night.
I couldn’t sleep so at 2pm I called my friend (who is also a women’s health physio) to come around and try help things going. Within half an hour of her working her magic contractions were coming in hard and about 4- 5mins apart.
I laboured with her for a few hours until my doula decided to come after my Mum sent her a video of a contraction. I was in complete denial that I was in active labour but she strongly recommended everyone be called in. My midwifes, doula and photographer then all raced over (they all live over an hour away)
By the time everyone arrived I was having contractions every 2-3mins. They were intense and still all in my lower back.
I had my doula and physio putting counter pressure on both my hips and ribs for each contraction as well as the TENS machine and a comb. I was super aware still at this stage and was having conversations between contractions and overanalysing everything.
The pool was starting to be filled up but we quickly ran out of water so they were trying to get it filled with boiling water from the stove ��
All I wanted was a break and I knew I would get a small one when I first got into the pool. It felt like the longest time waiting for the pool to finally have enough water in it for me to get in.
Once I got in the relief was amazing and I got my little break.
While in the pool my midwife made a comment that I was surrounded by so many amazing women welcoming me into motherhood, it was so beautiful!
I wasn’t in the pool for too long before my body started pushing. I felt him rotate around from a posterior position and then the involuntary pushes started. It was such a surreal feeling!
My midwife made the call to get me out of the pool to check where baby was after a few low heart rates on the doppler.
Once out of the pool she saw how close he was and in less than 5mins I had pushed his head out!
He never did the final rotation so his shoulders were a little hard to push but next contraction I pulled him out onto my chest.
We got to have some time together in the pool after his birth and I pulled my placenta out myself while there.
I’m super proud of myself for getting through such a long and hard labour and being able to birth my boy in such a safe space surrounded by so many loved ones ��
