By Megan Springer
My husband and I had our last baby by ourselves. I delivered him in our bathroom. Granted, our wonderfully, amazing midwife walked in a few minutes later, and everything was perfectly fine. For me, it was the best birth experience ever.
As someone who had 3 babies in the hospital, switching to a home birth was new to me and my totally skeptical husband. After much research and a positive consultation with our midwife we felt confident moving forward with a homebirth. It was the first time I felt like I had control, I felt relaxed, and safe. (I’m a total advocate for knowing and researching all your options when it comes to your prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum healthcare.)
I was 39 weeks pregnant and going out of my mind because I had never been pregnant that long! Every other baby was born early- 35, 37, and 38 weeks. As annoyed as I was to be pregnant so long I was graced with a short and incredibly positive labor. I woke up in the middle of the night, around 2am with discomfort, knowing it was going to be that day I’d finally meet my baby. It was just a matter of knowing when to alert everyone. I waited for a long time before waking my husband because it didn’t feel intense, just crampy, so I figured it wouldn’t do any good to disturb him and I sure as heck didn’t want our midwife driving here in the middle of the night for nothing.
Around 3 I finally decided I was uncomfortable enough and contractions were close enough together that it was probably a good idea to start sounding the alarms. He contacted our midwife around 4am and she headed our way very promptly. I paced around a bit, and felt the urge to relax in the bath. I kind of just wanted to be left alone. I would describe the feeling as uncomfortable yet manageable, and the bath helped me to relax. My husband cleaned and prepped the house a bit, my 3 other kids were all sound asleep in their rooms.
I got out of the tub and at this point it was a much more intense sensation, so I called my husband in. I was standing up and told him I had the urge to push. At this point I knew this baby was coming and would be here before the midwife. I kind of had like an “oh my gosh is this really happening right now?” thought flash through my mind, but I felt in control and at peace knowing she’d be right there and my husband was right beside me calming me down. I had a contraction and my water broke, on the next contraction he was crowing, and one contraction later he was completely out.
From the time I got out of the tub to the time I was holding my baby, it was maybe 15 minutes. I stood there in disbelief that my husband and I just did this together, in relief for the whole process to be over and to be safely holding my baby. I just stood there standing near my bathroom sink, holding and examining my sweet little babe, also catching my breath and bawling my eyes out in happy tears.
About a minute later our midwife and her team was there and assisting me to my bed.
Over an hour later we cut the cord, I took a shower.
Overall, my first inclination I was in labor started around 2am, I went in to active labor around 3am, and my baby was born just before 5am. My mom was there around 6am. My kids woke up around 7am. It was all very fast. I wouldn’t describe it as fun, but it definitely was the least intense of all of my labors. I honestly think that by choosing a home birth I was feeling incredibly relaxed and at peace, having control over how I labored, and it all made a huge impact on my experience.