This week’s birth story comes from a gorgeous couple Francesca and Evan who attended a TCBS Hypnobirthing Course with Katie Daibess of Birth and Becoming based in Troy, Michigan USA. Welcoming their first baby, Olivia Ann, at home.
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“I woke up on the morning of Saturday, July 10th anxious, knowing that I may finally meet my baby girl. Thing’s felt different. I had had a membrane sweep the night before, but I was careful to get my hopes up. I had been having prodromal labour for the past nine days, so every morning started out the same. We were planning a home birth so I knew coming in prepared was a must.
By around 11am I knew baby girl was finally getting ready to make her debut. The surges were different. They were getting stronger, and closer together, and I could feel them like a stabbing pain in my lower back. We laboured together throughout the morning. I focused on the breathing we learned in our hypnobirthing crash course. My husband Evan was the greatest support system. He was helping with the counter pressure techniques we learned and using positive affirmations during each of my surges. We contacted our doula’s just to give them a heads up that we would probably be needing them soon. I got in the shower to see if it helped my back. I sat down and let the warm water run over me. Imagining I was in a raft floating. The water is where I find peace, it’s my happy place.
When I was in the shower, he called his dad. His dad is a chiropractor and was going to come in the afternoon to work on me to hopefully relieve my back labour. Around 2pm he arrived and right before then is when things picked up. We were hesitant to call our doulas to come. We wanted to be sure it was the right time. I got on his table, and he started working on my sacrum and my lumbar spine. Within no time my surges were strong, and about one minute apart. At this time, we knew we better get the doulas and the midwife there, and fast.
Our birth team arrived and got themselves set up. I got up from the table to labour in our second bedroom and got checked to see where I was at around 330pm. Dilated to a 7 and 90% effaced. We laboured more in almost every room of the house. The bathroom, the living room, then back to the second bedroom to bounce on the exercise ball. Still focusing on my wave breathing. It was now around 530pm and while bouncing on the ball some of my waters released. And eventually more and more came. We continued to labour, applying counter pressure to quell my severe lower back pain.
Soon enough, around 7pm, I was dilated to 10 and ready to get in the tub to start to labour down. But a bump in the road — a cervical lip. This proved to be an issue throughout the rest of the evening. We migrated to the living room to the birthing tub. Trying different positions in hopes to bring baby girl down and start pushing. Then came the J breath. My birth team kept saying breath into your butt, and I knew exactly what that meant. The tub wasn’t working. We went to our bedroom. Maybe laying on my back will help. Nope. Let’s go back to the bathroom. We tried on the toilet. No luck. We tried every different position you can think of…hands and knees, squatting, supported squatting, lunging, none of it was working. I was running out of gas. My surges were becoming further and further apart. The cervical lip was in the way, making it difficult to labour baby down. We tried the electric breast pump and some herbal tinctures. They seemed to work. The surges were ramping up.
By now I could tell it was late and I was so eager to get her here safely and finally meet my little girl. I pushed on. We moved to our bedroom floor. It was time to give it all I had. I pushed, and pushed, and pushed. My doulas held my legs. And when a surge would come, I would curl forward and they would roll my hips back to my chest. Here is where I really had to focus on my J breath. I was running out of steam, and the position I was in was labour intensive — no pun intended. It was working. We could finally see her head and her dark hair. We continued on. We were so close.
Finally, my midwife Jenny looked at me and said, “I’m going to have to give you an episiotomy to get her out”. I consented. I wanted to meet my little girl. It worked. One push, then came her head, second push and she was out. On my chest and in my arms. My precious Olivia Ann was born on 7-10-21 at 10:40pm. Once I gently birthed the placenta our team left us to bond as a family of three while we waited for the cord to turn white. We sat there and soaked it all in. On our bedroom floor in our home. Baby girl did the breast crawl and latched almost instantly.
Our home birth experience was nothing short of incredible. Some of the details are a bit hazy. Was it pain free? No. But it was manageable, and so so worth it. I would do it over again in a heartbeat, in fact, I will. I’m so grateful to my birth team, my husband, and my father-in-law for all helping me to bring our little miracle earth side. But I also couldn’t have done it without Katie’s help! She gave me and my husband the tools we needed to stay calm and to have the home birth of our dreams!”
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