Our Birth Story

Those of you who know me, know I value all things natural & hormone supporting and with birth being one of a women’s biggest hormonal dances, I feel called to share with you all our birth story. 

We knew we were going to have a home birth from the moment we met with our amazing midwife @the_mindful_midwife_au , however we felt so much apprehension sharing this with people. One because we hadn’t ‘successfully’ experienced it yet & two, because there is still such a stigma around home birth… Like you’re putting yourself & your baby in harm. So I trust my story can be one of the many that helps to change this. 

Fact: Home birth has the same risk as hospital birth for mum & bub, but with home having better outcomes, as you’ll see in our story. 

Disclaimer: Home birth isn’t for everyone, women should birth where they feel most safe & to be honest I had to do a lot of mindset work around feeling safe & I’m so glad I did. My years of mindset work definitely benefited me! As well as having the support of a private midwife, which I cannot recommend enough if you can. 

So here it is… 

🤍 Contractions consistently started at lunch time Monday 17th June about 40 mins apart. 

🤍 Contractions ramped up at 730pm, then again at 930pm, about 10 mins apart. 

🤍 At 10pm we attempted to sleep. I couldn’t get comfy so I sat on the exercise ball with my head on the bed. We tried the tens machine which made me dry reach so we didn’t use that again. 

🤍 At 1am contractions were every few minutes. Because I had heard first births can be lengthy I didn’t want to call Rhi (midwife) just yet, but from our explanation of where things were at, she was on her way. 

🤍 I was in the birth pool at 230am. My waters broke in the pool about 330am. Rhi called the second midwife thinking we’d have a baby in the next hour. 

🤍 I had learnt a lot about physiological birth so with each surge (contraction) I attempted to breath bub down, however it felt like each time I attempted this I would only get so far, then feel like bub was suctioning back up. I thought I wasn’t surrendering… that I was holding on… that it was my mindset. 

🤍 So after a few hours of being in the birth pool I got out. Rhi examined me (not common practise with private midwifery, they allow the birth to take its course, however, b/c something had stalled she examined me). 

🤍 It turned out bub was asynclitic (head malpositioned). 

🤍 So here I was on my back, knees to my chest pushing with all my might with each surge (everything that went against a physiological birth haha, but what was needed) as Rhi manually helped bub through my cervix, under my pelvis & out (1hour from realising he was asynclitic). One of my fears was tearing, but with the TLC by my amazing midwife with hot compresses & massage I had 0 tearing. 

🤍 Not the fetal ejection reflex I was hoping for 🤣 but nonetheless our beautiful baby boy arrived safely at home at 830am Tuesday 18th June after about 7.5 hours of active labour. 

Not the 4 hour straight forward labour it could have been, but also not the C-section or forceps it most likely would have been if I was in hospital. 

And I wouldn’t change a thing about it, because it showed me how strong I can be, how to have patience, how to trust in myself, my bub, my body, midwife & the power & magic of home birth, even when things go left of centre. 

Safety protocols are put in place before, during & after a home birth & I am soo beyond blessed to have been introduced to our incredibly talented & caring midwife Rhi who handled our birth with such grace, calm & love. 

I highly recommend speaking to a private midwife & considering a home birth if this aligns with your values, as it’s the best decision we could have made to support bubs transition to the world & to allow the beautiful natural cascade of hormones to dance together to support healing & breast feeding. 

Finally to my amazing husband who held space through out our whole pregnancy, birth & into postpartum. You’re my hero & I love seeing you in your new role as Daddy 💙 xxx