My Home Birth Story | The Birth of Joseph Andrew

   

      Welcome, today I will be telling you my birth story. As you can tell by the title I had home birth. I originally planned to give birth at the hospital but then saw the concept of birthing at home and fell in love with it.
     Okay so before I go any further I want to make myself very clear. I am here to tell my story and by no means do I mean to brag. I don't want to come across that way. Every birth is different and unique and beautiful in its own ways. There are difficult births and there are also easy births but every birth is a miracle.
     I was due October 4th but ended up giving birth on October 13th at 12:34am.
     My contraction started at the ended of September and went on until I was in labor. They where on and off, a total of a few days, some mild and some intense.
     On October 12th around 4pm, I started to feel some back pain as I was putting the dishes into the dishwasher. I thought nothing much of it. After I was done with dishes I went to the AT&T store with my folks. In the car I started to feel mild contraction. Again I didn't think much of it because the previous week I had contractions that were intense! These didn't even hurt, they where just annoying.
     When we returned from the store, me and my husband made dinner. After we where done I decided to lay down just for a couple of minutes because my back was killing me. We just put all the sheets and mattress protector to wash.
     This is around 6:30pm, I laid down on the bed. I grab a icecream to snack on and started to complain to my husband why I am having fake contractions and why is the baby not coming and then literally when I said that my water broke. It literally went like this, " Ugh, babe why is this baby not coming out!!!" and then "blop", "OH MY GOODNESS! BABE MY WATER BROKE!!!".
     Right away we got the phone to call my midwife. My sweet little contractions turned into painful, intense contraction. Within minutes I was on the ground biting my tongoue at how bad it hurt. My husband was the one talking to my midwife and she told him to call her right away if I need to push. Well like five minutes later I felt like I needed to push but I tried to hold it in until they arrived.
     My midwifery team arrived like 15 minutes after I called them. My midwifery team is Angela, Cassidy, Maggie, Kristina. Once they arrived Cassidy helped me get into the shower while they filled up the birthing pool. The shower was great it got rid of some pain but its got nothing on the birthing pool. Ya'll its true what they all say about the hot water. It really is natures epidural. Before I got into the tub. Angela wanted to check how dilated I was. At this point I was 5cm dilated and almost completely thinned out.
     Getting into the pool was amazing. It relieved so much of the pain. You have no idea.
     If you ever decided to have a home birth, Please make sure you have a birth pool or get into the tub. Just trust me on this one.
     I had Andrew (my husband) and Cassidy by my side most of the time. My mom too at times. Maggie and Angela where also in the room but they where resting since it was getting late into the night and I was just sitting in the pool. They all toke turns to be with me but Cassidy was holding my hand most of the time. And sweet Kristina was recording everything for our file.
     Its was 5 hours and 15 minutes before I started pushing. Before actually starting to push, I had a few strong urges to push but I knew it could get stronger so I waited until I couldn't anymore. I started pushing in the pool and then moved onto the bed.
     I moved onto the bed because Angela wanted to check me. Because while pushing in the pool they saw it bulging down there but that's all. So they just wanted to make sure it was time.
     Heads ups this is a birth story and it may get TMI. If you can't take, this is your warning here.
     I got out of the pool and got onto my bed. She checked me and she said I am almost ready and that there is a little bit that's left and that if I push she can just push it over the baby's head. With the next push she did her thing and pushed what was left over the babys head.
     Before I go futher ahead, I want to mention that before going into labor I read a book called Ina Mays Guide to Childbirth. I would recommend this book to absouletly everyone. I believe this is one of the reason I had an easy and relaxing labor. The information that I learned in this book really helped me understand how my body works during labor. This biggest take away from this was the mind and body connection. This is what I used throughout my labor, especially towards the end of labor.
     OK, so I decieded to stay on the bed and not get back into the tub. Because its really hard to move when you have a baby that is coming out. I continued to push. As I was getting closer to having my baby, I really tried to focus all my energy on opening up. This is where the mind and body connection comes in. Before the last two pushes when my baby came out, I was letting a contraction build up and I was focusing on opening up. This is one of my favorite parts of birth besides pushing my baby out. As I was focusing on it opening up, I actually believe it or not felt how my vagina opened up and was letting the babys head out more. My husband was next to me and my midwifes as well, they all witness this. This was truly remarkable, counting the fact that I wasn't pushing just using my mind.
     Like I just mention, my husband was with me the whole entire time. He didn't leave my side for one mintues. I love how supportive he was and how into it he was. While we where on the bed, he was holding my hand and witnessing every moment of his first born son.
     I love the ending of my birth. It was so relaxing and amazing. Almost as if it was orgasmic when the baby was coming out.
     When I pushed out my babys head, I was suppose to wait before I push the rest of the body out. but once I pushed the head out, my body just did its own this. This is the part where it felt almost orgasmic. As the baby head came out, It was like slow montion for me from then on. I felt how my babys whole body turned inside me and came out. I don't know how to explain the feeling except that it was unbelievable. I was told crowning and when the baby would turn would hurt the most but it didn't. Which I am so grateful for.
     When the baby comes out, they laid him straight onto my chest. It was such a beautiful moment. I felt as if I was in slow montion. I could hear everyone around me but didn't understand them. I was in the moment. I was in shock what my body just did.
     Then tears ran down my face as well as my husband. My mom was in the room as well, that was the moment when I told her just how much I love her. At that point I understood her love for me.
     The rest of my story is quite normal and self explainatory but I'll still go ahead and tell you about it. After some time that I was laying with the baby they decided to have me push again to get my plecenta out. This was an  embarrassing part for me. As I was pushing out my placenta, I first pushed out a gush of blood straight at my midwife. Yup, I know. Well anyways placenta came out and they started to examine me. I should mention I lost quite a bit of blood. By quite a bit I mean ALOT.
     As they start to clean me and check me they noticed that I had a first degree tear and it was to the side. They decided to sow me up but after 20 minutes or so, the swelling started to go down and they decided it can heal by itself. That was a huge relief for me because I was very scared of getting stiches.
     And that's all of it. I want to say a great thank you to my husband first of all, for being by my side the whole time and supporting me. I want to thank my mom for giving birth to me and helping me in my birth. Finally, I want to thank the most amazing midwives  and women I have ever met. Truly working with them has been an amazing journey. I am so blessed by you guys. Thank you for supporting me and helping me bring my little bundle of joy into this world.
     I hope you all enjoyed reading about my birth story.