My Homebirth Story

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NOTE: My photographer did a fantastic job of not showing the vast majority of “graphic” moments during labor and delivery, but there still may be some very slight moments of partial nudity. That’s just the nature of giving birth as it’s rather difficult to give birth with pants on. You’re welcome to scroll past the pictures and just read the story. This also will have some humor and probably too much information moments.

As I prepare for Thanksgiving next week I am reminded of what an adventure I went through last November. This time last year my oldest son was just recovering from a concussion from an accidental collision with another kid and faceplant while playing soccer. On top of that, I was heavily pregnant with his baby brother. That was quite the month! My second son was born just three days after Thanksgiving last year. My husband liked to joke that he didn’t know who was going to come out of the oven first, the turkey or him! After having my oldest in a hospital like most women in this modern age, I decided to do something that my family still thinks I’m partially crazy and also superhuman for: delivering my baby at home. Many people these days will tell you that it’s super dangerous to have your baby not in a hospital and some states even have homebirths outlawed entirely. Thankfully for me, not only is having a homebirth legal in my state, there’s also a great deal of support for it in my local community of naturally minded folks. If you live in a state where homebirths are legal, definitely research and interview the midwifes in your local area. Some women just use a doula while others also just free birth their babies, meaning that it’s just them, the people they want around and oftentimes the dad is the one who catches the baby. I personally feel that freebirths can be a little risky. so I would definitely recommend getting a midwife and making sure that she will respect your wishes and not push you into anything you don’t want to do.

When I found out I was pregnant again, I called around and asked for midwife recommendations and called a few ladies. The one I decided on is probably one of the most sought after midwives in my area, as well as one of the most experienced! I also really felt better about having a homebirth knowing that she was also a certified EMT and that the ambulance was less than 5 minutes up the road and the nearest hospital was maybe 10-15 minutes tops if an emergency were to happen. Thankfully I had nothing to worry about and everything went smoothly. Emily (Ohio Midwife) met with me an interview as a curtesy because she was already booked up through the year, but managed to squeeze me in because we just instantly clicked, and I feel like that is so super important when having a homebirth. She was very friendly with my oldest, letting him help out with every prenatal visit a little bit. She was very much all about following what I wanted to do throughout my pregnancy and during delivery. Very calm, but also silly and funny, like a good friend and never once made me feel nervous. I have her page in my professional resources section at the top of the page for you to view at any time. If you live in the Dayton, Ohio region, I highly recommend her!

On Thanksgiving we could tell that my body was gearing up to deliver my son because I was kind of antsy and a little crabby. I kept saying we needed to get the house cleaned up because I kept feeling like someone else was going to come over (it was just my parents, my husband, me and our oldest). My mom, realizing what was going on said “yeah your midwife if you don’t sit down!” Of course, I did not want to sit down, I wanted to clean! So guess what my family made me do? Sit my little prego butt down!

Me, reclining on the couch after eating Thanksgiving dinner (somehow!) in 2022.

I don’t remember much about the next day, but I do know that on Saturday I was starting to feel a little crampy. I guess I was still kind of edgy and grumpy too because my mom took my husband and oldest son out to go do some Christmas shopping for my dad and I. Or maybe I mentioned the crampy feeling and they went out to get some shopping done quickly before that baby came. I’m not entirely sure exactly what happened, just that they went out.

The last bump picture taken before I started getting super uncomfortable with the contractions.

Around supper time I was messaging my birth team because the cramping was intensifying. I remember being unable to sit down to eat my dinner so I just paced back and forth between the table where my steak was sitting and my phone that was on charge nearby, alternating between taking bites of food, texting my birth team, and recording the length of time and intensity of the contractions on my phone. The recordings were to show the midwife where I was at with labor, because to me I felt like he could come at any second. As the evening went on, my mom and my husband decided I needed something to help me relax and distract me through the contractions a bit more so they put on the very first episode of Pokemon. It was nostalgic for me because that was my favorite childhood tv show. At one point oldest walks into the room and we told him finally that I was in labor and that the baby would be arriving soon. I managed to get his reaction on camera below. So as he was standing there watching the show he suddenly said “Turn this off! I hate this show! I don’t want to watch an adult show, I want to watch a kid’s show!” and then proceeds to stomp off in a huff to watch Mountain Men with my dad in the back room.

My son’s reaction when I told him that the baby was going to be here soon. The bear he is holding is super special too because it has a soundbox sewn in that contains his baby brother’s heartbeat from our 18 week ultrasound (which, although debated in the natural circles, I had done because I was in a car accident early on in the pregnancy and I wanted to see that the baby was okay).

Finally about 11pm when my oldest was finally tired my midwife suggested I lay down and try to sleep for a little while. I honestly thought she was nuts. Sleeping? Through those contractions? Okay then… I didn’t sleep well that night, of course, constantly getting half woken up by a contraction, but I somehow did manage to get a few hours of sleep. Somewhere around 4 am I got up to go to the bathroom and discovered a bloody show when I wiped. A bloody show means that the mucus plug that is stopping the baby from coming out has fallen out and the next stage of labor is starting, basically. So I messaged my birth team and let them know what was going on. Emily called me to see just where I was at in labor so she knew when to come to my house. I confused her though, because I was able to talk to her through the contractions, which apparently is not something that commonly happens. I was still very much feeling the contractions, but I knew how to breathe through them. My contraction timing told Emily that labor had slowed down, which told her than he was facing towards my stomach instead of my back that he was supposed to. So she had me get on all fours and lean against the couch. I woke up my husband so I could have some support as I leaned against the couch and quietly, so as to not wake my child sleeping a few feet from me on a bed we brought into the front room, went through a very painful half an hour as he flipped over and contractions intensified once again. This was probably sometime around 6 or 6:30 in the morning. I think in between contractions I woke my mom and son up and told them it was pretty much go time.

My husband helping me to breathe by slowly counting during a painful contraction as I very impatiently waited for my birth team. You can see the focus on my face!

At this point, the birth team was preparing to head to my house to get everything set up. I want to say that the first person arrived somewhere around 7:30 or so. The first person that arrived was actually the photographer I hired to take pictures of my birth. That did not make me feel very good and I remember being kind of annoyed because it seriously felt like he was going to make his appearance very soon. The next lady to show up was my doula. Well, that made me feel a little bit better knowing that my mom and my husband were not going to have to catch the baby themselves. Finally after I think an hour Emily and her two assistants, Renae and Trinity showed up. There was no time to lose and the ladies got right to work, Emily checked on the baby and her assistants got to work setting up the birth pool while I worked through contractions and my oldest kind of watched everything unfold.

Professional Homebirth Photos taken by Aniston Paige Photography. My oldest son loved to be my midwife’s extra assistant that day.

Around 8:30 the birth pool was set up and after my midwife and my oldest-son-turned-adorable-midwife-assistant checked on the baby to ensure that the baby remained okay, my husband helped me get into the birthing pool. Once in the water I took off my watch and the necklace that my son gave me the previous year for Christmas. My mom braided my hair so it wouldn’t be a sopping wet and tangly mess. Immediately the pain from the contractions began to lessen from the nice warm water. So much so that we thought for a little while that I got into the water too soon. I wound up kind of playing around in the water for a bit and then I felt this huge urge to pee, so I sent my husband to grab me a bathrobe so I could get out and go to the bathroom. My midwife told me to just pee in the pool and not worry about it. Pee is sterile, so it’s not all that gross, and even though the thought still grossed me out, I did want I could to relax. Turns out, it wasn’t my bladder that was about the release, it was my son making his way down the birth canal. Then I felt it, a pop and a gush as my water broke in the pool and the intensity of the contractions increased.

Professional photos from Aniston Paige Photography, basic photos I believe are curtesy of my mom. It felt like forever that I was sitting in that pool, but it honestly wasn’t that long at all when you think about the fact that from the time everyone got there until my son was born was only about 2 1/2 hours.

I was so thankful that it happened in a pool this time! With my oldest, who was born in a hospital, the nurses broke my water so when I stood up to go to the bathroom it all ran down my legs. I distinctly remember crying in disgust until they cleaned me off! Anyway, my husband had just come back with the bathrobe at that point and I naturally angled my body to lean over the side of the pool and hold onto my husband so I could push. Now we had the curtains open so we could get the best lighting for the pictures, so naturally when I turned to start delivering my baby, my half naked behind just happened to aim right at the window. When things started getting intense my mom calmed my oldest down and explained what was going on. My wonderful birth team stood by in case there was any complications, but were otherwise hands off and let my body do what it was designed to do, give birth.

My photographer. Aniston Paige Photography did a really good job capturing the rawness of this moment and I believe my mom or doula also caught the last two pictures. Yes, labor and delivery especially can be painful, but it can also be one of the most empowering moments of your life if you let it. It’s such a short period of time that you will feel this, just a matter of minutes and it makes all of the difference in the world for bonding with your children once you feel that rush of oxytocin and endorphins!

Thankfully it was Sunday morning when most people are either asleep or at church and we don’t live on a super busy street, so it’s good for a laugh now. To be fair though, once my body got to that point, I couldn’t move. My body had me locked in such intense contractions I literally couldn’t move. My oldest put on sound reducing headphones as I whimpered and whined, begging for it to be over. I listened to my body and let my baby chose the pace, being incredibly vulnerable (which is unusual for me). I remember the first big contraction I screamed high and gently got told by one of the ladies in my birth team to do low tones. So I did for the next two pushes and he was out!

The following photographs show my baby being born. These are not really graphic, but they do show a bit more than most people see on a daily basis. If this is something that bothers you, feel free to scroll past them and just read the captions.

“Professional” photos by Aniston Paige Photography and “unprofessional” photos by my doula from Stork Helpers. My birth team celebrated once he started coming out and my mom explained everything that was going on to my son. Once I was done screaming he came over and peered over the edge of the pool to see his baby brother in my arms.

At 9:57am I had delivered my second child at home, in our front room baring it all for the world to see, literally. I felt like he was trying to come out my butt like I was just super constipated. I joked that day he has been a pain in my butt, literally, since birth. Even though he was born in water, he could still breathe because of his umbilical cord, and as you can see, he wasn’t in the water long before my midwife pulled him out and placed him onto my chest. I just had to wait for the cord to be out long enough for me to turn around to hold him. As he dried off some from the water I made the joke that he looked like someone mistook him for a bagel because he was COVERED in vernix, which is that white cream cheese looking stuff covering him. According to my midwife and my aunt (who’s the OB nurse that delivered me when I was born) that’s actually an indication of being born slightly prematurely, around 37 or 38 weeks. For all official records, he was born at 39 weeks and 2 days gestation at 7 pounds and 12 ounces, so he was safely full term. Given the fact that the first six weeks he was out of the womb he gained a pound a week, I’m glad he choose to come earthside closer to Thanksgiving than Christmas!

I held him, looking at that adorable face that would have everyone that meets him wrapped around his little finger while I waited for the placenta to release from my uterine wall. My midwife did health check on him and my husband put a happy birthday banner above my head because I found it not too long before and joked about him holding it up after the baby was born. I was so tired and worn out yet relieve that the hard part was finally over. From start to finish, labor was 20 something hours, starting with the mild cramping the afternoon before.

Photos by Aniston Paige Photography. The beautiful first moments after birth when I could finally relax and breathe holding my little boy.

After I delivered the placenta the ladies gently wrapped it up and handed both my baby and the placenta bundle to my mom so Emily could then tend to me, helping me get out of the pool and to the bathroom, get dressed and get back to the couch so I could rest while her team cleaned up the mess. My mom, oldest son and husband were very excited to see the new baby.

Pictures by Aniston Paige Photography. To this day my boys love each other more than anything and the baby is a still cuddlebug with my mom. Now that he can crawl, he sometimes chooses to go visit my mom and dad in the back room. Of course my parents thoroughly enjoy every moment with this adorable little munchkin.

Two hours after he was born and the placenta was white and no longer pulsing, my oldest son and husband got the honor of cutting his brother’s umbilical cord and my dad, who stayed in the back out of respect, came up front to meet and got the unique pleasure of weighing the baby. My oldest also insisted on putting food into my mouth during this time as well. After Emily did all of the checks on the baby she handed him off to me and my doula Tamara from Stork Helpers captured some pictures of my boys tandem nursing (extended or full term breastfeeding will be another post later). Emily did all of the final checks and the routine newborn exam and all of the ladies left, with Emily and her assistants heading off to get some food and go to not one but two more births that day. I was told that I was the only lady out of the three that had a picture perfect homebirth with no complications. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and snuggling with my boys and later in the evening my oldest finally got to hold his baby brother for the first time.

And in case you noticed the bottle of coconut water floating around in the pictures that I didn’t hardly drink during labor, I made the joke that my birth was sponsored by Harmless Harvest Coconut Water because it was all over the place near me that day for electrolytes and something to drink if I had wanted it.

Every member of my family had their role that day, and I was so happy that my oldest especially was able to see his brother being born. He has proved himself to be a fierce protector of his little brother and every day his little brother smiles a great big smile while he sees him.

All in all it was an amazing and empowering experience to be able to deliver my second baby in the safety of my own home, and the best part was he and I didn’t have to get all bundled up and go out into the cold for a solid week after birth! I was just able to rest at home with my family after birth and enjoy time with my boys and heal, just the way that birth should be. I’m thankful for Emily, Renae and Trinity of Ohio Midwife for helping me bring my sweet boy earthside safely, to Tamera from Stork Helpers for taking some of the pictures, helping me when I needed help moving around and for her help with encapsulating my son’s placenta, for Kalli from Aniston Paige Photography for the beautiful birth and newborn pictures, and of course for my family. For my husband who helped me through the contractions that day, for my mom and dad for being supportive of my more natural ways of doing things, and for my oldest son, who had a very interesting day full of joy and probably some anxiety for his new baby brother.

Picture of my soon to be birthday boy smiling. Thank you for coming into my life kiddo, you’ve brought so much laughter and smiles to this family!