Home Water Birth

My second daughter was due Oct10.  I had been wishing she would come for at least 3 weeks because I get brutal hip pain at the end of my pregnancies, but all the tricks didn't work.  Finally, the morning after she was due, I woke up around 5 a.m. with what I thought were more real feeling contractions.  i lay in bed and timed them for a while, but decided it was too soon to wake anyone else as I had had an 11 hour labour with my first one.  I went back to sleep until around 8, when my hubby and I woke up and were hanging out with our older daughter.  I was still having contractions about 7-9 minutes apart, and I knew this would be the day. 

As we enjoyed our coffee, I said, " We're gonna have a baby today". 

He said, "ya, I think so too" 

I laughed and said, "No, we really are.  I've been timing contractions since 5:00 and they're coming 7-9 minutes apart."  

That got us moving since we were planning a home water birth.  We set up the bed, put the liner in the pool, and called my brother-in-law to come get our daughter.  All this time, I was really trying to stay busy and keep walking to make the labour continue.  I had stayed in bed the entire labour with my first, and it was really long and hard, so I was trying to keep everything moving as fast as possible.  When I would have a really strong contraction, I would just lean over a piece of furniture and rock back and forth until it was over, then i would finish whatever I had been doing. 

Around noon, I was having to kneel on the floor when contractions would hit, so I had my hubby call the midwife.  When she heard i was on the floor, she said they should come check me since I was probably in early labour.  Well, by the time both the student and the midwife were there around 1:00, they checked me and I was 7.5 cm dilated, and having bloody show, so everyone moved into high gear!  My hubby filled up the pool, and I was so excited that I was that close to the end that i was laughing and joking between contractions.  Once I was in the pool, it was getting a little more intense, and I had to really concentrate during contractions.  I actually asked for laughing gas, but it started making my upper body go numb, so i had to stop using it.  At that point, the midwife wanted to check me again and brake my water, so they got me out of the pool.  Being on my back was agony, but they didn't take long.  I got back in the pool as fast as possible because having my water break had finished dilating me, and i was really feeling the burn!!  As soon as I got back in the pool I started pushing, and her head was born in about 5 minutes. They had me turn over so they could help deliver the rest of her.  I had been on my knees with my arms on the edge of the pool, so I turned to squatting.  I had to really talk myself through the few contractions when her head was coming out, so I just kept talking to the baby telling her "Out, baby!  Come on out, now!"  A couple more pushes, and she was out.  My husband picked her up and gave her to me.  We were so surprised she was a girl!  We had thought all along that it might be a boy, but were so excited to have a sister for our perfect first daughter. 

We were really excited, and had all kinds of family to tell.  We even allowed his sister to come over and see the baby, because i felt so great!  The only thing was, I had some trouble going pee after the birth.  The midwife gave me a temporary catheter, which solved the problem, but every time my bladder got full my uterus would stop contracting enough to stop the bleeding.  About five hours after the birth, I tried to pee again, and was bleeding really badly.  We ended up having to call the ambulance, who took nearly an hour to get to our house.  My poor hubby was so freaked out!  When they finally arrived, the attendants tried to get me to move myself to a wheelchair, and I passed out,, which scared everyone!  Anyway, in spite of their relative incompetence, we made it to the hospital eventually.  The midwife was a real champion, and made them take me straight up to L/D.  The nurse gave me oxytocin by IV and a catheter to make room for my uterus to contract.  An OB came to check, and he was a really great doctor!  Unfortunately, he had to manually clean some blood clots out of my uterus which was excruciating!  But he was really quick, and he kept me from having to have any further procedures like a D&C or anything.  Finally, about 2:00 in the morning, everyone was able to leave us alone, and I got to rest, which I really needed after all that ordeal!  My poor hubby had to stay up even longer because our brand new daughter was not very happy with the idea of being out of her cozy home and she cried for hours.  Eventually, we were all able to get some rest, and we had a relatively peaceful night at the hospital.  Since it was Thanksgiving, and only one other baby had been born that day, we had the whole place to ourselves. 

I absolutely loved my homebirths.  This was my second one.  The first one was long and hard, but the midwives kept saying it was a textbook birth. I would still be a homebirth believer if my last experience had not turned out this way.  I live too far from the hospital to take that chance again, but if we lived closer, I would certainly think about it!