Birth Story

BIRTH STORY THE BIRTH OF MAIA, OUR THIRD AND FINAL CHILD ????

By Sarah Taylor

Shortly after finding out we were expecting our third baby, the temporary closure of Te Papaioea Birthing Centre was announced. Both my husband and I were gutted to hear this as our older two children were both born there. The environment was supportive and relaxed and we had been excited for the same experience this time around (and the amazing food!). I really didn’t want to birth at the hospital and luckily for us my midwife offered homebirths. Although I was apprehensive about the idea at first after doing some research and attending a Manawatu Home Birth association meeting, I felt like birthing at home could be a positive experience for us. Having had fast labours with my previous two pregnancies my husband’s biggest fear was having to

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catch a baby in his own at home and I was concerned about what we would do if something went wrong. We were able to put a great plan in place around when we needed to contact my midwife and what would require a transfer to hospital and both felt comfortable and reassured by that. We decided to prepare for all eventualities-organised a birth pool, packed a hospital bag just in case and had the grandparents on speed dial. As the 40 week mark approached I was feeling quite excited and certain baby would be born soon, our older two were both born on their due dates so I was certain I wouldn’t go over. My due date came and went and I started to feel less excited and more grumpy and ripped off at still being pregnant! At 40+3, although hardly overdue, I woke up determined to get baby out and spent the day trying out all the old wives’ tales. Finally, at about 6pm I started to think hmm this might be more than just some niggles when I couldn’t get comfortable unless I was bouncing on the Swiss ball or walking up and down the hallway. We decided that my Mum should come and pick up the kids...hopefully we were going to have a baby and if not at least we would get a sleep in the next day. I also sent my midwife a message just to let her know that we could be all on. After we sent the kids on their way I hopped into bed and managed to get a few hours sleep before waking up around 1am with a much stronger contraction. I

got up and went into the lounge where I found my comfy spot alternating between rocking on the Swiss ball and leaning over the heater. Half an hour later, I woke my husband up and he promptly set about getting the pool ready to go. We chatted and continued like this until just before 2am when I felt like things stepped up a bit and breathing through contractions was

getting more challenging. After ringing my midwife she decided to come over given how quickly my previous labours progressed, and the relief that my husband wasn’t going to have to catch a baby was extremely obvious! Not long after my midwife arrived my waters broke &andcontractions got more intense again, within about 20 minutes of that I could feel the baby moving right down and was feeling ready to push. It was at this point that her second midwife arrived and I realized, “Oh, we are really having this baby at home!” I remember saying to my husband, “Put another towel down, we can’t ruin the carpet,” and everyone laughing that I was worried about that. As with my other two births it all happened very quickly from here, I remember hearing my midwife say to my husband, “it’s quarter past 4 now, I think we’ll have a baby here by 4.30 - what’s your bet on the time?” To which he replied, “She doesn’t mess around, the baby will be here by 4.25”... I couldn’t believe they were joking about that but turns out they were right and at 4.17am our little girl was born! She went straight up onto my chest for some skin to skin and we cuddled like that for a while. She soon

started to wriggle & latched straight on-where she stayed for well over half an hour feeding and snuggling. Hubby got her dressed while I had a nice long hot shower then we all snuggled up together on the couch with some toast and my request- a glass of Fanta! It was at this point that I looked at the birthing pool, all set up & filled with water and had to say rather apologetically to my husband, “Thanks for filling it up just incase but I guess you can empty it now.” Yes, I was in the bad books for that one!! Despite my initial reservations about a home birth I can hand on heart say I loved every aspect of birthing at home, and felt safe & supported every step of the way.