Birth Story: The Birth of Eli

Eli’s pregnancy was not at all part of our plan; we had a 13 year old, a just-turnedtwo year old, a five month old and were confident we had completed our family when we discovered we were pregnant again. My five-year plan went out the window and we made the difficult decision to move to Rotorua to be near my family. Once we had sold our house in Palmerston North (8 months pregnant!), we made the move. It was an incredibly stressful time and this time I actually hoped to go ‘overdue’ like I had with my previous two births! Fast forward to 41 weeks pregnant and, just like my other three labours, it started in the middle of the night. 1:57am was my first contraction. I lay in bed for about 30 minutes timing the contractions which were already quite intense and then woke up my husband Daniel and told him today was the day. We got up and I asked Daniel to start getting the birth pool ready for our home birth.

Around an hour in I decided to text my parents who were going to be here for the birth and I also let my midwife know things were happening. I could tell this was not going to take long as this was by far the most intense labour right from the beginning. I had to keep interrupting Daniel from getting the pool ready as I found it most comfortable to put my arms around his neck and have him support me while I swayed from side to side through the contractions. I then messaged Jill, my birth photographer. “He’s coming”- she must have leapt out of bed and raced here as she arrived in record time! Mum, Dad and my midwife Dinie were here by then too, and the pool was just deep enough for me to climb in… oh the relief!