Abbie's Arrival: A Home Birth Story

Abbie was born December 5th at 10:17 p.m. weighing seven pounds, three ounces; 20 inches long with a full head of hair.

So, I'm just going to state right now, that I'm still a bit loopy from a natural home birth. I am a bit sore, but I'm not near as sore as I was directly after her birth once the endorphins weaned off a bit. I'm up and mobile and the bleeding has reduced enough to make me feel comfortable that everything worked out perfect.

A Little Background

I had preterm labor from 18 weeks and spent over six weeks on hospital bed rest. Abbie was presenting breech, so I tried everything spinningbabies.com could recommend to flip a breech. We even paid a chiropractor to come in and work on me, and eventually allowed the doctors to do an external version. She refused to flip.

They wanted me to schedule my c-section for 38 weeks. I said I needed time to think about it, and walked out of the hospital with my gut instincts telling me my wanting a home birth was still the right thing to do, and breech or not, everything would work out just fine.

I trusted my gut instincts, and my partner, Jake supported me 100% even when other people felt I was making the wrong choice. My gut's never led me wrong yet, despite my occasionally questioning what exactly its trying to tell me.

Early labor began at 36 weeks, I went into active labor around 37 weeks, and progressed to 6cm and then regressed back to 4cm probably from stress and her being breech still. My body took a 2½ week break and I had lots and lots of "trial" runs of contractions after that.

I ended up getting a cold and it was fairly persistent. I was also worried if I didn't get the baby out soon, or if she didn't flip head down I would end up with a c-section just because my labor wouldn't start on its own.

Someone recommended pulsatilla to me again. At 35 weeks, I asked my midwife if I should take it for the breech factor and she told me at that point not to bother, she didn't think it would do any good since nothing else worked on her.

After doing some research, I learned pulsatilla is good for helping with colds, relaxing the uterus (which gets rid of braxton hick contractions and makes REAL labor contractions more effective) and also helps flip breech babies. I figured what the heck, the WORST that could happen is it does nothing. So I took it Friday and Saturday. Sunday I went into active labor, though I wasn't sure if it was real labor or not after all those false alarms.

I started having different types of contractions on Thursday the 2nd, I even made Jake feel her move like that and told him that I thought she was trying to flip. Abbie was doing somersaults in my stomach, and she did flip from my right side to my left side. That was the most we could confirm for sure, though I kept telling him and my midwife "I can't feel her head under my ribs anymore."

These Contractions Are the Real Thing

Around 10 a.m. Sunday morning, I wasn't feeling very good. I just couldn't get comfortable and I was feeling pretty restless. I thought I was getting sick again. Jake had to go get our son from Grandma's, and I noticed I was having a lot of contractions that felt different than before.

I told him he might want to hurry back because I wasn't sure what was going on with me.

I was playing World of Warcraft to help distract me on our bed until I couldn't take it anymore. I got up and spent an hour in the shower half laughing and half crying feeling like I was going totally insane because I wasn't sure what was wrong with me.

Eventually, I ran out of hot water. I got out, got a snack, drank some water, peed and had bloody discharge all over my thighs. I decided, "Well that's an obvious sign of something," so I called my midwife and asked her when I should call her back. This was about 2-3 p.m. I also immediately called Jake and told him he might want to come home.

I also contacted a couple of my best friends. One got a flat tire and showed up right after Abbie was born. We made her look at the placenta as punishment for missing the birth! Her face was priceless. It might be a good thing she missed the actual birth or she might have fainted.