~Meet Sara~


Sara has 3 adorable little girls. She sent me over the birth of her 2nd born daughter, Audrey. Please enjoy reading about this beautiful birth.

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With my first baby, I had planned a homebirth but ended up transporting and having a very necessary c-section. For our second baby I was excited to try for a homebirth again. I did tons of research to see if I felt safe doing a VBAC at home, and concluded my chances for success were much better at home and that I was in very little danger from my previous c-section. I was due August 17th, and went 12 days late. As you can imagine, I was anxiously awaiting her arrival. I had acupuncture for three days in a row that week because I was already past my due date. Colorado midwives can legally only deliver at home up till 14 days past the due date. If I *had* to head to the hospital, because of my previous c-section, I probably would have been forced into another c-section. Finally I went into labor, after seriously 5 weeks of not very comfortable “practice” contractions which were often 7 minutes apart!

By 10pm on the 28th, I knew I was in real labor and the midwife sent her apprentice to monitor me and time my contractions. I got in the bath for awhile and was feeling brave, so I asked the apprentice to explain what we were waiting for. She described how things were going to get much more intense and I got a little panicky. I jumped out of the tub and basically had a panic attack, laying on the floor, feeling like I couldn’t breathe, even between contractions. It took me a while to wrap my head around the idea of labor. Eventually I got it together.

By 4 am things were pretty intense, but I managed to eat a few bites of the chicken soup I had prepared for myself – I knew I might need some protein for energy. My mom came to pick up 16 month old Hannah at that point. Then Nick and I actually went to bed and slept between contractions. At 5:30am my water broke and I threw up, signaling transition, but I still had a tiny lip of cervix. I knelt on the floor by my bed for awhile, making a whole lot of noise. At one point the midwife said to me, “That won’t help! Keep your voice low!” It snapped me out of ‘panic mode’ again and I was able to remain calm for a few more minutes. We were just waiting for the urge to push. That went on for 2 hours. I tried getting in the shower, which helped some, but I couldn’t stand through the contractions, and our tiny shower was not very conducive to people helping me stand up. I kept saying I couldn’t do it anymore, but I kept doing it anyway. Finally the midwife checked me again and I was fully dilated but without the urge to push. She thought that was strange, but showed me what to do by pushing down on something down there. I never did feel an urge to push, even while the baby was crowning.

I had always heard that pushing almost felt good. But while it was a rush, the midwife kept telling me to hold my breath while I pushed and that felt very unnatural to me. I actually broke blood vessels in my face pushing on my back, while holding my breath. I now know I should have tried getting on my hands and knees. Regardless, 30 minutes later, my little Audrey was born. 7 pounds, 14 ounces, 22 inches long. I bled a little more than the midwife was comfortable with, but with some herbs and getting Audrey nursing, it slowed again.

She nursed beautifully, right away, and was in terrific shape. I had one tiny tear that didn’t require stitches. I was too wiped out from the extra blood loss to bathe right away, so Audrey and I slept for 4 hours instead. We were in our own house, in my own bed, on our own timetable, with no nurses poking at us. It was wonderful. After our nap, my parents brought Hannah to see us. She was only 16 months old, but she was fascinated. It was a beautiful experience! I often tell people I would choose to do 10 homebirths over just one c-section!