My 2022 Home Birth Story Pt 2

At some point after our doulas arrived, they called our midwife to come- I didn’t even know until she was there with us.

Later our doula told us that she called our midwife to come bc my contractions were double-peaking and pretty intense, making it seem like I was pretty close to birth. Each rush was lasting 2-3 minutes with only a couple of minutes in between.

The first thing she did was check baby’s heart beat and he was doing fine through each contraction which was a good sign.

I kept changing positions in hopes of finding a position that took some of the pressure off my back and just kept breathing and moaning deeply to get through each rush. I just kept thinking to myself that with each rush all I had to do was breathe, moan, and I’d get through it.

My midwife did a cervical exam after watching me go through a few contractions and I was only 3cm dilated, which was discouraging because I felt like my contractions were a lot more intense than just 3cm. My cervix was swollen, and baby was still in the amniotic sac, which was holding up the whole process.

She massaged my cervix to encourage the swelling to go down, and checked baby’s positioning in my belly. He had rotated posteriorly which was putting all that pressure on my spine (hello backache), and also explained the double peak contractions. My body was using the contractions to rotate baby into a better position

Once I heard this, it gave me a lot of comfort in knowing there was a reason for double-peak contractions so early in labor

I found the most relief laboring on the toilet with someone squeezing my hip bones, so my doula and Gabe took turns through contractions squeezing the shit out of my hips.

I just remember between contractions feeling so bad and also so grateful for both of them because they were working so hard to support me.

After several more hours of labor, I reconvened with my midwife for another check in. She offered me 2 options: power through or take a rest.

If I wanted to rest, I could take an Epsom salt bath, and it would possibly slow labor down enough for me to get a nap in…

Stay tuned for part 3!