Bethany Morgan's Birth Story

My first homebirth!

I was 40.4 weeks pregnant with our twins and I was READY. I had an appointment with Tiffanie and asked for a membrane sweep.

Once home I start noticing a pattern with cramping. After a while I texted Tiffanie to just keep her updated because she has a 40+ min drive to our house and my last labor, I didn’t fully know I was in labor until about 45 mins before my daughter was born. I’m just so focused on how my body is feeling, telling me to do, so that I can gauge what to tell people. I really didn’t want to let people down and have them come out and then for it to be nothing. I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time.

A little after 3pm, my midwife decided to start heading over, that’s when it started to feel real!

I labored for the next couple of hours, laying on my side in our bed. Contractions started to pick up, I started shaking, it was getting real! We decided that if things were going to be continuing to progress as fast as they were, and as fast as they did with my previous births, it was probably getting to that point where I should hop in the water.

The water felt amazing!! It made the contractions feel almost nonexistent. The only way that I knew I was in labor at this point and was having contractions was because I would stop talking, would lay my head on the side of the tub and just felt the need to sway. I was not very vocal at this point which is unique for me

After about 40 or so mins, I just felt like I wasn’t progressing like I should. Contractions were slowing down and I felt distracted.

By around 7pm, I’d gotten out of the tub, contractions had stalled, and I was feeling defeated. I was about to cry and wanted to just curl up in a ball of pure embarrassment because it wasn’t real labor and I’d just wasted everyone’s time. Ugh

Tiffanie came over and asked how I was doing and asked if I felt like a watched pot. I wanted the room to myself and it wasn’t until that moment that I realized that’s what I needed.

Everyone left and I was going to nap and what a glorious nap it was! My mom brought up some food and around 9pm, Tiffanie came up to check on me and babies. I asked for her to check and see how dilated I was. I hadn’t had a contraction in hours.

I was dilated to a 9 and baby girls head was really low! There was a slight cervical lip and so we decided to move that to see if that would jump start things again. Tiffanie suggested I eat some food and then get some movement/stretching in.

Around 9:30pm we made our way outside for a walk! Contractions started up again and I remember thinking, “these are more like it!” I was bent over, leaning on my knees, and feeling so much pressure! Like a lot, way more than I have ever experienced. After awhile I finally agreed to go inside. Around 10:15pm I started getting vocal and knowing what that meant, everyone started scrambling to get the tub water warmed back up and getting ready for it to happen!!

After multiple stops for contractions, we finally made it upstairs to our room and I immediately got in the tub. Maybe it’s a twin thing but the pressure my body was experiencing was just next level. I was having a hard time though not letting the contractions take over. They were just so close together and so intense I was finding myself dreading them. Tears would well up in my eyes as I could feel my body preparing for another contraction.

In between contractions, I kind of gave myself a peptalk. I was able to step back, take a deep breath, and acknowledge that this was not how I wanted the birth to be. I did not want to be dreading contractions. I felt this immense peace come over me as my body prepared for the next contraction, and instead of dreading the contraction, I found myself excepting it. I put all of my energy into low sounds, keeping a relaxed jaw, relaxing my hands, keeping an open palm over a closed fist.

At this point, I have no idea how long contractions were, how much time was in between, I was just very much in the zone. A little after 11pm, I could tell I was close. I was in a deep squat, leaning on the side of the birth tub and felt this massive pressure and then massive relief and I knew my water had just broke. Before I could get any words out to tell everyone my water had broke, I had another contraction and out came the head quickly followed by the body, all one motion. At 11:08pm, baby girl was born and I reached down and grabbed my baby. Tears of joy over came me, I couldn’t stop crying!!

The midwife team immediately started monitoring baby B’s heart rate and after a couple mins, they decided on using their hand, on on the outside of my belly, to gently guided him down. That jumpstarted a pretty intense contraction, followed by his head being born at 11:13pm. He stayed like that for what felt like a really long time. My body was not having any more contractions. As we are waiting for another contraction, I can feel his body moving inside me, trying to wiggle out, all the while one of the midwives is monitoring his heart rate.

After a little bit, Tiffanie looked me in the eyes and told me she needed me to push. I still was not having any more contractions and so I found it difficult for me to try and figure out how to push. All of my babies have been born with fetal reject and I totally expected baby B to just “fall out” so to speak.

After a small push, baby boy was born, and as I brought him up to my chest, he was limp and not breathing. This is the point where I feel like I maybe should have been freaking out, but I looked at Tiffanie and she was so calm and I knew that he was going to be okay.

After some rescue breaths, his eyes opened and he was just looking around. They flipped him to try and drain his lungs. After a few more rescue breaths, he then started crying and clearing his lungs on his own. I appreciate how I got to hold him during this whole time. He was not rushed off of my chest, the cord was not rushed to be cut…baby did not have to leave my side. it was the most natural way of handling that situation.

As I look back on those first couple hours, post birth, nothing extremely significant, stands out to me. The postpartum care and love we all received was next level, doesn’t even compare to the care we’ve received in the hospital setting. The level of mutual trust. We didn’t feel the need to advocate for what we needed/wanted because Tiffanie knew and I also knew that if she’d suggest something opposed to what we’d voiced we wanted, it was for a good reason.

After a few hours, everyone packed up and headed home and we all got to cuddle up