This was Gabriela and Isaiah’s third pregnancy and their first planned home birth with midwives. Their two older children were both born in the hospital but were short labors and overall positive experiences. Despite feeling a little anxious and intimidated by having a home birth, Gabriela and Isaiah were both really excited to stay where they are most comfortable and where Gabriela is able to fully relax. 

Like most who are planning to birth at home, they were the first in several generations. This lead to conversations with their kids in hopes of preparing them for what they might see or hear in case they’re home during labor. They also had made arrangements with their families in case they needed extra support for the kids during this time. Midwifery care and home birth is a family centered approach to pregnancy, birth, and early postpartum.

At 37 weeks Gabriela called Isaiah home from work and gathered her birth team. She had been experiencing light prodromal labor for a few days but suddenly things intensified and became frequent enough to feel like labor was kicking in. After a few hours, things started to slow back down. Gabriela was so discouraged but knew it was best to call it a night and attempt to sleep. Her midwife, Tricia, validated Gabriela’s feelings while reminding her that she is doing everything right by listening to her body and baby. This pattern of start and stop contractions lasted for the next FOUR WEEKS!

Prodromal labor is sometimes called “false labor” but it can feel like the real deal. The contractions can be spaced at regular intervals, they can last for about a minute, they can be so intense you have to stop and work through them. There isn’t a definite answer to why some people experience this early stage of labor but many believe that it’s helping baby get into a great position for labor. 

At 41 weeks, Gabriela planned on having her midwife Tricia perform a membrane strip in hopes of kick starting labor. However, labor kicked in on its own that very morning! After experiencing so much prodromal labor it was almost hard to believe that this was it. Slowly the rest of Gabriela’s birth team arrived. Once Isaiah got home from work Gabriela really started to relax and make fast progress. 

Isaiah was nervous as they approached labor, just like he was with their older children. Watching your partner in labor is really emotional and it’s hard feeling like you can’t help enough. However, Isaiah was exactly who she needed throughout labor. He knew exactly what Gabriela needed before she could verbalize it. He turned on music, kept her hydrated between contractions. He held her hand and knew all if the right things to say when she was in some of the hardest parts of transition.  

The birth pool was a major source of comfort, the water was incredibly soothing on Gabriela’s hips as baby got deeper into the pelvis. She listened to her body and instinctively moved into positions that kept her pelvis open and baby’s head engaged with her cervix. During contractions Gabriela would do lunges and squats, she would bounce and sway, and she would moan or breathe through. In between contractions she’d lean forward on her knees and rest on the side of the pool.

At one point Gabriela did some laboring out of the pool, she did some practice pushes on the bed and felt her baby make downward progress. Suddenly she jumps up from the bed and RUNS back into the other room to jump back into the birth pool. Everybody ran after her, the midwives grabbed the essential tools knowing baby was going to be making a quick entrance!

Once back into the soothing waters of the birth pool Gabriela had a very intense contraction which lead to her bag of waters breaking. From there she felt so much more confident in her pushing abilities. It took about two more contractions and one BIG roar of baby’s name “LUNAAAAAA” and she was out. Born right into Isaiah’s hands with the help of the midwives! They brought baby Luna around to Gabriela’s chest where they did their initial monitoring.

After delivering her placenta Gabriela and Luna were able to rest on the couch while the midwives monitored their health. Isaiah made her a meal to help refuel her body after such hard work. They got to spend the next hour or so like this. It gave them the time to take it all in.To breathe. To soak in the oxytocin and to admire their beautiful baby girl.

Eventually they transferred from the couch to their guest room and settled into bed for the rest of the evening. They got to comfortably relax while watching their midwives do the official newborn exam and checked Luna’s stats.

Luna was born at home, on November 5th, 2019. She weighed in at 8lbs 12oz and was 20in long!