Eloise

I had been researching birth for years after having quite a few false starts with two ectopics and two miscarriages. So when I found out I was pregnant again, I immediately contacted MAMA, as I knew they were who I wanted to care for me.

I had always known I wanted a homebirth and was quite anxious for reassurance after my previous experiences with pregnancy, so I began my appointments at eight weeks. As soon as I met Charlotte, I knew she was the right choice. She was so caring and listened to all my questions and concerns without judgement. I knew having her in my birth space would allow me to completely surrender and trust.

By the time we got to the birth, James and I had seen Charlotte and many of the other midwives so many times that they felt like our friends, and I was excited to finally give birth a go!

At 37 weeks and four days, my waters broke all over the kitchen floor after work.

My partner, James, started mopping me up while I called Charlotte to let her know. She talked us through the plan: eat well, rest as much as possible, keep an eye on the colour of the waters and my temperature.

It took a while for my adrenaline to come down as I was still coming to terms with how early my waters had broken. I still hadn’t gone on maternity leave from work! But our baby had other plans.

I was in early labour for two days. On the first night my contractions were 15 minutes apart. I rested on the couch between contractions and used birth combs to breathe through each one. By the morning everything slowed down and I continued through the following day with a contraction every hour.

Charlotte had prepared me for this and suspected it would pick up again as night came and baby would potentially arrive that night! I was excited and ready for the night to come.

This time my contractions were five to ten minutes apart. I rested when I could but didn’t sleep at all. I began to lose hope as the sun came up, and I still hadn’t technically entered active labour. I was worried it would slow again during the day.

On Charlotte’s suggestion, I contacted an acupuncturist to visit our home. Luckily one was available and arrived late morning. She not only used needles but also completely changed my mindset, giving my phone to James and telling me not to time my contractions anymore. I needed to let my brain go into labour land as I was still very much using my thinking brain.

Charlotte came to visit at 2 pm, where she performed an artificial rupture of membranes with my consent. There was a chance that a small pocket of amniotic fluid was sitting in between baby’s head and my cervix, which could have been slowing things down. When she checked, I was 5 cm! I never wanted VEs or to be told how dilated I was, but in this case I was happy to be told as it was good news and gave me a boost of motivation to keep going.

Charlotte went home to rest, and things really ramped up. I was finally in active labour and used a combination of the TENS machine, birth sling and pulling on James’s T-shirt while mooing into his chest to work through each contraction. I did a lot of mooing…

By 7.30 pm, I told James to call Charlotte as I started to feel pressure in my bum and I knew this meant things were getting closer.

James started filling the pool and Charlotte arrived at 8 pm, followed by my student midwife, Susanna. I was so lost in labour land that I don’t really remember them arriving, except that I could feel their presence. The mood was calm and quiet. They supported me without needing to talk to me. I felt so safe.

After spending some time on the toilet with Charlotte helping me through the contractions, she suggested I get into the birth pool. I couldn’t believe I was already up to this bit! I shouldn’t get into the birth pool unless I was close to pushing, so I must be close?!

The relief as I entered the water was immediate. I was preparing mentally that pushing may take a while and really settled into the water, but again, our baby had other plans! By this time, the wonderful Veronica had quietly arrived.

I knew I didn’t want to actively push and to just let my body do it. My body took over with such incredible force, it felt like that uncontrollable sensation of vomiting but down the other end! Within 15 minutes her head was already partially out, up to her nose.

Charlotte asked James if he’d like to catch her, but by the time he’d walked around to the other side of the pool, my body ejected the rest of her body. Immediate relief.

I pulled her up through my legs and stared at her in disbelief! After such a long early labour, the active part felt incredibly fast. I couldn’t believe I’d done it. After preparing for so many years, watching hundreds of videos of women giving birth and picturing exactly how I wanted it to go, here we were, in our lounge room with a baby. Surreal.

Charlotte, Veronica and Susanna all quietly busied themselves with making me comfortable, cleaning up and checking the baby. It was such a calm, warm and friendly experience. My placenta came out after one push, 45 minutes later, and we cozied up on the couch again, laughing and chatting while the midwives gave us a thorough tour of the placenta and cut the cord.

Not only was the birth everything I’d dreamed, our early postpartum was reasonably smooth sailing considering initial latch issues. I know that’s all because of MAMA’s support. We had visits from the midwives (Charlotte and Olivia) every day in the first week, helping us workshop breastfeeding and latch. Without their incredible support, I genuinely think I would’ve thought we were unable to breastfeed and given up. But a week and a half later, she was back to her birth weight purely from exclusive breastfeeding.

I know that if I had’ve birthed in hospital, with my waters breaking first and slow early labour, I would definitely have had interventions to speed up the process to comply with hospital policy. I definitely wouldn’t have had the low-intervention birth I dreamed.

Birthing at home with MAMA’s incredible support meant that there was not one moment that I felt unsafe or scared. Charlotte talked us through the risks of waiting every step of the way and I was monitored throughout, knowing she would advise if we needed to go to hospital.

I can’t thank MAMA enough and am really sad for our time with them to come to an end.

Thank you Charlotte and everyone at MAMA for helping me achieve the birth of my dreams!