Heidi's Home Birth

Birth without fear.

Birth as it was meant to be.

Joyful Birth.

I just want to say thank you to my incredible birth team!

First, to my husband, Brandon, who was there beside me the entire time. He prayed, loved and supported me with every part of the labor, which helped made the process a joy! I am so thankful to share this life with him!

Thank you to my midwives, Brigitte and Charity, who always make me feel incredibly safe and encouraged. They put their heart into what they do, and it really makes all the difference when you feel so vulnerable. 

Thank you Karen, who was both my doula and photographer. The grace you carry to lift up the mother is incredible. Your prayers, and your ongoing affirmation was simple, yet supernatural. And the way you captured the birth of our beautiful baby is breath-taking! 

inside look: home birth video!

So just like I promised, we put together a short video so you could have an "inside look" of our home birth. I did end up having a water-birth as well so you can see the tub we used :-) I wish we had more actual video footage for you, but maybe in the future when there's more time for editing. For right now it's mostly pictures.

I want to say thank you to my husband, who was AMAZING! Brandon was all-around super mid-wife. He even delivered Arista (with aid from the mid-wife), getting right along with me in the tub. Certainly after an incredible birth as we had with this baby, it will be VERY difficult for us ever to return to hospital birth. Birthing in our home brought us closer together in ways that other circumstances would have not otherwise.

I recommend home birth to EVERY couple who remains low-risk during their pregnancy. I really believe pregnancy is meant to be a journey, not something we try to "survive" and just get-through. But God can really use it to bring a family together. God really showed me how pregnancy is a foreshadow of what He desires to do through us. Love produces marriage. Marriage brings covenant. Covenant produces children (fruit). It's the same way in the Kingdom of God as well. We love God because He first loved us. After love transformation, there's a covenant commitment to God (the same we make to our spouse when we say "I do"). And out of that relationship, we begin to birth life in everything we do, say and touch, and even birthing spiritual children through discipleship. Pregnancy, labor and birth are meant to be a transforming spiritual experience for us all. And now I see why God led us to have the home birth this time around.....and to think, only because of a dream. {smiles}

home-birth 101

We finally have everything in order for the BIG day!

So....I thought I'd share alittle on what we've done to prepare for our little mama to gracefully enter this world.

But first, here's what is going to help big mama relax during labor....

I will most likely be birthing in the tub. There's lots of great reasons why birthing in water can be ideal. Most women have a far less chance of tearing and requiring stitches after water birth. This is because the warmth and water work together to keep mama's muscles relaxed and aiding in softening and opening your cervix. Also for me, I found that water birth was far easier to clean up. Less mess is best :-) All your tubs come with a lining. Everything is drained through an electric pump and then the lining is rolled up and thrown out. Clean up is barely 15 minutes.

But there's still chance I won't be able to birth in the tub. If the tub seems like its hindering labor we also prepared bed linens as a back up:

here's what we have -

2 sets of sheets (one for laboring, fresh set for after birth)

several pillows and are covering them with garbage bags under the bases

warm blankets

6 towels and 2 wash clothes to have on hand

plastic cover for bed and drop cloth (using a shower curtain liner) in front on bed.

for baby:

6 cotton receiving blankets

winter weight baby blanket

diapers and clothing :-)

and look what my friend is letting me borrow!!!

so happy to have my moses' basket :-)

for the birth:

iodine skin cleanser

24 gauze pads

gallon of distilled water

fever therometer

40 disposable under pads

sanitary napkins

bowl for placenta

clean squeeze bottle for rinsing if there are stitches

large black trash bags

flexible drinking straws

clean, comfortable clothing for nursing and after birth

herb teas and organic ginger beer for drinking during labor

simple foods for people in my home.

and as a SWEET extra -

an herb bath:

1/2 c sea salt

1 oz shepherds purse

1 oz uva ursi

1 oz witch hazel bark

2 oz comfrey leaf or root

1 large garlic bulb

cheese cloth to hold it all in :-)

And we finally have a "birthing room" that we temporarily set up in the house. It's not completely together, but almost. It worked out well since we were transitioning the girls into this room anyways once the baby moves into their old room. So we have a little twin bed in there for birthing with a large open space for the tub. It's directly across from our bathroom so the indoor hose will fit nicely from our bathroom sink into the tub in the room. This will make things a little easier for birthing since I can enjoy myself all in one location.

Some additional things we'll be doing to make it a better experience and as intimate as possible is adding some dim lighting by using lamps and soy candles. And we have a CD player that will be playing worship music in the background. There's a tv if I am in labor for a long time....but I suspect I won't be watching any movies....lol.

So there you have it. My home-birth 101....

I'm just about 38 weeks, so it could be any day now (yah!)

....looking forward to sharing more as this experience is all too new!